MANSFIELD – Mansfield’s Springmill STEM Elementary and Plymouth-Shiloh Elementary School students in grades K through 5 will be the focus of a $1,005,000 sub-grant awarded by the Ohio Department of Education via a national program.
Lynn Meister, Mid-Ohio ESC’s Director of Teaching and Learning said local education leaders are excited to begin implementation of the four-year grant.
“We will be building these two model sites to become regional and state-wide models for evidence-based practices in literacy,” Meister said. “Working closely with the Ohio Department of Education, Mid-Ohio is partnering with these districts to build proven practices that increase achievement for all students.
“In turn, what is put into place in the model sites can be replicated across other districts in the region.”
The Ohio Department of Education was awarded $42 million for a Comprehensive Literacy State Development (CLSD) Grant from the U.S. Department of Education to build on ongoing work to improve the language and literacy development of our state’s children. Approximately 95 percent of the award will be distributed directly to local districts, community schools and early childhood education programs to improve literacy outcomes for children from birth through grade 12.
This four-year subgrant will focus on developing model comprehensive literacy sites in early childhood education programs and district preschools as well as elementary, middle and high schools across the state.
The model sites will concentrate on implementing practices consistent with Ohio’s Plan to Raise Literacy Achievement.
The grant also will support professional learning and coaching. The partnership between the model sites and the Department will allow early childhood education programs, districts, schools and families to improve student literacy and increase educational options available to students who have been traditionally underserved.
Districts receiving the subgrant had to have high poverty rates and be willing to meet specific requirements for implementing the work to be done, gathering and analyzing data, reporting progress, and creating schoolwide reading systems to improve achievement for all students.
“We want every student to become a successful and confident reader and writer in our model sites, and then bring the evidence-based practices from the grant project to other districts in the region and across the state,” Meister said. “The CLSD subgrant builds on the foundational work done during the past three years under Mid-Ohio ESC’s state-awarded Striving Readers Grant.
“We are excited to get started on this new, critical grant project to raise student achievement and replicate the work across the region.”
Mid-Ohio Educational Service Center provides specialized academic and support services, including professional development, to 10 school districts and over 17,000 students in Crawford, Morrow and Richland Counties. Client districts receive services from curriculum, gifted and special education consultants, speech pathologists, psychologists, special education teachers, occupational therapists and physical therapists.
