2008

• Governor Kaine supports GED Credentialing
• Shining a Light on Virginia's Adult Literacy Crisis
• The Literacy Institute at VCU Awarded $4.49 Million Grant To Improve School Readiness of Children

Governor Kaine supports GED Credentialing (9-14-08)

One in six Virginian adults do not have a high school diploma or GED certificate. Fortunately, it's never too late to "drop back in." Governor Kaine encourages Virginians to seek out about GED classes and testing options.

To watch Governor Kaine's video, go to the Virginia YouTube channel at: http://www.youtube.com/virginiagovernment or access the direct link at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UcBeHEp1I3U

Shining a Light on Virginia's Adult Literacy Crisis (9-13-08)

Virginia Issues and Answers (www.via.vt.edu), a public policy journal published by Virginia Tech, has just released its summer issue, focusing on literacy.

The feature story, Virginia's Not-So-Hidden Secret: The Adult Literacy Crisis, was written by Resource Center staff members Victoire Gerkens Sanborn and Hillary Major. The article highlights national and state statistics which reveal that more than 2 million adults in Virginia struggle with basic or below basic literacy skills.

To download the article and find information you can share with your local legislators, community leaders, funders, potential funders, and colleagues, go to: www.via.vt.edu/summer08/feature2.pdf.

The Literacy Institute at VCU Awarded $4.49 Million Grant To Improve School Readiness of Children (9-4-08)

RICHMOND, Va. (Sept. 2, 2008) - Today Dr. Mark Emblidge, Director of The Literacy Institute at Virginia Commonwealth University's School of Education, announced that the Institute will receive a $4.49 million Early Reading First grant from the U.S. Department of Education.

This will be the third Early Reading First grant received by the institute over the last four years, totaling $12.3 million in grant funds. The Early Reading First grant program began in 2002, and The Literacy Institute at VCU has been the only award recipient in Virginia.

The Richmond-based project will be called SEELLS, Supporting and Ensuring Early Language and Literacy Success. Christopher E. Chin, Ph.D., Assistant Director for Research at the institute, will serve as the lead principal investigator and project director.

Dr. Emblidge and Department of Special Education and Disability Policy Associate Professor Evelyn Reed-Victor, Ph.D., will serve as co-principal investigators.

SEELLS is an interdisciplinary, university-community partnership between The Literacy Institute at VCU, the VCU School of Education, and Richmond Public Schools (RPS).

The main purpose of the grant is to improve the school readiness of young children, particularly those from low-income families, by targeting preschoolers' oral language skills, phonological awareness, print awareness, and alphabet knowledge so they enter kindergarten ready to learn.

SEELLS will accomplish this goal by creating high-quality learning environments that include both intensive, ongoing professional development for teachers to increase their mastery of research-based theory and instruction and research-based materials and activities for the preschoolers. The project will also strive to enhance home literacy environments and learning by providing family literacy events and literacy resources and materials.

"These university-community partnerships show VCU's commitment to young children's early development and learning through supporting their teachers and families," said Dr. Reed-Victor.

SEELLS will work with five specific RPS Head Start sites, including approximately thirteen preschool classrooms that together serve 236 three-to-five-year-old children. Through the SEELLS project, these classrooms will serve as permanent models of scientifically-based early language and literacy instruction and assessment in Richmond and across the state.

"With three Early Reading First grants, Richmond is poised to set the standards in Virginia for early language and literacy assessment and instruction for at-risk preschool children," said Dr. Chin.