Goal 1 of the SIG is focused on ensuring that Arkansas’ Smart Start (Grades K through 4), Smart Step (Grades 5 through 8), and Next Step (High School) literacy programs will have the training, materials, and support to be successful with all students, including those with disabilities.  Over the five years of the grant, activities within this goal will involve at least 45 schools in 15 school districts across Arkansas.  In intensively focusing on student progress in literacy, we are committed to narrowing the achievement gaps between general and special education students and for students with disabilities.  In total, Goal 1 activities will include:

• The development of a comprehensive curricular framework for literacy that will maximize the success of all students, prevent the failure of students who are eventually labeled “learning disabled,” suggest accommodations for students who need these curricular adaptations, and address the more intensive intervention needs of students with mild, moderate, and severe/low incidence disabilities.
• The development of a statewide infrastructure of literacy resources that include training, technical assistance, implementation, and evaluation.
• The building of capacity at individual school and school district levels to implement (eventually independently) a district- and school-wide literacy program.
• The implementation and evaluation of a literacy program that works for all students, especially those with disabilities, at the district, school, and classroom levels.
• The implementation of a literacy program, that addresses the needs of all students - those who are able, who need curricular or instructional accommodations, who need strategic intervention, who need intensive intervention, and who need compensatory and/or assistive technology support.
• The creation of a state-wide network of parent facilitators, who have children of their own with a disability and who are based in their “home” districts, who will reach out to all parents in their districts, but especially to those who also have children with disabilities, to increase the evidence-based literacy and reading practices in their homes.

 DIAGRAM OF GOAL 1’s ACTIVITIES (coming soon)

THE SIG’S GOAL 1 PARTNERSHIP WITH ARKANSAS READING FIRST AND THE DEVELOPMENT OF A LITERACY INTERVENTION MATRIX

To begin the SIG literacy process at the early elementary school level, the SIG is collaborating this year with the Arkansas Reading First Program, integrating and coordinating both programs’ literacy activities.  After a series of planning meetings, five existing Reading First schools from across the State will now include a SIG-sponsored special education teacher and speech- language pathologist who will undergo Reading First training and join the building’s Literacy Team as "literacy consultants." Along with the building’s Reading First Coach, these two individuals will help to create an integrated consultation and intervention cadre for their school.

In preparing for this expansion, Reading First and SIG staff agreed upon a job description for these “literacy consultants.”  This consultation role and job description could be used by anyone in a school right now to help focus functional assessment and early intervention attention on students who are not acquiring literacy skills in ways that are expected given typical classroom instruction and practice opportunities.

LITERACY CONSULTANT JOB DESCRIPTION

To address the literacy needs of students who are struggling to acquire skills in phonemic awareness, phonics and decoding, fluency, vocabulary, and comprehension, the SIG will be working with both in-state and out-of-state literacy experts who are skilled in developing and implementing strategic and intensive literacy interventions.  Through their expertise, an “Literacy Intervention Matrix” will be developed during the coming year as a resource for teachers who have students with more intensive intervention needs.  We expect that this matrix will identify and outline evidence-based interventions that are linked to continuous progress assessment outcomes that classroom teachers can implement to benefit struggling students. 

We are looking forward to working with the five Reading First schools and expanding to additional schools in approximately a year.  We are also excited about the development of the Literacy Intervention Matrix and its potential to identify, more easily, effective interventions for students who need additional assistance on the “road to literacy excellence.”