Memphis City Schools has been awarded a five-year Striving Readers grant by the U.S. Department of Education to improve literacy through models that will impact both whole school populations and specific subgroups of struggling readers. Experts from the University of Memphis have designed the program and are providing the professional development it entails. This grant also includes a rigorous research and evaluation component, which is being conducted by Research for Better Schools.
The Memphis Striving Readers Project (MSRP) was funded in 2006 for a five-year period to improve the literacy and reading skills of Memphis, Tennessee middle school students. Two intervention approaches are being used:
- school-wide professional development activities in the form of Memphis Content Literacy Academies, which prepare teachers in selected research-based instructional approaches, and
- computer-assisted direct instruction (READ 180™) for the lowest performing (struggling) readers.
The project team includes Memphis City Schools, the grant recipient; University of Memphis, the program and professional developer; and Research for Better Schools (RBS), the research and evaluation contractor.
Please also see the project website that focuses on teacher and student activities and is maintained by the University of Memphis, a key project partner. On this site you will find classroom materials for teachers, conference presentations, an events calendar, and other project-related information.
RBS Evaluation - Related Information