Grant will target improved reading

Students in K-3 at St. Luke's School in Schenectady will be better readers, thanks to a new federal grant to the Schenectady City School District.

The grant covers a yearly salary and benefits for a reading coach and tutor, ongoing testing of the students' reading ability, and professional development for administrators. Part of the grant will be allotted to the Catholic school.

As a result, St. Luke's will receive 20 new computers (five for each grade level from K-3), two laptops and five Palm Pilots to be used for lesson-plan development by teachers as well as "lots and lots of reading material" for everyone, said Margaret Gannon, principal.

In addition to taking an online course that qualifies as graduate study, administrators from St. Luke's will meet monthly with staff from Lincoln School to discuss reading issues and student progress.

Meeting with the Lincoln teachers, Mrs. Gannon said, "will give our own teachers a much needed opportunity to share and compare." She added that this component is needed so they can keep abreast of the reading levels of other students in the same grade levels but from a different school.

An additional requirement of the grant is that the State Education Department monitor students' achievements. Mrs. Gannon noted that this requirement brings with it a lot of paperwork, but that it won't adversely affect the program for St. Luke's.

"The grant requires an intensive 90-minute reading block of time for the students every day," she said. "Fortunately, we were right on track with the program requirements of this grant. Our students were already involved at that level, and we just happened to be using the same reading books that the program requires.

"Reading is a developmental issue. This program eliminates any kind of reading deficit a student might have. It increases the student's ability to read and comprehend what they are reading. We are looking forward to getting started."

(The grant, called "Reading First," is part of the No Child Left Behind Act, which allows greater freedom for local municipalities to make use of direct funding from the federal government. Beth Aurelia, currently a second-grade teacher at St. Luke's, will be the reading coach and tutor for the new program. She will oversee the goals of the grant and work individually with each child over the course of the grant period, which runs for several years.)

(1/27/05)