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Improving Teacher Quality

Integrating Academic Literacy to Close the Achievement Gap

Grant Number: 10-705

Grant Award: $993,176

Duration of Project: Thursday, September 30, 2010 - Monday, September 01, 2014

Project Subject Areas: History/Social Science and English

Grade Band: 6th-12th

Project Websites:

Institutes of Higher Education:

  • University of California, Irvine

Local Education Agencies:

  • Santa Ana Unified, Santa Ana

Partners:

  • Center for Educational Partnerships at UCI
  • California Reading and Literature Project
  • University of California, Irvine, Irvine, History Department
  • Vanguard University of Southern California, Costa Mesa, School of Education

Number of teachers/principals/highly qualified paraprofessionals participating in the project:

62

Goals:

  • Increased teacher implementation of academic literacy strategies in ELA and history
  • Increased teacher use of reflective practice strategies and formative assessment
  • Support capacity building and teacher leadership for long-term sustainability of professional learning communities and the project
  • Close the achievement gap in ELA and history

Activities:

Each teacher will participate in professional development institutes with their colleagues, coaching, and Lesson Study in order to support the development of school-site and department-level Professional Learning Communities (PLCs). The IAL will introduce discipline-specific and cross-disciplinary strategies to support student engagement and academic literacy. Teachers will implement these strategies into standards-aligned curriculum produced through a Lesson Study process and school-site coaching by program staff.

Anticipated Outcomes:

  • Increased teacher implementation of academic literacy strategies
  • development of teacher leadership and professional learning communities
  • Improved student achievement in ELA and history to close the achievement gap

Contacts:

Project: Doug Grove, Co-Director/RD, dgrove@vanguard.edu
Institute of Higher Education: Nicole Gilbertson, Project Director, nicolegilbertson@yahoo.com
Institute of Higher Education: Sylvia Kane, Co-Director, Sylvia.kane@vanguard.edu
Local Education Agency: Felicity Swerdlow, LEA Co-Director, Felicity.Swerdlow@sausd.us
Local Education Agency: Patrick Yrarrazaval, LEA Co-Director, patrick.yrarrazaval@sausd.us

Questions, Comments, Corrections?

Send an e-mail to Teacher_Quality@cpec.ca.gov .