Too Little Too Late: Kellogg Receives Grant Two Weeks Before Closure Announcement

District wins federal grant to lift middle, high school reading rates
Literacy - Nine schools will tap the $23.5 million for training, materials and staff starting this fall

Wednesday, March 15, 2006
RYAN GEDDES
The U.S. Department of Education has awarded Portland Public Schools a five-year, $23.5 million grant as part of a new federal program to raise adolescent literacy rates and study ways to improve reading instruction at high schools and middle schools.

The Striving Readers program will help about 6,400 students at nine North, Northeast, and Southeast Portland schools beginning this fall, said district spokesman Bob Lawrence.

Madison, Franklin, Roosevelt and Jefferson high schools will take part in the program, as will Gregory Heights, Binnsmead, Kellogg, Portsmouth and Tubman middle schools.

The grant comes as the district faces a projected $57 million budget shortfall next year and is considering cutting school days, closing buildings and shedding programs and staff. It is strictly designated for literacy programs and cannot be used to offset other costs, district officials said.

At each of the nine schools, the district plans to train teachers, buy classroom reading materials and hire three specialists to oversee literacy efforts and run special reading intervention classes.

All students at the nine schools will benefit from the schoolwide teacher training and staff additions, administrators say, and 450 students each year in grades 7-10 will be randomly selected to participate in an intensive reading curriculum for at least a year.

The program also will provide special help to about 1,700 students in grades 6-10 who are two or more grade levels behind in reading, based on their Oregon Statewide Assessment test scores.

Portland Public Schools is one of eight districts chosen out of 148 applicants nationwide to receive the award, said Kathryn Doherty, program director for Striving Readers.

"We've made a lot of strides with early reading, but I think if you look at the research and results, we still have a big issue with adolescent kids," she said.

Districtwide, 52 percent of 10th-graders met or exceeded standardized reading test benchmarks in the 2004-05 school year, according to Portland Public Schools data. In the four high schools that will receive grant funding, an average of 29 percent met or exceeded those benchmarks.

That same school year, 68 percent of eighth-graders met or exceeded those benchmarks, compared with an average of 52 percent in the five middle schools that will benefit from the grant.

The department based its selection on need, potential impact and research methods. Other grant recipients named so far include Springfield, Mass.; Danville, Ky.; Memphis, Tenn.; and San Diego.

The instruction model for Striving Readers was developed at the University of Kansas Center for Research on Learning.

"We're thrilled about the whole package because it includes staff development, student resources and staff resources. None of those components by themselves ever really get the whole job done," said Sue Ann Higgens, principal of the P.O.W.E.R. Academy at Roosevelt. "It will be life-changing for our students."

Lawrence said the $23.5 million grant, along with the nearly $11 million provided to district and state school programs by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and Meyer Memorial Trust in 2005, should encourage local investment in public education.

But, he added, "Grants can't substitute for the ongoing support we need."

Portland News: 503-221-8199; portland@news.oregonian.com