( The Harvard Education Newsletter , 1997) Funded by The Arthur Vining Davis Foundation –

1. “when schools become places for teachers to learn, they also become schools on the way to improvement” (The Harvard Education Newsletter, 1997) Funded by The Arthur Vining Davis Foundation – Dedicated to Strengthening America’s Future Through Education

2. Realities of Coaching: Coaching Content Teachers as Literacy Leaders Where there is an open mind, there will always be a frontier-Charles F. Kettering PROJECT RAISSE University of South Carolina Mary E. Styslinger, Ph. D. Victoria A. Oglan, Ph. D. Deidre M. Clary, Ph. D.

3. Startling Stats… • more than 8 million adolescents are unable to read at grade level (National Center for Education Statistics, 2005) • more than 70% of high school readers are in need of remedial help to improve comprehension • by age 17, only about 1 in 17 seventeen year olds can read and gain information from specialized text

4. Startling Stats… • 38% percent of students whose reading ability falls two or more grade levels below their actual placement are not provided any special assistance • fewer than 5% reached an "advanced" level across fourth, eighth, and 12th grades • reading occupies only approximately 6% of class time in elementary school, 3% in junior high school, and 2% in senior high school • 55% of students devote no more than three hours a week to class preparation, but 65% of these report getting A's or B's ~ Statistics from: NCTE, IRA, National Institute for Literacy, Alliance for Excellent Education

5. Funded by The Arthur Vining Davis Foundation – Dedicated to Strengthening America’s Future Through Education Reading Assistance Initiative for Secondary School Educators

6. Funded by The Arthur Vining Davis Foundation – Dedicated to Strengthening America’s Future Through Education Partnerships: • University of South Carolina • Arthur Vining Davis Foundation • SC Department of Education • School District – Lexington One • USC Colleges of Arts and Sciences

7. Funded by The Arthur Vining Davis Foundation – Dedicated to Strengthening America’s Future Through Education Approach: The approach is to design and offer professional development for teachers that will help them understand the reading process specific to content area reading, develop the knowledge base needed to make informed and effective curricular and instructional decisions about reading, and thereby positively affect student reading achievement.

8. Funded by The Arthur Vining Davis Foundation – Dedicated to Strengthening America’s Future Through Education Mission: The mission of the University of South Carolina’s Project RAISSE is to enhance reading achievement and reading instruction in high schools.

9. Project RAISSE Goals Goal 1: To implement school-based graduate study that enhances the knowledge base of teachers in high school across content areas about reading research, theory, and practice.

10. Funded by The Arthur Vining Davis Foundation – Dedicated to Strengthening America’s Future Through Education

11. Professional Development Model

12. Project RAISSE Goals Goal 2: To develop teachers as literacy professionals and provide ongoing professional development opportunities to attend conferences, attend SDE Best Practices seminars, lead study groups, present workshops, design lesson plans, and engage in personal and professional writing.

13. Project RAISSE Goals Goal 3: To become the premier resource in South Carolina for high school teachers to learn how to enhance their content area reading instruction with best practices and strategy-based instruction.

14. What we have learned : Implementation • The necessity of intersecting theory with practice, deconstructing it, and living it • The application of adult learning principles that allow teachers to learn and support each others’ learning • The necessity of partnerships between the high school, district, and the university or college that provides teacher preparation • Accommodation of teachers’ schedules • The importance of cooperation and leadership of the school principal in instilling a vision for literacy

15. What we have learned : Teacher Change • High school culture and infrastructure • Teachers’ investment and motivation • Teachers’ preparedness to implement new ideas and strategies • Sensitivity to an individual school’s needs and building school community • Teachers’ understanding of themselves as change agents, committed and prepared to share new learning with faculty • The need for structures to sustain the professional development program at the school and district level

16. Our Webpage “A premier resource for content teachers” http://www.ed.sc.edu/raisse/about.htm • About RAISSE • Contact Staff • Conferences/Seminars • Content Area Articles/Picture Books/YA/Text Sets • Course Documents • Professional Texts • Content Area Standards • Professional Organizations • Participants

17. Publications • Clary, D., Oglan. V., & Styslinger, M. (2008). It is not just about content: Preparing content area teachers to be leaders of literacy www.literacycoachingonline.org • Styslinger, M., Clary, D., Oglan. V. with D. Culbreth, K. Gerth, E. Green, M. McAbee, L. Newman, R. Thomas & N. Tune (2008). “Not” no more: Content teachers making sense of adolescent readers. South Carolina English Teacherwww.sccte.org