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New U of M research center to study ways to improve early childhood literacy development
MINNEAPOLIS / ST. PAUL ( 5/21/2008 ) -- The University of Minnesota is one of three schools nationwide partnering to create a research and development center that aims to improve lifetime academic success by monitoring and providing intervention to promote children's reading skills as early as age 3. The project is an initiative of the U.S. Department of Education. The Center for Response to Intervention in Early Childhood (CRTIEC) will attempt to reduce the number of children with reading problems by increasing the number of children entering school with knowledge and skills in early literacy and language. When it starts its 5-year operation in July, the center will conduct tests on current literacy assessment practices to both identify children in need of intervention and to build and test the effectiveness of several standard, easy-to-implement interventions. Eventually, the center will test their new practices in classrooms across the country, with the ultimate goal of improving literacy skills in these classrooms. "It is essential that we find ways to help all children become proficient readers," said Scott McConnell, an education psychology professor in the university's College of Education and Human Development and co-investigator and director of the Minnesota site. "This center will develop new ways for teachers and parents to help during preschool -- a time we know is essential to the development of early literacy skills, the foundations of later reading." The need for the center is based on research that children who read well in the early elementary grades are more likely to be academically successful and thrive later in life. Children who acquire literacy and language skills before entering kindergarten are more likely to read well in later grades. While much is known about early literacy and language and how to promote their development, identification of literacy and language delays comes too late, resulting in life-long reading problems. Assessments for monitoring the preschoolers' literacy skills take two minutes to administer and will be performed by classroom teachers at least every quarter. They will be based on Individual Growth and Development Indicators (or IGDIs), a set of tools for monitoring preschoolers' language and literacy skills first developed at the University of Minnesota. The project is a collaboration between the U of M, the Universities of Kansas and Florida State, and the Dynamic Measurement Group, a company that specializes in developing assessment tools for schools. It is supported by a $10 million grant from the Institute of Education Sciences in the U.S. Department of Education. The University of Minnesota will receive $2 million over five years. ---------- |
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