Reading Professional Development

The Reading Priority Project goal is to provide special education and general education teachers K-12 with effective strategies to increase student achievement in the area of reading. In support of this goal, the Office of Special Education and the Office of Elementary Instruction at the Virginia Department of Education are currently planning the Reading First Academies for special education teachers of grades 4 through 6, and Secondary Teacher Reading Academies for special education teachers of grades 7 through 12. These Academies are scheduled for the Spring and Summer of 2007.

These academies will include:

• Training and materials produced by the Consortium on Reading Excellence (CORE).
• A focus on the critical reading components identified by the National Reading Panel of the scientifically-based reading research with emphasis on interventions for struggling readers in the areas of phonology, vocabulary development, comprehension, fluency, and spelling.
• Strategies to differentiate instruction provided by Reading Priority Project members (T/TAC).
• Trainings at three locations across the state with 90 participants at each site.

This professional development training may be used by teachers to satisfy the requirements of High Objective Uniform State Standard of Evaluation (HOUSSE) approved by the Virginia Board of Education on February 25, 2004.

In addition to the CORE training, project members continue to train and support Region IV educators with the implementation of research-based practices for struggling readers.

Website:

http://www.doe.virginia.gov/VDOE/Instruction/Reading/reading.html