Recently receiving $40M in grant funding from the U.S. Department of Education to improve literacy instruction, the Maryland State Department of Education (MSDE) is tripling down on efforts to improve literacy across the state.
Yesterday, the Maryland State Department of Education (MSDE) announced a $40.3M, five-year grant award from the U.S. Department of Education. The grant is part of $149M in federal funds to support initiatives focused on third-grade literacy proficiency across 23 states.
The funds are from the Comprehensive Literacy State Development (CLSD) grant and are for the development and implementation of evidence-based interventions and supports. This announcement comes as the state is currently debating how to manage students that are not meeting the reading standards by the end of third-grade. Related literacy efforts preceded this announcement with a recent adoption, earlier this year, of a policy mandating the implementation of Science of Reading in all public schools as well as a $6.85M, four-year philanthropic partnership with the nonprofit Ibis Group to increase literacy outcomes statewide.
“When students are ready to read, they are ready to learn – we must ensure our educators have the skills and resources to teach all students to read by third grade,” said Dr. Joshua L. Michael, State Board President.y.
As previously covered on Conduit Street, MSDE released the most recent proficiency test results, prompting the State Superintendent to recognize the issues around proficiency as requiring urgent attention.
