A handful of mostly rural Georgia school districts will participate in state-coordinated literacy training that by one estimate could reach 24,000 students.
The Georgia Department of Education announced Monday that at least a dozen school systems and charter schools, mainly in South Georgia, would be the first to participate in its two-year “literacy leadership cohort.” It is supposed to “align” teacher training, coaching and actual practice with a vast body of research known as the “science of reading.”
The state agency contracted with the Atlanta-based Rollins Center for Language and Literacy in June. The maximum $6 million contract uses federal funds to develop and deliver “professional learning, collaborative communities, and coaching to support the science of reading and structured literacy efforts statewide,” according to state Board of Education documents.
Rollins, a program of the Atlanta Speech School in Buckhead, had already created a free online-learning platform called Cox Campus that teachers in any of Georgia’s 180 school districts could use. (The development was funded in part by the James M. Cox Foundation, which is affiliated with the owners of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.)
Rollins then partnered with the state education agency to establish the Georgia Literacy Academy, a program for K-5 teachers and leaders that launches this month.
The state Education Department said the new platform is aligned with two state laws — one from 2019 that aimed to screen and assist students with dyslexia and another passed this year to change the way reading is taught.
The participating districts and charter schools are: Colquitt, Dooly, Grady, Lowndes, Muscogee, Seminole and Thomas counties; the city schools in Pelham and Valdosta; and three charter schools: International Academy of Smyrna, The Kindezi Schools and ZEST Preparatory Academy.
Ryan Lee-James, the Rollins director and Atlanta Speech School chief academic officer, said in a statement that “approximately 24,000 students will benefit” from her private school’s partnership with the state education agency.
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