In This Issue

Fall/Winter 2005
Volume 1 • Issue 2

Professors Receive
Allan Meyers Award

Director’s Corner

UM Students Receive
National Award

Center Updates Acronym

Prevention Center
of Excellence

$2.9M Reading Program Grant

Director Named
AUCD President

New Leadership for CAC

Search Tool Facilitates
Access to MEC Training

Grant to Increase Access
to Volunteer Opportunities

Intervention Methods
Subject of Conference

Screening Instrument
Under Development

Co-Instructional Model
Developed by CCIDS

Center Staff Star in
New Video

Guest Column:
CAC Member Tours
South Africa

Brain Research Informs
Best Practice

Partnership for EC
Health Formed

Presentations & Publications

CenterPoint Home

A UMaine student works with a kindergarten child
on early literacy skills. The Portland Early Literacy Collaborative
will work with Portland Public Schools to ensure early reading
skills necessary for successful learning.

$2.9M Reading Program Grant Awarded

Research shows that early literacy skills in children before age five are critical to successful learning later on. There is further evidence that children who experience a strong literacy-based preschool will enter kindergarten ready to learn. With an eye toward supporting reading success for at-risk preschoolers and strengthening partnerships between preschool programs, existing training and technical assistance systems, and the public schools, a collaboration between the University of Southern Maine Edmund S. Muskie School of Public Service Maine Roads to Quality, The University of Maine Center for Community Inclusion and Disability Studies, and the Portland Public Schools recently received a grant for $2.98 million to form the Portland Early Literacy Collaborative.

The three-year Early Reading First project will work with four existing southern Maine early childhood programs to implement best practices based on the early literacy research. The goal is to improve reading skills for pre-school children including children with special needs and those who are English language learners. Under the grant, an early literacy specialist, an inclusion and coaching specialist, and early literacy coaches will work with four pre-school programs in the Portland area to implement a research-based curriculum designed to improve children’s language, cognitive, and early literacy skills.

The teachers from these programs, as well as staff from other local literacy programs will receive training in the curriculum and be available as a resource to other pre-school programs. The collaborative will also work with Portland Public Schools to improve the transition of pre-school children to kindergarten. Other organizations and literacy programs involved in the collaborative include the Child Development Services, Even Start, the Maine Humanities Council’s Born to Read program and Raising Readers, a family health and literacy program of Maine Health and Eastern Maine Healthcare.

Funding for the Early Reading First grant (CFDA No. 84.359B) is provided through the U.S. Department of Education, Office of Elementary and Secondary Education and is part of the President’s Good Start, Grow Smart Early Childhood Initiative authorized by No Child Left Behind. The project runs from October 2005 through September 2008.

— Linda Labas