Early Reading First

Ready to Learn Providence will continue the work of Early Reading First (ERF) through 2009 thanks to receipt of an additional award in August 2006 of $3.7 million from the US Department of Education.  In 2004, R2LP was one of 32 grantees nationwide to receive ERF funding and has been working since that time with four partner sites - Beautiful Beginnings Child Care Center, Cianci Head Start Center, Intown YMCA Kid’s World and the Providence Public School Department’s Leviton Annex - to create to create Centers of Educational Excellence. 

Our new ERF partners include Federal Hill House Association, Genesis Center, John Hope Settlement House, and West End Community Center.   Each of our ERF partners bring unique strengths and challenges to the project. R2LP intends to prove that with a sound curriculum, strong teaching skills and a rich classroom environment, children can thrive in a diverse array of settings.

The ERF grant provides for language and pre-reading development work, professional development around early literacy and assessment, and cultural diversity training for staff and parents. Funding also provides hundreds of quality children’s books and related materials for each of the sites. Each center houses three ERF classrooms.

R2LP has gathered a strong team to ensure success. Teachers at each center work with a full-time on-site mentor who models literacy strategies and helps with their implementation in the classrooms. The project also funds substitutes at each center to allow time for classroom teachers to attend trainings and to plan and develop new literacy activities.

As in all R2LP initiatives, parents are integral to the success of the ERF program. Research shows that the roots of reading and writing begin long before children enter school. Parents will learn how to nurture those roots by reading stories, singing songs, and saying silly rhymes that help their children become aware of sounds in words.

While the ERF activities over the next three years will provide much institutional knowledge about curriculum, best practices and assessment tools at the four centers, it is expected that the findings will be applicable to other early-care settings as well. In addition, assessments will yield a wealth of data on the academic preparedness of children entering kindergarten.

Link to ERF Partner Page