An innovative new teaching curriculum designed to significantly improve the reading ability of youth in the Texas Youth Commission (TYC) was recently launched in all TYC facilities. The program, called “Rewards and Rewards Plus,” is designed to close gaps between the reading abilities of TYC youth and their peers in traditional school settings. ...In 2009, the Texas Legislature called for an overhaul of TYC’s reading programs through research-based assessment, instruction, and specialized training. The legislature also appropriated $750,000 to pay for these improvements.Working with the University of Texas Meadows Center for Preventing Education Risk, a standardized reading instruction curriculum has been developed and implemented throughout all TYC schools. The curriculum is based on a three-tier model, with student placement in each tier determined by performance on nationally recognized reading assessments. Each tier, to the greatest extent possible, will include a student population with similar reading abilities to allow for the more individualized reading instruction. All youth will participate in Tier I enhanced reading instruction. Students who require additional reading support are assigned to a separate Tier II reading class or, for those who require more intensive instruction, a Tier III class.TYC recently hired 10 additional teachers to advance this effort. The Meadows Center conducted reading intervention training for these 10 teachers and five additional TYC instructors. All TYC reading teachers will receive training in the reading intervention by the end of FebruaryInitial evaluations of the new reading curriculum will begin in late December 2009.
Wednesday, December 30, 2009
'TYC launches youth reading program'
The title of this post is the headline to a Corsicana Sun story published today which informs us that:
This new curriculum was one of the action items in TYC's education plan for the 2009-2010 school year (pdf).