Adolescent Literacy

• Middle & High School Content Literacy Development:  Funded primarily through a Smaller Learning Communities grant, CTL is working with a large suburban Indiana public high school and its three feeder middle schools over four years to provide professional development and job-embedded coaching to develop literacy integration across all grades and content areas in grades 6-12; vertical alignment of strategies to ease transition from middle to high school, and from freshman and sophomore to upper high school grades; a literacy leadership team to support faculty commitment to literacy development in support of content learning; and administrative leadership capacity to support and sustain school-wide literacy integration.
• Federal Striving Readers Grant:  CTL was a primary partner in a U.S. Department of Education $17 million, five-year Striving Readers grant to improve adolescent literacy, one of only eight such grants in the nation and the only one involving a consortium of rural schools.  CTL developed the Adolescent Literacy Model implemented under the grant, based on our prior work in content literacy, which takes a school-wide approach to teaching literacy based on the developmental needs of adolescents.  CTL led all professional development for the project, including summer institutes and ongoing mentoring for more than 900 teachers in 21 Kentucky schools.  In partnership with the University of Louisville College of Education and Human Development, CTL also trained the literacy coaches working with teachers to implement CTL's Adolescent Literacy Model in their classrooms.  Learn more >
• CTL ALM Texts & Guidebooks:  CTL is currently developing a set of texts and guidebooks on CTL's Adolescent Literacy Model to be published for use by educators nationwide in conjunction with CTL professional development services
• Middle School Foundational Literacy:  CTL has worked with a large suburban public school district in Kentucky to help middle school English/Language Arts teachers boost knowledge of foundational literacy development through needs assessment, on-site training, and ongoing coaching.
• Federal Promise Neighborhoods Grant:  CTL carried out similar work on foundational literacy with middle and high school teachers in three high-need rural Kentucky school districts as part of the federal Promise Neighborhoods planning grant (see below).  The pilot study revealed that as a result of CTL's work, teachers had deepened their understanding of literacy instruction, including the need to integrate the teaching of reading, writing, speaking and listening to boost student literacy.

Mathematics Literacy

• CTL Mathematical Literacy Model:  Aligned with the Common Core State Standards in Mathematics and recognizing the need to support mathematics teachers in developing deep conceptual understanding of mathematics, CTL's Mathematical Literacy Model enables middle and high school teachers to provide opportunities for students to develop deeper mathematical understanding through a communication-centered classroom.  Multiple representations, student to student discourse, writing in support of mathematical learning, and use of manipulatives all help bridge from concrete to abstract/symbolic understanding. 

Mathematics & Science Professional Development

• REL-Appalachia Hybrid Algebra Study:  CTL was a partner with the Regional Education Laboratory (REL)-Appalachia on the Hybrid Algebra I Research Project, a randomized control trial (RCT) funded by the U.S. Department of Education Institute of Education Sciences (IES).  The results of this national research project will help determine the efficacy of hybrid instruction using a combination of online and high quality classroom instruction to boost student algebra achievement.  Learn more >

School Improvement Research to Practice

• REL-Appalachia Educator Bridging Events:  As a partner with the Regional Education Laboratory (REL)-Appalachia, CTL designs and conducts professional development events throughout the multi-state region, designed to help schools apply research findings to school improvement.  The source for these "bridging events" is the series of practice guides from IES (Institute for Education Sciences), a division of the US Department of Education charged with promoting gold standard research and applying evidenced-based solutions to school improvement.  CTL has developed and led several recent bridging events, including sessions in Kentucky and Tennessee on Achieving School Turnaround for school leadership teams, a school improvement leadership event organized and supported by the Kentucky Association of School Administrators, and a session on applying RTI Mathematics research to practice for mathematics resource teachers through the Northern Kentucky Council of Partners.  Learn more about past and upcoming events through the REL-Appalachia Achieving School Turnaround Blog >

Needs Assessment, Data Collection/Analysis & Professional Development

• Federal Promise Neighborhoods Grant:  CTL was a major partner is a United States Department of Education $500,000 Promise Neighborhoods planning grant led by Berea College, one of only 21 in the nation and the only such grant awarded in Kentucky.  CTL's work in three high-poverty eastern Kentucky counties included collecting data on school readiness, classroom rigor and the public school college-going culture; piloting professional development models in foundational literacy and in early literacy through children's literature about the arts; and working with local folklorists and scholars to support student learning.  Learn more >
• Kentucky Department of Education Program Review Guide:  CTL recently completed development of the Program Review Guide and accompanying rubrics, tools and resources for the Kentucky Department of Education to enable schools to assess the effectiveness of instruction in writing, arts and humanities, and practical living and vocational studies.

College & Career Readiness/GEAR UP

• GEAR UP Kentucky:  CTL works as a key consultant to state and partnership GEAR UP grants in Kentucky focused on increasing classroom rigor, transforming school culture to promote college going for all students, and building leadership capacity for college and career readiness.  CTL has worked with several hundred GEAR UP sites through two grant cycles, and in addition to professional development, conducts walkthrough visits to collect and analyze data on classroom practice related to the ACT College Readiness Standards, and on school culture to promote college going.  Learn more >
• National GEAR UP Initiatives:  CTL has worked with the Washington-based National Council on Community Education Partnerships (NCCEP) on developping a college-going culture in schools and the community for underserved populations, and offering professional development and tools to GEAR UP projects across the country.

International Literacy Development

• Global Literacy Professional Development Network:  CTL is a partner with the International Reading Association (IRA), Nokia Corporation and the Pearson Foundation to train teachers in Indonesia and Bangladesh to use the IRA Diagnostic Teaching Model to promote primary literacy development through mobile technology supported by on-site training.  Learn more >
• PD in Tanzania, East Africa:  From 2005 to 2008, CTL developed and facilitated customized school-wide professional development for a private school for impoverished children in Tanzania, East Africa, working both on site and through distance technologies.  CTL's work enabled school administrators to support continuous improvement through distributed leadership and accountability, and teachers to support imporved classroom instruction integrating African and western practices.  The work was supported by the Helen and Gordon Smith Foundation.

College Readiness & Postsecondary Literacy Development

• Lumina Foundation Community Colleges Project:  Through a grant from the Lumina Foundation of Indianapolis, CTL worked with the Kentucky Community and Technical College System (KCTCS) to develop and implement instructional strategies to boost the literacy skills of community college students, and develop leadership to sustain these efforts on all campuses.  Learn more >
• Community College Quality Enhancement Work:  CTL worked with two additional community colleges to help them achieve their literacy goals as part of their Quality Enhancement Program.

Arts & Literacy Project and Arts Education Capacity Building

• Artful Reading Literacy Project:  CTL has developed an original set of model lessons and accompanying professional development integrating literacy instruction with the arts disciplines to promote student achievement in reading and the visual and performing arts.  The lessons were piloted with elementary schools in Kentucky, funded by a grant from the Cralle Foundation.  Professional development on the lessons by CTL Educational Program Specialists vis live Interactive Video Conferencing (IVC) is available through the Center for Interactive Learning and Collaboration (CILC) PD Marketplace.
• Kentucky Department of Education Arts Accountability Pilot:  CTL worked worith the Kentucky Department of Education on the evaluation of a new arts accountability model to enable schools to self-assess their current elementary arts programs and determine gaps in practice.
• Kentucky Arts Council Arts Education Survey:  CTL conducted the first ever survey on the status of arts education in Kentucky Public Schools on behalf of the Kentucky Arts Council.

Kentucky Content Literacy Initiative

• Kentucky Department of Education Pilot:  CTL was a partner with the Western Kentucky Educational Cooperative, Murray State University and Paducah Independent Schools in a two-year grant to train teachers to teach literacy across content areas in public middle and high schools as part of a Kentucky Department of Education-sponsored pilot to determine structures for scaling up CTL's Adolescent Literacy Model.

Video Production

• School Turnaround & Promise Neighborhoods Videos:  CTL has produced a series of videos for the Regional Education Laboratory (REL)-Appalachia on school turnaround, and for Berea College as part of the Promise Neighborhoods planning project, including documentation of the community stakeholder process for identifying priorities and recommending solutions to improve student achievement. See our videos > 
• Math in the Middle Videos:  CTL has produced videos for the Kentucky Department of Education and for a federally funded research project pairing Math in the Middle instructional materials with scenes shot in classrooms, garnering an international communications award for CTL.

Kentucky Department of Education Statewide Writing Portfolio Management

• Kentucky Writing Portfolio Management and PD:  CTL served as a subcontractor with Measured Progress, Inc. on Kentucky's Commonwealth Accountability Testing System (CATS), providing all professional development statewide related to the Writing Portfolio.  This included development of an online professional community for 1400 writing cluster leaders to provide ongoing support on working with colleagues on writing development, and production of the DVD, Teaching the Writer, with K-12 classroom scenes and interviews with teachers, principals and students.

Transformation of Pre-Service Teacher Training

• Federal Teacher Quality Grant:  CTL served as facilitator and evaluator for a U.S. Department of Education Teacher Quality Grant awarded to the University of Memphis College of Education to significantly re-design their teacher preparation program.