Four Clark County area school districts will receive grant money to help meet the requirements of a new early literacy law.
The Clark County Educational Service Center has received $203,000 in grant money from the Ohio Department of Education to help Greenon, Southeastern, Yellow Springs and North Union school districts develop plans for early literacy and reading instruction.
Clark County ESC Superintendent Stacia Smith says the grant money will help school districts focus on implementation and reading interventions involved with the Third Grade Reading Guarantee, which is a new law that requires school districts to retain students who don't pass the reading portion of the third grade Ohio Achievement Assessment.
Smith explains that the grant money will also help teachers give students a special set of skills.
"The importance of being able to critically think and problem solve which is what we want students to do, to use those 21st century critical thinking skills. And then working with teachers to not only read fictional stories but then to actually delve into the use of informational text in solving problems. More of a real world type situation that we get into as business people and problem solving when we actually are adults," Smith said.
Smith says the CLark County ESC will look for additional grant money.
"It's all about kids and it's all about helping teachers to help kids," Smith said.
This is the second award Smith has brought to Clark County in the last year.
A $400,000 Teach Ohio Grant was given to the Clark County ESC last June to help over 100 teachers in nearly 10 local districts earn reading endorsements to meet the Third Grade Guarantee law.
Clark County ESC was one of 91 organizations out of 248 statewide to get part of $13 million in Early Literacy and Reading Readiness grants.