The Center for Literacy & Learning Receives Federal Award Aimed at Increasing Family Engagement

The Center for Literacy & Learning Receives Federal Award Aimed at Increasing Family Engagement

By Dr. John Wyble, CEO of The Center for Literacy & Learning

The U.S. Department of Education announced it has awarded the Louisiana Children’s Research Center for Development and Learning, commonly known as The Center for Literacy & Learning (The Center), nearly $900,000 to implement programs and research to increase family engagement in education. The federal grant award will fund the Louisiana Statewide Family Engagement Center (LA-SFEC) with the goal of advancing meaningful family-school engagement for an expected five years.

The grant comes as part of the U.S. Department of Education’s Competitive Grants for the Statewide Family Engagement Centers program. This is the first such federal grant given to a Louisiana organization to strengthen statewide family engagement infrastructure and provide comprehensive training and technical assistance to the Louisiana Department of Education, and Louisiana’s school districts.

The Center will lead the implementation and expansion of family engagement best practices in the K-12 education systems through the LA-SFEC. In fulfilling the grant activities, The Center will work in close partnership with the Louisiana Department of Education, and Louisiana State University.

“It is more important now than ever that we continue to strengthen our commitment to supporting the learning community which includes appropriate educator training, embedded support, and family literacy engagement to move us even further forward,”adds DeJunne’ Clark Jackson, President of The Center. “This opportunity allows us to broadly support dual-capacity-building to advance student success through family engagement.”

The Center for Literacy & Learning has laid out four main objectives for the LA-SFEC:

1. Increase capacity of Louisiana’s statewide infrastructure by working with LDOE to train family engagement district coordinators,
2. Increase Louisiana families’ capacity for effectively partnering with educators and school administrators,
3. Increase Louisiana educators’ capacity for positive and collaborative interactions with parents and families,
4. Rigorously implement and evaluate an equity-driven, family-engaged Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports (PBIS) model that can be scaled across Louisiana and nationally.

“This new partnership is an opportunity to create innovative programs for Louisiana’s families and educators to improve education outcomes for students,” stated John Wyble, CEO of The Center. “This multi-year program will place Louisiana at the forefront for improving learning, not only in our state but as a model for other states across the U.S.”

The LA-SFEC is part of The Center for Literacy & Learning’s “Louisiana Model” of wraparound services to transform literacy and learning outcomes in Louisiana. The Louisiana Model includes professional development in the science of reading for educators (Growing Reading Brains), literacy coach support, and parent engagement (Louisiana Reads!).

Dr. John E. Wyble, CAE
Chief Executive Officer
john@mycll.org