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=Welcome to the Penn Cambria Keystones to Opportunity Wiki!=

Information for target group teachers about baseline trainings can be found under __**Baseline Trainings**__ on the right hand side of this page.

Information and meeting dates for district literacy team members can be found under **__PC Literacy Team__** on the right hand side of this page.

As many of you have already heard, Penn Cambria School District was one of 58 districts in the state of Pennsylvania to be awarded a **__Keystones to Opportunity__** grant. This grant is part of the federal Striving Readers grant program focused on improving literacy. Penn Cambria was awarded our total request of $280,332 to institute our planned program in year 1. Continuation beyond year 1 is contingent upon federal funding. Based upon a lengthy needs assessment, our program specifically targets grades 5, 6, 9 and 10.

Below is a rough sketch of our program.


 * Target groups for the grant include grades 5-6 and 9-10 and the corresponding core teachers and administrators (including learning support teachers).
 * These grade levels will take the GRADE reading diagnostic assessment as required by the grant three times per year (all costs of assessment included in grant).
 * PC has to write a comprehensive literacy plan during year 1 of grant. This comprehensive literacy plan must encompass birth – grade 12 and will include all grade levels. Stipends for teacher attendance at meetings outside of the school day, mileage for early childhood partner attendance, resources and supplies for meetings and dissemination of the plan are included in the grant.
 * There are 9 required professional development days for MS target group teachers and 8 for HS level target group teachers provided through IU8 with costs of trainings budgeted in the grant.
 * Additional professional development sessions for target group teachers focused on improving literacy instruction (ex: HEAT model) are included with stipends for attendance if sessions are outside of the regular school day.
 * MS and HS principals will be using the HEAT walkthrough observation tool to conduct classroom walkthroughs to gather data for the grant (HEAT data required by grant).
 * Some funding for development of classroom libraries in target groups (emphasis on non-fiction) is included in the budget.
 * Target group teachers will meet weekly by grade level to review data, work on implementation of professional development from baseline trainings, share samples of students work, etc. Team meetings will be scheduled during the regular teacher day.
 * We will be implementing more specific literacy interventions for struggling students targeted to their skill deficiencies in grades 5 and 6 during reading START time. Materials and trainings for target group teachers are included in the budget.
 * A grant funded data Liaison/project manager (approximately 70% time) will be responsible for overseeing all required data collection for the grant and helping teachers get and use data in classrooms. This data liaison is required under the grant. This person will also responsible for general management of the literacy project/program.
 * A grant funded instructional coach will be available full time to work with target group teachers. This instructional coach will provide job-embedded support and resources for target group teachers.