The Center for Literacy and Learning (now Academy for Language and Literacy) was established in 2010 in response to the growing need for children’s literacy services in the northern metro Atlanta region. The Center is situated on KSU campus. Certified teachers in the Master of Education in Reading program and faculty teach in the Center and provide reading interventions to P-12 students. Additionally, undergraduate students learning to become teachers work directly with P-12 children when appropriate.
The Academy offers two types of services: reading intervention and tutoring. Teachers create customized plans for each student based on evaluations. The individualized plan reflects the student’s distinct needs for literacy improvement, including opportunities for reading broadly at the instructional level, word study, phonics, comprehension, writing components, and quantitative/qualitative reading assessments
Under the reading intervention program, students receive 20 sessions of individualized instruction from certified teachers enrolled in the Master of Education in Reading program. The cost is $600 per child.
Tutoring is offered as an alternative intervention. We recommend 10 sessions. Under the guidance of faculty members, pre-service teachers evaluate student progress and pair texts that are appropriate for student progression. After tutoring sessions, letters with recommended text pairings are sent to the student’s public school teacher and to parents.
Our goal is to make the Academy accessible to all students in need of reading intervention. We are making an overt effort to include students whose families lack the resources needed to pay for the reading intervention and/or tutoring services. Outreach efforts will strategically focus on Title I schools in the region that have a free and reduced lunch participation rate of more than 50 percent.
