Project Description: South Carolina Reading First, as part of the national Reading First program, is a multi-year state-wide project, which is funded by the U.S. Department of Education. The goals of SC Reading First include: 1. Improve reading achievement in grades K-3 so that children are reading at the appropriate grade level, enable and motivate teachers to understand and confidently implement scientifically based reading research (SBRR) Reading program, instructional strategies, skills, and assessments in their in their classrooms; 2. Support the change process from the "bottom up" by supporting collaboration and conversation at various levels to ensure the sustainability of this initiative; 3. Establish and expand an increasing pool of teachers and administrators who are knowledgeable about, committed to using, and successful in teaching a comprehensive reading program based upon scientific research. This project is developed in collaboration with the South Carolina Educational Policy Center.

Faculty (PI): Robert Johnson, Ph. D., Diane Monrad, Ph.D & Tammiee Dickenson, Ph.D.

Project Leaders: Heather Bennett & Sarah Gareau

Research Team:Brett Ermer, Diana Mindrila, Mugdha Galande, and Jennifer Gray

Project Links

SC Reading First's Homepage

Comprehension Workshop Report 2004 (.pdf)

Fluency Workshop Report 2004 (.pdf)

Phonemic Awareness Report 2004 (.pdf)

Phonics Workshop Report 2004 (.pdf)

Vocabulary Workshop Report 2004 (.pdf)

Paper Presented at SCEPUR 2006