Clarksville Middle School receives $50k digital learning grant to expand reading program

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WAVE) - Clarksville Middle School will now be able to expand its accelerated reading program after the State of Indiana has awarded a $50,000 digital learning grant.

The Readable English program is a research-proven program that helps students in grades 2-12 improve their fluency and comprehension, the release said.

Clarksville Middle School received promising results after the school was able to pilot the program in 2022 with only 97 students.

With the grant, the school is able to grow the program to 200 students and purchase iPads for the classrooms to use with the program.

“Readable English is a unique program that makes grade-level content accessible to all readers by embedding a pronunciation guide into each word without changing the spelling,” the release said.

The program also offers benchmarking and progress monitoring for the three components of reading: oral reading fluency, reading comprehension, and listening comprehension.

“We had students that grew tremendously, but also gained more confidence,” Special Education teacher Candi Covey said. “They used strategies they hadn’t used before because they could now figure out words when previously they didn’t even try.”

The program is scheduled to be implemented in the fall of 2023.