Texas Literacy Initiative

Overview

The purpose of the Texas Literacy Initiative (TLI) grant is to improve school readiness and success in language and literacy of disadvantaged students in targeted local education agencies and their associated early childhood education providers through coordinated implementation of the Texas State Literacy Plan. The Texas State Literacy Plan presents a framework for the integration and alignment of early language and preliteracy skills and reading and writing instruction for all Texas learners through grade 12.

Findings (Publications and Presentations)

Research Information

Purpose

The overarching goal of TLI is to ensure that every Texas child is strategically prepared for the literacy demands of college and a career by high school graduation. The TLI grant goals are to do the following:

• Increase the oral language and preliteracy skills of participating preschool children

• Improve the performance of participating students in kindergarten through grade 2 on early reading assessments

• Increase the percentage of participating students who meet or exceed proficiency on the state English language arts assessments in grades 3 through 12

• Increase the use of data and data analysis to inform all decision making in participating districts, campuses, classrooms, and early learning settings

• Increase the implementation of effective literacy instruction through "Literacy Lines"

The Texas Education Agency—in conjunction with the TLI Leadership Team, which includes 20 regional education service centers, the Institute for Public School Initiatives at The University of Texas at Austin, The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston, and the Vaughn Gross Center for Reading and Language Arts at The University of Texas at Austin—collaborate with Literacy Lines to meet the goals of the TLI grant. A Literacy Line is a vertical collaborative among feeder-pattern campuses within a local education agency and early childhood education providers, which may include Early Head Start; Head Start; public, private, or nonprofit licensed child care providers; and public prekindergarten programs.

For more information, visit the TLI page of Texas Education Agency website.

Background

TLI is funded through the Striving Readers Comprehensive Literacy program, authorized as part of the Fiscal Year 2010 Consolidated Appropriations Act Public Law No. 111-117 under the Title I demonstration authority (Part E, Section 1502 of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act). Through this act, Congress provided $200 million for a comprehensive literacy development and education program to advance literacy skills—including preliteracy skills, reading, and writing—for children from birth through grade 12, including limited-English-proficient students and students with disabilities. Texas is one of only six states awarded a discretionary grant.

For more information, visit the Striving Readers page of the U.S. Department of Education website.