Georgia Southern College of Education Awarded More Than $500K to Train Literacy Tutors

The Georgia Southern College of Education (COE) was awarded $517,575 to train elementary education literacy tutors who will work in select schools in Chatham and Bulloch counties.

Modeled after a program the COE piloted last summer, funded by the CARES Act, the enhanced program is funded by Gov. Brian Kemp’s second installment of the Governor’s Emergency Education Relief Fund (GEER II).

“We decided that as COVID continues to impact students across all levels, we would focus and refine our tutoring efforts and apply for funding to support a robust literacy tutoring support program for our partners in Savannah-Chatham County Public Schools and Bulloch County Schools,” said Alisa Leckie, Ph.D., COE assistant dean for partnerships and outreach.

The new grant, titled “Mitigating Pandemic Literacy Loss in K-5 Students: Utilizing a Responsive Approach with College Students as Tutors,” was prepared by several members of the COE.

“For students in teacher preparation programs at Georgia Southern, we will now implement a tutoring component within their pre-professional block,” said Leckie.

60 tutors were hired to supplement literacy instruction and one-on-one engagement within 10 elementary schools in Savannah-Chatham and Bulloch counties, beginning June 1. The literacy tutors were solicited from Georgia Southern as well as East Georgia State College, Ogeechee Technical College, Savannah State University and Savannah Technical College.

“Learning to read by the end of the third grade impacts the life trajectories of students,” said Sally Brown, Ph.D., Georgia Southern professor of literacy education and principal investigator of the grant. “By helping young readers become proficient readers, we ensure success in their academic futures and ultimately their workforce capabilities. The GEER II grant works toward this goal.”

The project team includes: Brown; Leckie; Elizabeth Williams, Ed.S., program coordinator; Mete Akcaoglu, Ph.D., associate professor of instructional technology; Selçuk Doğan, Ph.D., assistant professor of elementary and special education; and Marlynn Griffin, Ph.D., professor of educational psychology and coordinator of the COE’s pre-professional block.