Some 210 children and their teachers in northern Delaware will be the beneficiaries of a $3.6 million federally funded project to improve early language and reading skills.

Opening Doors to Literacy is funded by the U.S. Department of Education and administered through a partnership between the Delaware Center for Teacher Education at UD in cooperation with colleagues from the Department of Individual and Family Studies and New Castle County (Del.) Head Start Inc.

“This project is an excellent example of how UD partners with others to make a real difference in the First State and beyond,” University President Patrick Harker said at a news conference announcing the initiative.

U.S. Rep. Michael N. Castle of Delaware says the project reflects UD’s commitment to providing service to the state, especially in areas of early childhood education.

“All of the people at the University of Delaware over the years have made a real commitment to young children in several ways, and the Head Start program typifies this as well as anything,” Castle says. “It is great that the U.S. Department of Education is willing to trust UD and particularly the Head Start programs in New Castle County. These kids are going to be given a real opportunity in life, and it has to start at a very early age.”

In 2005 the same partnership was awarded $3.3 million by the U.S. Department of Education for a three-year reading project for 225 children and their teachers in northern Delaware.

The new project will be located at three Head Start centers in New Castle County and will serve children in areas bordering the city of Wilmington. All but three of the 210 participating students will be from families living below the poverty line, according to Carol Vukelich, Hammonds Professor in Teacher Education at UD and director of the Delaware Center for Teacher Education.

“The earlier grant helped teachers to enhance their teaching of language and early reading skills, and UD is delighted to have a further opportunity to build additional centers of excellence in Delaware,” Vukelich says. “As with our first project, the teachers with whom we will be working already are good teachers who are providing their young learners with language and early reading activities. Their children already are achieving.”

Opening Doors to Literacy involves the implementation of a comprehensive system that includes the use of a scientific assessment system, as well as an assess-plan-teach model to monitor children’s progress and adjust instruction within the classroom and in groups based on project progress, Vukelich says.

“The project also will include a research- and standards-based early literacy program, Doors to Discovery,” she says. “Our goal is to provide these teachers with a powerful professional development program so that they are not just good teachers, they are excellent teachers.”

The grant, which is part of the Good Start, Grow Smart Early Childhood Initiative and authorized by federal No Child Left Behind legislation, will help build early childhood education centers of excellence that can serve as examples of effective early learning.

“We at the Department of Education are very aware of the University of Delaware’s commitment to improving education to postsecondary students and also to our youngest learners,” Amanda Farris, deputy assistant secretary, U.S. Department of Education, says. “This latest program focuses on making sure that our very youngest and neediest learners are able to have the skills that they need to be successful later in life.”