An innovative new teaching curriculum designed to significantly improve the reading ability of youth in the Texas Youth Commission (TYC) was recently launched in all TYC facilities. The program, called “Rewards and Rewards Plus,” is designed to close gaps between the reading abilities of TYC youth and their peers in traditional school settings.
Most youth entering TYC have considerable educational deficiencies and have given up on education as an achievable goal. On average, these youth are five years behind their peers in reading scores and more than a third need special education services.
“If education is one of the main rehabilitative tools we’re going to use it’s imperative they be able to read and comprehend as part of their rehabilitation, so reading is vital,” said Jim Hurley, spokesman for TYC.
In 2009, the Texas Legislature called for an overhaul of TYC’s reading programs through research-based assessment, instruction, and specialized training. The legislature also appropriated $750,000 to pay for these improvements.
Working with the University of Texas Meadows Center for Preventing Education Risk, a standardized reading instruction curriculum has been developed and implemented throughout all TYC schools. The curriculum is based on a three-tier model, with student placement in each tier determined by performance on nationally recognized reading assessments. Each tier, to the greatest extent possible, will include a student population with similar reading abilities to allow for the more individualized reading instruction. All youth will participate in Tier I enhanced reading instruction. Students who require additional reading support are assigned to a separate Tier II reading class or, for those who require more intensive instruction, a Tier III class.
TYC recently hired 10 additional teachers to advance this effort. The Meadows Center conducted reading intervention training for these 10 teachers and five additional TYC instructors. All TYC reading teachers will receive training in the reading intervention by the end of February
Initial evaluations of the new reading curriculum will begin in late December 2009.
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