15 Years of Making a Difference: Partner

PARTNER

Tackling Literacy and Learning Through Research Partnerships

AIM’s commitment to evidence-based education is made possible through our partnership with researchers, especially those on our AIM Research Advisory Board and as the first education partner in the Haskins Global Literacy Hub. Their support and collaboration helps us in curriculum planning and as we further develop our AIM Pathways teacher training courses.

Research to Practice Symposium 2021 / Early Literacy Screening

After years of providing livestream access to our on-campus AIM Institute Research to Practice Symposiums, the event went fully online this March featuring interesting research and conversation on Early Literacy Screening: The Early Role of Identification and Its Implications for School-Based Interventions.

• More than 2300 people registered for the event and more than 1,000 people attended the live online discussions.

• Participants included individuals from all 50 states and 23 countries

• The day of discussion was moderated by Dr. Don Compton and featured presenters Dr. Hugh Catts (and occasionally his cat), Dr. Nadine Gaab, Dr. Fumiko Hoeft and Dr. Yaacov Petscher.

Dr. Donald Compton, Director Emeritus, Florida Center for Reading Research was honored with AIM’s Hollis Scarborough Award at our 2021 Research to Practice Symposium. The award honors a researcher whose work has been instrumental in literacy and inspired others.

Training 10,000 Teachers in 5 Years / Pathways Partners

Our AIM Pathways online professional development courses were created by AIM educators for educators to provide transformative teacher literacy training for all readers in schools and districts across the country. With more than 2,000 teachers trained last year alone, we are well on our way to training 10,000 teachers in the next five years impacting thousands of more students with partnerships including:

• Louisiana where AIM Pathways is now one of four literacy training providers approved for the roll out of the state’s Literacy Foundations Training program requiring early literacy training based on the Science of Reading for K-3 teachers of reading, math, science, and/or social studies as well as principals and assistant principals statewide.

• Philadelphia where Read by 4th is partnering with AIM Institute, Mastery Charter Schools and Saint Joseph’s University to place teachers trained in the Science of Reading in classrooms by training K-2 teachers and leaders in three Mastery elementary schools in Pathways to Proficient Reading and Pathways to Literacy Leadership and placing student teachers from St. Joseph’s University’s IDA-accredited special education in the same schools.

• Rhode Island where more than 600 teachers in 12 school districts across the state are enrolled in AIM Pathways coursework as part of the state’s Right to Read Act education literacy requirements.

• Kansas where teachers and leaders are using AIM Pathways to Proficient Reading and Pathways to Literacy Leadership to strengthen their knowledge and skills and meet the requirements for the state’s dyslexia and struggling reader initiative.

Dr. Hollis Scarborough’s original Reading Rope is proudly on display at AIM. Having this important descriptive tool that guides our work each day makes us feel like we have a bit of the Smithsonian on River Road.

AIM Pathways Receives Reimagine Education’s Gold Award at Global Conference

In December at the global QS Reimagine Education conference, AIM and our AIM Pathways platform were among just 13 Gold Award winners. AIM Pathways received its recognition in the Science of Learning category. “Literacy is the foundation upon which all subsequent academic attainment rests: there are perhaps few educational interventions more impactful than effectively reducing the reading gap,” said Reimagine Education Spokesperson Jack Moran. “To do so, teachers need to be empowered by scalable, affordable solutions – but these solutions also need to be based upon rigorous learning theory. AIM Pathways’ solution meets all of these criteria. We commend it, in particular, for the work that they have done to ensure that their digital platform is based on insights from leading neuroscience and literary researchers: in doing so, they offer a model that all digital learning platforms should follow.”

Created By Educators for Educators

One of the reasons our AIM Pathways training courses are so heralded by teachers and school administrators is that they were created by educators specifically for educators with a focus on helping teachers change classroom practices to support students. The coursework features AIM students and teachers who volunteered to participate in filming learning sections to provide participants with examples of teaching in action as well as opportunities to learn from and interact with a trained AIM facilitator in what we call Communities of Practice.

And we also use it right here at AIM as required professional development for all new teachers. One of the ways AIM teachers who complete the IDA-accredited Pathways to Proficient Reading course are eligible to expand their teaching certification is by sitting for the Knowledge and Practice Examination for Effective Reading Instruction exam. Last year 8 teachers sat for the exam after their course and received CERI certification, a Structured Literacy Classroom Teacher Knowledge Certificate.

As the number of schools and districts turning to AIM Pathways grows, some of these same teachers are furthering this important professional training in the science of reading by joining as facilitators for our AIM Pathways communities of practice sessions.