Lilly Endowment’s Advancing Science of Reading in Indiana (ASRI) is an initiative to help interested Indiana colleges and universities expand and enhance the use of evidence-based instructional methods aligned with the Science of Reading (SoR) in their teacher preparation programs. The initiative’s aim is to improve significantly the reading abilities of Indiana students. Through ASRI, the Endowment allocated up to $25 million for planning and implementation grants available to colleges and universities that wish to participate in this initiative. The initiative will complement a statewide effort recently undertaken by the Indiana Department of Education (IDOE) to improve reading achievement in K-12 schools by helping current teachers implement SoR-aligned methods in their classrooms.

The Endowment, which has long supported efforts to improve educational outcomes and achievement for students in Indiana’s K-12 schools, finds compelling the potential impact of increased use of SoR-aligned teaching methods on reading achievement in Indiana schools and believes that teacher preparation programs in Indiana’s colleges and universities can play a vital role in expanding and sustaining this impact.

Resources

This Issue Brief compiled by The Hunt Institute provides a description of SoR – what it is and is not – along with many links to further information.

The Endowment, with the assistance of IDOE staff and external SoR consultants, has assembled a list of resources relating to SoR (e.g., books, websites, articles). This document is available here.