Badger Springs Middle School Awarded $134,000 to Participate in Project READ

Badger Springs Middle School in the Moreno Valley Unified School District (MVUSD), was recently selected by the California Department of Education as one of only 44 schools in the state to receive the Project READ grant totaling $134,000. Project READ is a five-year program that aims to raise educational achievement for students living with disabilities through evidence-based professional development for school staff, to improve reading proficiency and academic performance. Among other benefits, the grant will fund training for English language arts, English language development and special educaion teachers; use of the IRIS center to produce and enhance online content for single subjects of Common Core state standards for English language arts and literacy in history, social studies and science; a site coach and coach coordinator; a leadership academy supporting the site administrators and lead teachers; READ 180 and/or English 3D implementation; the implementation of parent/family school site workshops; and site-based leadership teams with a data focus to monitor improvement and outcomes, according to district officials. Ruby Méjico, language arts coach at Badger Springs, said, "The grant gives us the opportunity to implement a new curriculum." The middle school chose English 3D, Course II — it's common core-aligned, contains higher level readings and focuses on developing academic language, Méjico explained. "Our plan is to implement this curriculum in all 8th grade ELA classes in order to help our students transition to the common core and give them access to grade level material," he said. "This will also help them be more prepared for high school, which then impacts the success of the district as a whole." Badger Springs was notified of the selection earlier this month and is currently going through completion of the contracting package, Méjico said.