The Ohio Department of Higher Education granted $19,000 to Miami University as part of the Science of Reading Student Teacher Placement grant.

This initiative, a collaboration between the Office of Student Teaching and Lakota Schools, aims to ensure that student teachers are paired with cooperating teachers equipped with strategies aligned with the science of reading.

Scheduled to kick off this spring, the project will encompass training sessions for student teachers placed in the Lakota Schools district. The program, which is slated to run through fall 2024 and spring 2025, focuses on enhancing the teaching experience for both mentors and student teachers.

Taking the lead on the Miami side are Molly Sawyer, director of clinical and field placement, and Kara Conniff, placement coordinator, of the College of Education, Health, and Society. They will oversee a proposal crafted by a dedicated group that includes Michelle Cosmah, clinical professor of Teaching, Curriculum, and Educational Inquiry; Amie Earls, assistant lecturer of Teaching, Curriculum, and Educational Inquiry; Leah Wasburn-Moses, professor of Educational Psychology; Amy Lamborg, coordinator of research discovery for the Discovery Center; Rob Kramer (Lakota), and Amy Marquette (Lakota). This grant signifies a significant step forward in advancing the science of reading within the realm of student-teacher placements.

(AI tools Grammarly and ChatGPT 3.5, a language model developed by OpenAI, assisted in writing this news story.)