The U.S. Department of Education announced the awards of the highly competitive Early Reading First Grant. This lucrative grant mandates scientific research informing instruction in early childhood. A major part of the funding is used to conduct a rigorous project evaluation design. The findings of former awardees have been extremely informative to the field.

The awardees are:

• California: Fontana Unified School District, Long Beach Unified
• Colorado: School District 1, City and County of Denver, Weld County School District 6
• District of Columbia: Septima Clark Public Charter School
• Delaware: University of Delaware
• Florida: United Way Center for Excellence in Early Education
• Georgia: Clarke County School District, United Way of Metropolitan Atlanta
• Hawaii: University of Hawaii
• Illinois: Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois, Chicago Public Schools, District #299, Illinois Action for Action
• Massachusetts: Little Sprouts, Inc., University of Massachusetts-Boston
• Montana: Office of Public Instruction, Montana Office of Education Services
• North Carolina: Columbus County Schools
• New Mexico: Southwest Institute for Families and Children
• New York: Binghamton City School District, Eastern Suffolk Board of Cooperative Education Services, Olean City School District
• Ohio: The University of Akron
• Rhode Island: Connecting for Children and Families, Inc., The Providence Plan
• Texas: Mt. Pleasant Independent School District, South San Antonio Independent School District
• Virginia: Norfolk Public Schools
• Washington: Puget Sound Educational Service District

Congratulations!