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Vol. 12 No. 2
ARKANSAS STATE UNIVERSITY
Spring, 2013

 

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The ASU Literacy Center will support teaching and research, reaching out to K-12 students in the region by providing struggling readers with state-of-the-art evaluations, assessments and intervention instruction, according to a description of the project.

The center will be in Room 105 of the Education Building at A-State. The space will house several computer terminals, a built-in bookcase featuring an observatory window above and an elevated stage and reading area, Sivakumaran said. The center of the room will feature movable tables and chairs to accommodate K-6 students or adult or secondary school patrons. Reading areas will let patrons of the literacy center look at books, use tablet computers or act out scenes on stage, he said.

The center will be designed to serve three purposes: to provide after-school and summer reading and writing programs coordinated by master’s and doctoral students and faculty; to help faculty and graduate students conduct research; and to allow the reading faculty to work with the community, especially K-12 schools, Sivakumaran said. Adult engagement in professional development and family literacy activities also will take place at the center.

Technology including Apple computers and iPads will be a major part of the center.

The institute has been projected to open in the summer, and the cost to remodel and furnish the classroom is about $85,000.

The college also has proposed several doctoral programs. The process for those proposals usually begins within the department, expands to the college and goes through the campus curriculum route. Once campus administrators and the ASU System Board of Trustees approve the proposal, it is forwarded to the Arkansas Department of Higher Education for approval, followed by submission to the Higher Learning Commission, A-State’s accrediting body.

The doctorate of literacy studies is at the Higher Learning Commission stage and is expected to be launched in fall 2014, Sivakumaran said.