Local Children's Literacy Project Wins Big Federal Grant

A Philadelphia based Non-Proft was selected to receive a large federal grant to continue their work on improving literacy in urban schools.

KYW's Michelle Durham reports the Children's Literacy Initiative (CLI) will receive $21.7 million dollars over five years to fund programs in four school districts, including Philadelphia and Camden.

There were 1,700 applicants and 49 winners. CLI's proposal received the highest score among the "validation" grantees.

CLI co-founder and executive director Linda Katz says the organization develops programs to show teachers how to reach students who are struggling with reading:

"About 40 percent will learn no matter what the curriculum. Another 40 percent will develop reading skills if their teachers are expert and honestly, we don't help our teachers reach that expert level."

U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan says the winning organizations must secure private funding for 20 percent of the cost of their projects:

"To help them, we have reached out to foundations and created a website where funders and applicants can connect."