State Grants Seed Reading Programs in Conn.

By Jeff Archer

This year, teachers in Middletown, Conn., are learning how to improve their students' literacy skills at a new district training center.

Meanwhile, in Bridgeport, 10 schools are each getting an extra teacher trained in First Steps, a popular strategy for reading instruction. And more than 600 elementary school pupils in New Haven are attending Saturday classes on reading and writing--an innovation that's coming to Waterbury next month.

Myriad reading-improvement efforts are blossoming in Connecticut's city schools, a year after the state seeded them with a new grants program. Vowing to be remembered as "the reading governor," John G. Rowland, the state's Republican chief executive, called for setting aside $10 million a year to help students deemed most at risk bring their literacy skills up to par early in their educational careers. Before passing the measure, the legislature nearly doubled that investment to $19.5 million for...