The South Carolina Reading Initiative (SCRI) is a four-year, intensive staff development effort carried out through study groups of teachers/administrators in participating schools across the state. SCRI has initiatives at the elementary school (SCRI K-5), middle grades (SCRI-MG) and high school (SCRI-HS). Led by a literacy coach, teacher/administrator teams meet to conduct systematic inquiry into reading research and practice and to discuss related issues and questions that arise in classrooms. The primary goal of SCRI is to enhance teacher and administrator knowledge in creating an environment that promotes effective literacy instruction.

Literacy coaches work in classrooms providing classroom-based support to participating teachers and lead after school study groups twice a month. Regional literacy coaches work with literacy coaches, visiting them once each month and holding reflective and knowledge-based, daylong meetings with them one day a month. Two days each month, the district and regional literacy coaches from across the state meet with representatives from the Office of Curriculum and Instruction at the State Department of Education and University of South Carolina professors for state study.

The Institute of Reading has remained committed to its goal of ensuring literacy for South Carolina's students. You are cordially invited to visit this SCRI site to see first hand administrators and teachers working together in an effort to create a culture of literacy in our state.

For more information, please contact Pam Wills at 803-734-8391.