Across the project's two-year period, a total of 28 educators from these schools enrolled in a graduate seminar taught by Patrick Gallagher, Earle Knowlton, and Marc Mahlios. These teachers developed and implemented interprofessional collaboration plans in each school that created and maintained linkages among these educators and numerous public and private community resources. The resultant collaborative partnerships have enabled the educators to coordinate and integrate the services necessary to reduce their students' risk for academic and behavioral difficulties. Intense, daily instruction, rigorous record-keeping, and regular testing are key aspects of the program. Teachers complete extensive, year-long training in KALL methods and strategies, which include phonics, chunking, repetition, and analyzing pictures.
Parents participate with their children, who bring home nightly assignments.
The camaraderie that develops between teachers, students and parents, working together to improve literacy, is impressive. KALL programs in several area schools are funded under Title 1. Kansas Collaborative for Excellence in Teacher Preparation Kansas Collaborative for Excellence in Teacher Preparation is an NSF EPSCoR funded project at the University of Kansas. The purpose of the planning grant is to explore collaborative avenues for achieving excellence in preparing science, mathematics and technology teachers based on new science and mathematics standards as well as the proposed guidelines known as Design for Licensure. The Kansas Collaborative Network is a community of students interested in conducting collaborative research.