Austin Peay State University is expanding its work on student literacy with a new center focused on improving reading instruction from early childhood through high school.¶
The university’s Eriksson College of Education launched the Center for Literacy to connect research on reading with what teachers actually use in classrooms. The center will work with K-12 educators, future teachers, researchers, schools and community groups across Middle Tennessee.¶
The effort comes as Tennessee continues to pay more attention to early literacy and teacher preparation. Recent state testing has shown improvement in third-grade English language arts scores. State policies such as the Tennessee Literacy Success Act have also increased the focus on foundational reading skills.¶
Training Future Teachers
Austin Peay says the center has three main goals: strengthen teacher preparation, build partnerships with schools and communities, and expand literacy research. For future teachers, that means adding evidence-based reading strategies throughout Austin Peay’s education programs and reviewing how well its literacy courses are preparing students for the classroom. The center also plans to create more opportunities for undergraduate and graduate students to participate in literacy research.¶
Center Director Dr. Zack Barnes brings classroom experience to the table. Before joining Austin Peay, Barnes taught middle school special education in Metro Nashville Public Schools. His research includes reading development, the Science of Reading, dyslexia policy, and how teachers can use reading strategies with students with disabilities. The center has already secured more than $50,000 in grants to turn that work into direct support for students.¶
"We want to develop literacy leaders in our community," Barnes said in a statement. "These opportunities give teachers the time, support, and resources to become experts in an area that matters to them and then share that expertise with their peers."¶
The largest award is a $49,884 grant from the Clarksville-Montgomery County Community Health Foundation, which will fund the Govs Literacy Fellows Program. Austin Peay education students will spend three hours each week working with small groups of second graders at four Title I elementary schools in Montgomery, Robertson, and Cheatham counties. About 500 students at Westside, West Cheatham, Norman Smith, and Kenwood elementary schools are also expected to participate, and each student will receive a free book.¶
A separate $3,000 Dollar General grant will provide books and an author visit for second graders at Minglewood Elementary, and another $2,500 Austin Peay grant will bring historical fiction into education courses and include a visit from author Sharon Cameron.¶
Supporting Current Teachers
The center is also designed to serve educators already working in schools. Austin Peay plans to offer professional development, local conferences, and other literacy-focused training. The goal is to give teachers practical ways to use research-backed reading strategies and then share those practices with colleagues. That work fits into Tennessee’s broader push to improve reading results. The state’s Literacy Success Act requires districts and public charter schools to use foundational literacy plans in the early grades, while recent testing has shown continued improvement in student reading performance.¶
The center also plans to support literacy research by building assessment resources and creating research opportunities for teachers, students, and faculty. Doctoral students will be able to use a collection of literacy-related assessments and data for dissertation work.¶
The center has also partnered with Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library of Montgomery County to maintain a collection of children’s books for university courses and lesson planning. The partnership connects teacher preparation with a program already focused on getting books into children’s hands. This comes as Tennessee leaders have discussed increasing state support for Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library, which currently relies on both state and local funding.¶
