Verizon Foundation Grant in partnership with WWU supports start of a language and literacy center at West View Elementary

The Verizon Foundation is helping to support the start of a new Community Language and Literacy Center established at West View Elementary School in Burlington by the school in partnership with Western Washington University’s Woodring School of Education.

The Verizon Foundation is providing $15,000 for the center. In addition, Skagit State Bank is providing $500.

The West View Elementary/Woodring College of Education Community Language and Literacy Center is a place where children and their families receive support for developing their language and literacy skills and where pre-service teachers and school personnel (staff, teachers, and administrators) receive professional development in using best practices for meeting the needs of all language and literacy learners.

The Center will enhance partnerships between the students attending West View, their families and the students and faculty of WWU’s Woodring College of Education. Using existing space within the school, a lab is being established to locate a collection of curriculum and materials and to start an evening family literacy program for elementary and middle school-aged children and their families. In addition to the school principal, Meagan Dawson, four people are working to start the center: WWU Associate Education Professor Marsha Riddle Buly, Jenna Harris, Courtney Cline, and Nellie Rivera.

West View Elementary, a K-8 dual-language school, has been identified as a struggling school in this state. Seventy eight percent of the students attending West View qualify for free or reduced lunch. Many of the students, and their families, speak English as a second (or third) language. Although making progress with academics and other educational indicators, students at West View continue to struggle to meet state academic standards.

Western Washington University’s Woodring College of Education is recognized throughout Washington, and beyond, as a leader in the development and implementation of programs that prepare outstanding teachers, from early childhood to adult education; educational administration leaders; human services professionals; and rehabilitation counselors. For more information, visit the Woodring College of Education Web site.