PENDLETON — The Pendleton Public Library has received $1.2 million from the Oregon Department of Education’s Early Literacy Community Grant program, becoming the only library in the state to earn the award.

Library Director Jennifer Johnson said she was shocked to learn she received the grant, calling the library’s application a Hail Mary.

“But now we are locked in and excited to serve,” she said.

ODE’s Early Literacy Community Grant program has four main goals: increase literacy for children from birth to grade three; reduce early literacy academic disparities for student groups that have historically experienced academic disparities; increase support to parents and guardians; and increase access to early literacy support that is research-aligned, culturally responsive and student centered.

The state education department awarded grants to 13 organizations across the state. Pendleton is the only library represented.

The award is a reimbursement grant, meaning the library will make purchases first and receive reimbursements quarterly throughout the three-year contract.

The funding will enable the library to offer additional programs and services for the next three years, including a high-impact tutoring program that will be free for families in its service area.

“ We’re going to work with the school district to identify students who could use high-dosage tutoring,” Johnson said. “A big component of this grant requires us to provide 10 weeks worth of tutoring in small groups of like four kids at a time, with new children every 10 weeks. It’s going to be an ongoing learning process.”

Johnson said the grant’s purpose is to address the nationwide decline in reading scores since the pandemic. While scores were not strong before, they have not recovered and progress has stalled. She said third-grade reading scores are the strongest predictor of high school graduation. To ensure students graduate, they must read proficiently by third grade. Early literacy is important to reaching that goal, she said.

Building programs to help revive literacy

Johnson said one of the library’s challenges is that it has never provided tutoring before, adding the library will need to hire a tutoring coordinator to learn the science of reading — a method for teaching reading to children — and will train tutors to apply the method with the students.

The library will partner with schools to enhance programs such as Kinder Readers, First Grade Character Club and second-and-third grade book clubs.

“All of those things are funded at a higher level through this grant,” she said. “I’ll be in all of the classrooms up to third grade. We’re also doing a rotation with the mobile library at Umatilla County Head Start, Pendleton Children’s Center,  Playtime Education, Pioneer Relief Nursery, and the Cay-Uma-Wa Head Start.”

Johnson said she hopes the expanded programs also will connect community members to other services.

As part of its effort to engage with the community, the library will offer more storytimes, host family literacy nights with dinner, provide quarterly book giveaways to help build home libraries and host an author visit each year during the three-year cycle.

“ For the little kids’ story times, we’re going to be creating pamphlets that explain the six early literacy skills and how you can work on them at home with your child,” Johnson said.

Additionally, the library will launch a 1,000 Books Before Kindergarten Program, host a summer reading kick off, start a winter reading challenge and continue Special Needs Family Library Time.

To measure the success of the children’s literacy, Johnson said the library will administer an aptitude test at the beginning of the program and gather information from teachers about what students are struggling with. Parents also can volunteer to provide feedback, she added.

After 10 weeks, the same aptitude test will be given to assess improvement. To track overall progress, such as whether more students are reaching the third-grade reading level, the library will rely on the annual “At-A-Glance” school report, which shows the percentage of students in Pendleton meeting those targets.

“I am hopeful that through this grant the library can raise awareness about the wonderful free programs we offer students from birth to third grade each year,” Johnson said.“Youth Services were my gateway to library work, so it is exciting to me to see so much importance given to this area of library service.”

Johnson said the programs will have a long-term benefit due to their consistency and strong funding. Through these efforts, the aim is to reach a broad audience and foster a habit of regular library visits.