Center for Excellence in Literacy Instruction

WHAT WE DO

The Center for Excellence in Literacy Instruction prepares reading and literacy teachers to teach all children, especially those in Mississippi who are in low socioeconomic-status districts.

School:
School of Education
Email:
celi@olemiss.edu
Office Location:
270 Kinard Hall
Phone:
662-915-1919
Office Hours
Mon - Fri | 8:00 - 5:00

Academic

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Center for Excellence in Literacy Instruction

Building Literacy and Learning Foundations Across Mississippi

The Center for Excellence in Literacy Instruction (CELI) works with national, regional, state, and local partners to build family, educator, and community capacity to nurture children’s language, literacy, and executive function development.

CELI assists partners and communities across Mississippi in the large-scale adoption of evidence-based programs and resources, enhancing individualized support in early learning settings, facilitating community engagement and partnership, and advocating for supportive policies and investments.

Our Goals For Childhood Success

We focus on empowering Mississippi's families, schools, and communities to support young children's growth through:

Enable families, schools, and communities to be highly effective in helping young children build the foundation for lifelong success: strong language, literacy, and executive function skills.

Support families, communities, and educators through implementation of CELI sponsored programs, included but not limited to Mission Acceleration, Mississippi Jumpstart, Mind in the Making, Parent Academcy, and Thirty Million Words.

Engage communities throughout Mississippi in effectively organizing and implementing Campaigns for Grade-Level Reading Communities.

Cultivate and maintain productive partnerships with families, communities, and educators.

Create sustainable support for the above work through public and private sector funding.

Why Is CELI's Work So Important?

From birth to 8 years old, children establish the foundational literacy skills that enable them to succeed in education and life. In that age range, too many Mississippi children miss the learning opportuniites to equip themselves for kindergarten.

CELI's work brings together families, educators, and communities to create an environment for children's growth--allowing them to develop and nurture their foundational skill development.

CELI is continually effective because of it's core principles.

Be serious about creating change
- Establish and work toward change objectives.
- Evaluate to measure prograss and strengthen approaches.
Work systemically
- Strengthen or create new systems of support for children, families, and the professional who serve them.
Work strategically
- Focus where there is the greatest combination of need and opportunity.
- Draw upon proven approaches and promising innovations.
Partnership is key to acheiving prograss
- Engaging potential supporters are partners
- Build and sustain relationships, becuase they enable the work we do.
- Provide value to our partners.

How Does CELI Work?

Find out how CELI works.

We provide families with information and tools needed to help children develop language, literacy, and executive function skills.

Mind in the Making, Vroom
Parent Academy
Thirty Million Words

We also partner with families to identify needs, and help parents organize to get the support needed to be partners in education.

Family Hubs/Parent Villages.

We ensure educators have the support of families and communities in developing children's foundational skills to advance language development, literacy skills, and executive function in early grades and childcare settings.

We support strong Campaign for Grade-Level Reading Community coalitions throughout Missississippi.

Continous expansion of CGLR
Technical assistance and coaching to ensure effectiveness and sustainability

Build community capacity to achieve continuous collective impact.

Develop local leadership
Help organize, sustain and scale up partnerships that focus on measurable impact and employ best practices.
Align community strategies to facilitate technical assistance, maximize impact and enable evaluation and reporting.

Assist in evaluating and reporting community progress.

Enable local, statewide and national recognition.

Mission Acceleration: Boosting Reading Achievement for K-5 Students

Mission Acceleration is a tutoring program in Mississippi aimed at improving reading outcomes for K-5 students by providing high-dosage tutoring. AmeriCorps members and high school students serve as Academic Guides to support students, with funding from AmeriCorps Mississippi and the Volunteer Generation Fund. The program focuses on enhancing reading skills, addressing pandemic-related learning setbacks, and offering resources for parents to help their children develop reading skills at home.
Learn more about Mission Acceleration
Jumpstart: Preparing Every Child for Kindergarten Success

Jumpstart is a national organization focused on ensuring all children enter kindergarten ready to succeed by providing language, literacy, and social-emotional programming for preschoolers in under-resourced communities. Since 1993, Jumpstart has trained over 58,000 college students and volunteers, impacting more than 133,000 preschoolers nationwide. This work aims to help break the cycle of poverty by creating equal educational opportunities for young children.
Learn more about Mississippi Jumpstart
Mississippi Campaign for Grade-Level Reading: Supporting Third-Grade Reading Success

The Mississippi Campaign for Grade-Level Reading is a collaborative network of community leaders, parents, and organizations working to overcome barriers to third-grade reading proficiency, such as school readiness, attendance, and summer learning loss, especially for low-income families. The Campaign emphasizes that schools alone cannot address these issues; by partnering with schools and communities, it seeks to ensure every child in Mississippi can reach their full potential.
Learn more about Mississippi Campaign for Grade-Level Reading

Meet our staff

We're always excited to help!

Angela Rutherford

Professor of Teacher Education, Director of the Center for Excellence in Literacy Instruction, and Region 7 Comprehensive Center Mississippi Coordinator