R.I. teachers receive RIF grants for reading, classroom innovation

PROVIDENCE – Funded by philanthropists Letitia and John Carter, the Rhode Island Foundation’s Sparks Grant program will provide nearly $190,000 in reading and innovation grants to teachers across the state, according to a Jan. 13 announcement.

This year, the grant program offered $10,000 reading grants, for the first time, to seven elementary schools that proposed programs that would inspire a lifelong love of reading in its students.

“The new reading grants are grounded in the belief that imaginative reading and assimilation of context can make learning fun and exciting. Expanding the program’s scope will put more children on the path to educational success,” said Letitia Carter of the initiative.

In addition, 60 full-time third-grade teachers in the Ocean State received up to $1,000 grants to improve classroom innovation. The money can cover software licenses, equipment and other resources that otherwise would not be attainable to these teachers.

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“We still strongly believe that third grade is a critical stage in the educational development of youngsters,” said Carter of the program, now in its fourth year.

Recipient communities include Smithfield, Providence, West Warwick, Central Falls, Cranston, Cumberland, East Providence, Foster, Lincoln, Portsmouth, Newport, Scituate and Westerly.

The Rhode Island Foundation is the largest and most comprehensive funder of nonprofit organizations in Rhode Island. In 2015, the Foundation awarded $41.5 million in grants to organizations addressing the state’s most pressing issues and needs of diverse communities.

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