The Reading Instruction, Support, and Education Center

Formerly the Center for Assessment and Reading Education.

Reading is the foundation for all learning; to improve a child's reading ability is to improve their overall academic achievement.

– Dr. Sallie Averitt Miller, Founder
   Established the CARE Center

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Center Operating Information (Fall 2023)

Location: Frank Brown Hall (COEHP), Room 1060 (first floor, former Ledger-Enquirer building)

Phone: 706-565-1427

Operation Hours:
Monday & Wednesday 3-5 pm
Tuesday & Thursday 12-5 pm
Friday 9-2 pm

Our Mission

Our mission is to encourage socially just reading education practices that recognize children‘s literacy strengths and needs, and differentiate instruction accordingly. We strive to support undergraduate and graduate students as they participate in their reading, language arts, and children‘s literature coursework, as well as in their lab experiences. RISE also supports faculty teaching reading courses by offering resources and equipment to enrich their curricula; and will increase our engagement with local public schools through upcoming programs.

Resources

• Children's Literature Grades K-5 (PDF)
• Adolescent Literature (PDF)
• Reading and Other Assessment Kits (PDF)
• Technology and Diagnostic Instruments (PDF)
• Guided Reading (PDF)
  • Scholastic Guided Reading Program
  • Leveled Readers
  • Big Books
• Instructional Resources for Teachers (PDF)
  • Professional Textbooks
  • Instructional Kits, Activity Lessons, CDs
• Manipulatives (PDF)
• Supplementary Reading Resources (PDF)
• Resources for Teaching English for Speakers of Other Languages (PDF)
• Teacher and Faculty Reference Books (PDF)

Who We Are

The College of Education and Health Profession’s Reading Instruction, Support, and Education (RISE) Center is a teaching library for students, teachers, and faculty. The Center offers a collection of children ‘s literature and a variety of instructional, diagnostic, and reference resources for elementary reading instruction and assessment. The library provides books facilitating interdisciplinary connections with language arts, science, math, and social studies. Resources are also available for faculty, teachers, and students in special education and those working with culturally and linguistically diverse learners.

The Center offers book fairs, training workshops, classroom assistance, and informative presentations for Teacher Education students and faculty, in-service cooperating teachers, and the communities.

The Center's resources are secured through grants, partnerships, College of Education, Department of Teacher Education, Leadership, and Counseling contributions, and vendors (e.g., ETA Cuisenaire, Scholastic, McGraw-Hill).

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The Center's History

Dr. Sallie A. Miller established the Center for Assessment & Reading Education (CARE) in 1999. Under her direction, the Center provided teacher candidates and in-service teachers with extended opportunities for Service Learning; CSU teacher candidates and teachers provided reading diagnostics and reading interventions for children reading below grade level: follow-up records and research documented participating children ‘s reading improvement.

CARE also held book fairs, training workshops, and informative presentations that involved Teacher Education students and faculty, in-service cooperating teachers, and the communities. The Center resources have been secured through grants, partnerships, contributions by the College of Education, Department of Teacher Education, and selected vendors (e.g., ETA Cuisenaire, Scholastic, McGraw-Hill).

CARE received a generous donation of books from the estate of Dr. Jim Brewbaker, a former educator and CSU faculty member. His legacy as a mentor and role model for educators continues through these texts. At the end of 2018, Dr. Pam Wetherington donated a collection of chapter books for young readers from her teaching library.

During the 2019-20 academic year, Dr. Mark McCarthy implemented a name change from CARE to RISE. This new name was intended to acknowledge the student-centered stance of the Center better. Dr. McCarthy stated, "Assessment is central to reading instruction and development but is often associated with the larger educational trend of mass standardized testing. [Dr. McCarthy does] not endorse standardized tests, nor has research suggested that it positively impacts reading development.”

During the 2021-22 academic year, Dr. Jennifer VanSlander became Director of the RISE Center. As director of the RISE Center, she began updating the inventory and transitioning to an electronic checkout system. She also added many picture books by authors from underrepresented authors and held a book fair to fund additional titles.

During AY 2023, Dr. Sallie Averitt Miller returned to direct the Center.