By Travis Gettys
Enquirer contributor

COVINGTON - Teachers from three elementary schools can say they spent their summer vacation taking classes.

Not that it's been all work and no play.

The days are leavened with a Survivor-themed lesson plan, with groups of teachers breaking into different "tribes," like contestants on the popular reality TV show.

"You come home at night and say, 'I can't wait to go to school,' " said Paula Roll, a third- and fourth-grade teacher at 9th District Elementary School. "You just get so excited when you find ways to reach students."

Roll joined teachers from her school and Latonia and Thomas Edison elementary schools, which received $2.8 million over the next six years to help boost low reading scores.

The federal government distributed the grant money as part of the No Child Left Behind Act, and states allocate the funds to districts with high student poverty rates and low proficiency scores on standardized tests.

In Kentucky, 76 of the 198 schools that applied received grant money.

To qualify, more than 50 percent of a school's students must fall below fourth-grade proficiency on the Kentucky Commonwealth Accountability Testing System.

"The key is to catch kids' struggles early and intervene early to prevent future reading difficulties," said Tanya Ihlo, the Reading First coach for Covington Independent Schools.

Reading First is a phonics-based program that is customized to meet students' needs. More than 60 Covington teachers will receive instruction through next week, and then in August, so they can use it this fall in all three schools.

Teachers must also undergo 80 hours of professional development specifically related to reading, Ihlo said.

About 30 kindergartners and first-graders at Latonia Elementary will get a five-week head start in the program, beginning June 22, and 9th District School could still implement one for third-graders, Ihlo said.

Students who take part in the summer program, which will be used at all three schools starting next year, will receive breakfast and take part in activities intended to boost fitness as well.

"If a child is a poor reader in the first grade," Ihlo said, "research has shown they'll be poor readers in the third grade, in the fifth grade, in the eighth grade, and so on."