Elevating Our Vision for Learning: Improving Schools for All

The challenge for the Chicago Public Schools is shared by virtually every urban school district across the nation: How do we organize a school system to ensure that each and every student obtains a high-quality education that develops his or her abilities to become powerful and critical thinkers, responsible global citizens, self-confident individuals, and effective, literate communicators? To meet this challenge, we need to raise standards and elevate expectations for teaching and learning and build staff capacity to meet these standards.While we know that there is no single solution to fixing our education system, we do know that supporting high-quality instruction needs to be at the center of our efforts.Identifying ways for the school system to achieve high-quality education for every student in every school is the focus of this document, developed with the support of The Chicago Community Trust. We believe that our schools will benefit greatly by implementing these recommendations, which draw from the collective knowledge of local and national experts and practitioners. We are grateful for the many contributors who gave their time and expertise to develop this document

Mother tongue literacy in a refugee setting: A Sourcebook for the Massalit literacy program

The purpose of this Master’s Capstone Project is to synthesize information and answer questions related to a mother tongue literacy program among Darfur refugees in eastern Chad. As the literacy specialist providing technical assistance to this program, I have selected questions that, from my perspective, are relevant to the program at this particular point in time. Some, like “Can children learn to read in two scripts at the same time?” or “How can we assess literacy development in a feasible way?” are questions that I wanted to revisit. Others, like “How can we create a literate environment at school, at home, and in the community?” are potential priorities for the program going forward. While looking for research related to my program, I found very little literature that addresses all the aspects of our context—a mother tongue literacy program in a non-dominant language, encompassing both adult and children’s literacy in a refugee camp environment. There is a growing body of literature on refugee education and education in crisis and conflict settings. There are longitudinal studies of mother tongue-based multilingual education efforts. There are guides to community-based mother tongue literacy programs. And there are reports of adult literacy programs and early grade reading interventions in developing countries. However, whether in peer-reviewed journals or in the grey literature, articles are usually relevant to one or two of the aspects above, not all of them

Attitudes to Reading and Writing and their Links with Social Mobility 1914-2014: An Evidence Review

This review has drawn on a range of literature, archive material, family interviews and data gathered using social media to explore attitudes to reading and writing and their links with social mobility from 1914 to the present day. It identifies the many ways in which families read for pleasure and identifies ways in which Booktrust’s activity might be developed

Help Wanted: Policy Brief

In today's economy, strong basic skills and success in the workforce are intertwined. Employers across all industries demand a new kind of worker, and businesses can go virtually anywhere to find the right employees. In order to compete in today's global economy, Philadelphia must commit to becoming a city with a world-class, highly literate workforce. This policy brief, written in response to the publication Help Wanted: Knowledge Workers Needed, proposes strategies for uniting the full community to advance adult workforce literacy levels. Many of the strategies described in this policy brief are also applicable to areas throughout the country facing this same challenge

Literacy in Scotland. Country Report. Children and adolescents

European Literacy Policy Network (ELINET

Literacy in Portugal: country report: children and adolescents

This report on the state of literacy in Portugal is one of a series produced in 2015 and 2016 by ELINET, the European Literacy Policy Network. ELINET was founded in February 2014 and has 78 partner organisations in 28 European countries1. ELINET aims to improve literacy policies in its member countries in order to reduce the number of children, young people and adults with low literacy skills. One major tool to achieve this aim is to produce a set of reliable, up-to-date and comprehensive reports on the state of literacy in each country where ELINET has one or more partners, and to provide guidance towards improving literacy policies in those countries. The reports are based (wherever possible) on available, internationally comparable performance data, as well as reliable national data provided (and translated) by our partners.ELINET - EAC/S05/201

Digital and Media Literacy: A Plan of Action

Outlines a community education movement to implement Knight's 2009 recommendation to enhance digital and media literacy. Suggests local, regional, state, and national initiatives such as teacher education and parent outreach and discusses challenges

Reading in the mobile era

Mobile technology can advance literacy and learning in underserved communities around the world. Summary Millions of people do not read for one reason: they do not have access to text. But today mobile phones and cellular networks are transforming a scarce resource into an abundant one. Drawing on the analysis of over 4,000 surveys collected in seven developing countries and corresponding qualitative interviews, this report paints the most detailed picture to date of who reads books and stories on mobile devices and why. The findings illuminate, for the first time, the habits, beliefs and profiles of mobile readers. This information points to strategies to expand mobile reading and, by extension, the educational, social and economic benefits associated with increased reading. Mobile technology can advance literacy and learning in underserved communities around the world. This report shows how

Already at a disadvantage? ICT in the home and children's preparation for primary school. (ICT Research Bursaries 2004 - Final Report)

The aim of this study is to investigate the impact of socio-economic disadvantage on pre-school children's development of competences in information and communications technologies (ICT). The study focuses on children's experiences of ICT in the home and in pre-school settings in the year before they begin formal education, and seeks to investigate concepts of advantage and disadvantage in this context. The study also aims to investigate teachers' perceptions of children's ICT competences on entry to school