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Adolescent Literacy Resources for Instructional Leaders

Creating a Culture of Literacy: A Guide for Middle and High School Principals

Taking Action on Adolescent Literacy: An Implementation Guide for School Leaders

Informed Choices for Struggling Adolescent Readers: A Research-Based Guide to Instructional Programs and Practices

 
Contents

The State of Adolescent Literacy Today Educating the Educators Family, Communities and Peers Adolescent Literacy and Public Policy Standards and Assessment Next Steps
   
Educating the Educators

An Ongoing Commitment to Teacher Education

“Recent research has established beyond doubt that the most important element of student achievement is the quality of the teacher.”
- Vartan Gregorian, President, Carnegie Corporation of New York1


According to Carnegie Corporation of New York President Vartan Gregorian:
“We can no longer close our eyes to the problem of America’s schools of education and the pitiful job most of them do in preparing our teachers,” he says. “What is needed is nothing less than an unwavering commitment to a gold standard of teacher education, one in which university-based teacher education programs prepare teachers who are proficient in the fields in which they will be teaching, well versed in the latest theories and practices of pedagogy, skilled in technology and professionally mentored with solid classroom experience — all of which cannot be accomplished at warp speed.”2
Always deeply committed to improving education in the United States and abroad, Carnegie Corporation of New York has launched numerous new education initiatives during Gregorian’s tenure.

One of these is Teachers for a New Era, “a national initiative to improve the quality of teaching.”3 This initiative is grounded in three principles: (1) grounding all elements of the teacher education program on sound evidence, including reliance on measuring the learning gains of pupils; (2) effective engagement of the disciplines of arts and sciences; and (3) “understanding teaching as an academically taught clinical practice profession, including continuing support during the first two full years of professional teaching.”4

The Corporation’s Advancing Literacy subprogram seeks to build upon the principles and good work of Teachers for a New Era by working to support the development and usage of pre-service, induction and in-service teacher training programs designed to make President Gregorian’s vision of “a generation of teachers that are proficient in the fields in which they will be teaching, well versed in the latest theories and practices of pedagogy, skilled in technology and professionally mentored with solid classroom experience” into a reality.5

Grantee Spotlight:
The New Literacies Research Team at the University of Connecticut

The New Literacies Research Team

The New Literacies Research Team is headed by Dr. Donald Leu. Donald J. Leu is the John and Maria Neag Endowed Chair in Literacy and Technology and holds a joint appointment in Curriculum and Instruction and Educational Psychology at the University of Connecticut.

Dr. Leu summarizes the reason for and subject of the team’s research as follows:

“Both traditional and new online literacies are required to prepare adolescents in math, science, and English for the increasingly rigorous demands of learning in the 21st century. The Internet, however, is quickly becoming the 21st century's defining technology for literacy and learning. Thus, any effective program in teacher education must now include the new literacies that are required to read, comprehend, learn, and communicate online in today's classrooms. Our work in the Carnegie Adolescent Literacy Project studies how best to do this.”

[Through our work in this project, we seek] “to prepare new middle and high school teachers in math, science, and English to effectively integrate literacy instruction into their classrooms. What makes this project unique is that we see literacy in both traditional and new ways. We recognize the continued role of textbooks as an important source of information in secondary classrooms. In addition, we believe that the Internet is rapidly becoming this generation's defining technology for literacy and learning and that new literacies are required to effectively read, comprehend, communicate, and learn online. Content area teachers must be prepared to integrate both traditional and new literacies into their classrooms. Our project studies the best ways to accomplish this.”


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Resources for Educators


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© 2006 Carnegie Corporation of New York