In a critical first step to support the Advancing Literacy initiative, Carnegie Corporation asked the RAND Corporation to examine the status of adolescent literacy achievement nationwide, which it did within the context of the No Child Left Behind law. The results of that study produced still more “dire data.” According to the RAND report, Meeting Literacy Goals Set by No Child Left Behind: A Long Uphill Road, “A comprehensive portrait of where the nation’s adolescents stand relative to state and national literacy goals. . . underscores how far we are from the goal of 100-percent proficiency set under No Child Left Behind (NCLB).”

The formation in June 2003 of the Carnegie Advisory Council for Advancing Literacy to advise the Corporation over the next three years on how it can best use its resources was another key step in launching the initiative. According to Andrés Henríquez, The Corporation is extremely fortunate to have the vast expertise of this distinguished panel to guide the research and to benefit from their advice and counsel in bridging the research-to-practice gap and infusing best practice into classroom instruction. The Council, which is committed to meeting three-to-four times a year, will conduct ongoing reviews of the growing literature, examine the work of Corporation grantees and consider the testimony of individuals and groups that appear to have an effective track record in increasing adolescent literacy, and at the same time, draw on and share their own experiences in the field. These activities will form the basis for the Council to propose promising strategies for advancing the literacy of middle and high school students. Chaired by Catherine Snow, the Council comprises of ten literacy experts who bring to the table their knowledge and experience in policy, preservice training, content literacy and special education.

Advisory Council member Donald D. Deshler, a Professor of Special Education in the School of Education and Director of the Center for Research on Learning at the University of Kansas, stresses that the value of the Council lies in the fact that it is “made up of people with a host of perspectives and disciplines, who are on the front lines.” Council members, “passionate” about what they are doing, “ask important questions,” he says, and keep “pushing” for the answers. After he has attended a meeting of the Advisory Council, Deshler says he tells his wife, “I feel like I’ve been to school.”

In an innovative move to shore up and consolidate support for the adolescent literacy challenge, in May 2002, Carnegie Corporation hosted the first meeting of the Adolescent Literacy Funders Forum (ALFF), a group of private and government literacy agencies. (See appendix for a list of ALFF members.) The purpose of the gathering was to permit funders to share their knowledge and ideas on an issue of common interest and concern to them: adolescent literacy. “It’s very rare for federal folks to meet with private foundation folks,” explains Catherine Snow. These agencies, she notes, which spend a lot of money on literacy, often “didn’t know what the others were doing.” Donald Deshler agrees, applauding the Corporation’s leadership role in bringing together these funding sources, an accomplishment that he views as “truly remarkable.”

Adolescent Literacy and the Achievement Gap: What Do We Know and Where Do We Go From Here? is an account of the first meeting of ALFF written by Snow and Gina Biancarosa, a doctoral student at the Harvard School of Education. According to the report, members of the newly formed ALFF concluded that, “Coordinated effort is needed to jumpstart a focus on adolescent literacy in order to resolve the minority achievement gap.” The report offers a review of some of the evidence linking adolescent and preadolescent literacy to this persistent achievement gap; it also looks at some of the current research and program initiatives that address literacy as a means of improving academic achievement. Finally, it summarizes ideas for future projects proposed by participants at the meeting that could benefit from collaboration and coordination.

Copyright information | Masthead | Carnegie Corporation of New York web site