Recent reform efforts in education have yielded positive results in improving reading achievement for the nation's children in the primary grades, but many children are not moving beyond basic decoding skills to fluency and comprehension, even as they advance to the fourth grade and classes in history, mathematics, and science. This lack of progress is especially troubling because adolescents are facing a post-secondary job market that demands high literacy skills. In an effort to focus national attention on the problem of adolescent literacy, Carnegie Corporation of New York launched a new initiative, Advancing Literacy. Carnegie's objective is to advance adolescent literacy, which encompasses reading and writing in grades 4-12, by promoting policy, practice, and research in this field. As a first step, Carnegie asked the RAND Corporation to convene a small study group for one year to lay the foundation for the work of a larger Advisory Council and to undertake a study examining the state of adolescent achievement in literacy in the nation.
Citation: McCombs, Jennifer Sloan, et al., Achieving State and National Literacy Goals: A Long Uphill Road: A Report to Carnegie Corporation of New York (RAND Corp., 2005)
Program: Education
