Literacy

This report provides a progress update on the work the Southern Regional Education Board and its partner states completed on the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation funded grant project, Strengthening Statewide College/Career Readiness Initiative (SSCRI). The grant focused on strengthening the college- and career-readiness initiatives in five states: Florida, Kentucky, Texas, Virginia, and West Virginia. This report focuses on the progress these states have made in regards to the design and implementation of transitional courses in reading, writing, and mathematics.

This report includes vignettes from teachers reflecting on their use of tools--the Literacy Design Collaborative (LDC) and Mathematics Design Collaborative (MDC)--aimed at preparing students for college and careers. The vignettes included in this report are the result of interviews with teachers between September 2012 and January 2013 where educators reflected on their teaching styles, changes in student motivation and engagement, and changes in their own behavior while using the LDC and MDC tools. 

This study assessed the relationship between the English language arts and reading assessment scores of 11th grade students and their ability to both read and comprehend textbooks used in entry-level college English courses. Findings revealed a 75 percent comprehension level for students, and that 51 percent of students can read 95 percent of first-year English textbooks used in entry-level college classes. 

This report provides state education leaders with information on how to align academics and career & technical education (CTE) through implementation of the Common Core State Standards (CCSS). This report describes what states are doing to align CTE and CCSS, highlights strategies, and identifies common challenges and barriers to alignment.

This report is a review of an adolescent literacy initiative established by the Carnegie Corporation of New York as part of its broader efforts to increase student achievement, specifically among historically under-served populations. The author explains the process undertaken in developing the Advancing Literacy Initiative over time and how the Carnegie Corporation parlayed that work into the effort that allowed adolescent literacy to define the education reform movement.

EPIC's 2010 Annual Report focuses on the work being done in a range of topics such as comprehension assessment, out-of-school learning, writing in adolescence, literacy coaching standards, instructional needs of second language learners, and literacy. The report introduces EPIC's CollegeCareerReadyTM System and provides overviews of key projects with the goal of enabling more students to enter college ready to succeed.