Literacy Now

After receding into the political background for months, Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) reauthorization came alive with new energy last week as the House and Senate bills to rewrite and replace No Child Left Behind (NCLB) were taken to a conference committee in the form of a framework approved by conferees almost unanimously, with U.S. Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) the lone holdout.

The framework addresses the controversial testing and accountability provisions of NCLB, which led to the United States Department of Education’s waiver system. Under the framework, the states will have to identify and intervene in schools in three specific circumstances: schools falling into the bottom 5% of academic performance, schools experiencing high dropout rates, and schools where an identifiable group of students is underperforming consistently.

The framework bars the federal government from mandating standards like the Common Core State Standards, moves English learner programs into Title I, and sets a 1% cap on the number of students with disabilities who can take alternative assessments.

Translating the framework into the actual text of a final bill comes next. The conference chair, U.S. Rep. John Kline (R-MN) indicated the draft will be available Nov. 30, and that the House expects to take up the bill two days or so later. Speaking for the Senate conferees, U.S. Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-TN) promised that the Senate would have at least a week to review the bill before it goes to the floor, possibly on Dec. 7.

Literacy education support

There was no indication in the conference deliberations that comprehensive literacy education support as provided for in the Literacy Education for All, Results for the Nation Act provisions of the Senate bill was a point of controversy.

With what can only be described as fortuitous timing, the Advocates for Literacy Coalition, including the International Literacy Association (ILA), held a previously scheduled briefing for congressional staffers and others Nov. 17, the day before the conference commenced. Presentations were given by school and district administrators from Pennsylvania and Montana recounting significant gains in student literacy achievement that would not have been possible but for federal dollars.

As the conference opened, Diane Barone, ILA Board President, and Bill Teale, ILA Board Vice President, sent a letter on behalf of the board to each of the conferees urging them to include comprehensive literacy education support in the final bill. As they emphasized, “Literacy is indispensable for academic success in all areas of schooling and at all ages.”

Amendments voted up and down

The conferees approved amendments that allow some funding for dual enrollment for K–12 students taking college coursework, addressing the high school dropout problem, and training teachers on how to protect student privacy. Other approved amendments allow states to set targets for the amount of time students spend on standardized tests and help states integrate arts and music into science, technology engineering, and math education.

The conferees also approved amendments calling for a study of early childhood education programs and directing the Institute of Education Sciences to study the Title I funding formula, in each case reporting back to Congress.

Voted down were amendments that would have frozen funding levels outlined in the bill and a measure that would have created a clearinghouse for research on teacher evaluation.

Lingering controversy

Although the bipartisan bill appears to be headed for enactment by the end of the year, concerns still linger over the larger issue of accountability. The White House has expressed concern that the compromise bill does not do enough for minority and economically deprived children, although there is no talk of a veto at the moment. Civil rights advocates have expressed reservations that the compromise bill takes too much authority away from the U.S. Secretary of Education.

All eyes will be on the text of the final draft, to be released next week. It appears, after years of effort, that the road to ESEA reauthorization might soon reach its final goal.

Dan Mangan is the Director of Public Affairs for ILA.

Alan E. Farstrup, who served as the executive director of the International Reading Association (now International Literacy Association) from 1992–2009, passed away October 31 from complications related to a recent stroke. 

Alan’s long period of service touched many. He was an indefatigable advocate for research (he served as IRA’s director of research 1985–1991) and the professional development of literacy teachers and school-based literacy professionals. He was an ardent supporter of the state council network and of our international affiliates. He kept a world map on his office wall covered with colored pins marking the countries he had visited to meet with members and work with colleagues to advance the cause of literacy.

Earlier in his career, Alan was a Peace Corps volunteer and served as a graduate teaching assistant to P. David Pearson, noted researcher and founding chair of ILA’s Literacy Research Panel, when Pearson taught at the University of Minnesota in the mid-1970s. The two became lifelong friends.

Amid the press of his administrative duties, Alan found time to coedit with S. Jay Samuels the three titles of ILA’s influential What Research Has to Say series on the topics of reading, vocabulary, and fluency instruction. He was also an active member of the Reading Hall of Fame.

Tall and ever-smiling, Alan always exuded a personal warmth that was his most endearing quality. He was genuinely interested in exploring all manner of project and program ideas. Supportive and encouraging by nature, Alan relished his interactions with board members and ILA staff. He decorated the headquarters conference room and hallways with group photos of both.

At annual and regional conferences, and at the world congresses, Alan’s meet-ups and appointments kept him constantly on the move, as he toiled to grow new contacts and forge new partnerships.

During his tenure, ILA (then International Reading Association) undertook joint efforts with the National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE) to develop standards for English Language Arts, the Carnegie Corporation to develop guidelines for literacy coaches, and the Marco Polo Partners Consortium to develop the award-winning online resource ReadWriteThink.

Of equal importance, under Alan’s leadership, the Association’s website, formerly reading.org, underwent a major upgrade to support online interactions and e-commerce transactions with members, and new agreements for digitizing the content of our journals were entered into. Alan understood the strategic importance of digital technology as a driver of new literacies.

Alan was a congenial leader, fully absorbed in his work and fully appreciative of all those with whom he worked. He would never pass in the hallway, the parking lot, or the coffee room without stopping to chat. We will miss him dearly at ILA, and in this moment of grief we celebrate his long service and the grace with which he gave it.

We offer our deepest condolences to his family along with our sincerest gratitude for all that he accomplished on behalf of our membership.

As you may have noticed, the International Literacy Association (ILA), formerly the International Reading Association (IRA), has a whole new website! Much like we’ve transformed from IRA to ILA as an organization, our website has also evolved from reading.org to literacyworldwide.org.

ILA’s new website has a simplified and streamlined look but still includes the research-based member resources you need for teaching all levels of literacy. The best part? It’s much easier and faster to find the tools and topics you’re looking for with our enhanced search function and newly added Get Resources page.

Check out the step-by-step instructions below to learn how to find member resources—fast—using the new website features.  

Let’s get started, so you can start putting ideas into action in your classroom right away!

Sign in

When you go to literacyworldwide.org, sign in with your ILA member username and password at the top right-hand corner of the screen. (If you’ve forgotten either of these, click on “Forgot Username?” or “Forgot Password?” to retrieve them.) Not a member? Learn more about joining ILA and ILA’s membership benefits now.

Get resources

When you hover over Get Resources in the main navigation menu, you will see the Get Resources dropdown menu. Here, you can click on and explore Reading Lists, Literacy Daily Blog, Books, ILA E-ssentials, Units and Lesson Plans (where you’ll find ILA Bridges), Journals, and Literacy Today Magazine.

Select a topic and narrow your search

Once you choose a type of resource from the drop down menu, you can zero in on a specific category within that resource. For example, if you’re looking for ILA E-ssentials that deal with 21st-Century Literacy Skills, you would select ILA E-ssentials from the menu, scroll down to the topics below, and then click the “+” next to 21st-Century Literacy Skills to see all the available ILA E-ssentials for this category (like “The SHOTS Strategy” article, shown in the example below).

Access now

When you click on the ILA E-ssentials article title, you’ll go straight to that article’s page, where you’ll find an overview of what’s inside and the option to access it immediately. Remember, you have to be signed in to see the “ACCESS NOW” button!

Search more specifically

If you’re seeking something more specific—graphic novels, for example—you can also search by typing the topic you’re looking for in the search bar (next to the yellow magnifying glass). After entering your search term, click the yellow magnifying glass to start your search.  

Read through your results

Your results will reveal all the online resources that mention the specific topic you searched, as well as how many times the topic appears on the website. (Here’s a tip: If you’re looking for a phrase and getting too many non-specific results, try searching again using quotation marks around the phrase, as shown in the screenshot.) Click the underlined article title to view a result.  

Filter your search

You can easily filter search results even further—by content type, student level, or topic—using the options on the left hand side of the screen. Please note that you can filter search results by one content type, student level, and topic at a time. Simply check the appropriate boxes, then scroll down and click “Filter.” Your new results will then appear. At any time you can change your filter by checking or unchecking boxes and reapplying the new filter by hitting “Filter.” Clicking “Clear Filters” will uncheck any boxes and return you to your original, unfiltered results.

We hope this simplifies and speeds up your search for ILA member resources and makes it easier for you to get the research-based tips, advice, ideas, and tools you need to transform lives through literacy!

Want to share your thoughts on our new website and new features? We’d love to hear from you! Please share your feedback with us by e-mailing membership@reading.org.

This year, we celebrate the 20th year of the What’s Hot in Literacy Survey, published in the latest issue of Literacy Today. Results from previous surveys have been cited in numerous publications, translated into multiple languages, and replicated in several countries including Denmark, Rumania, and the United Kingdom.

In addition, previous results of the annual survey have guided professional development within schools and have played a key role in situating the timeliness of current research. In a brief overview, we share how the 2016 survey was constructed, the approaches used to select this year’s respondents, and the methods used while analyzing the results.

Each year, a purposeful sample of 25 literacy leaders completes the survey. The literacy leaders who responded to the 2015 survey played a key role in constructing this year’s edition by reviewing the items listed on the 2015 survey and making suggestions for revisions. This process resulted in a 30-item survey for 2016. In addition, three topics appeared for the first time: oral language, teacher evaluation for literacy, and teacher preparation and certification.

The 2016 literacy leaders all hold a national or international perspective on literacy. Many of them have served on boards of prominent literacy organizations, or as editors of major journals. Together the 25 leaders create a diverse group representing various  ages and job categories such as classroom teachers, administrators, and college professors. 

The percentage of ILA members in each region of the United States determines the number of literacy leaders interviewed in that region. Representing the East for 2016 were Julie Coiro, Rona Flippo, Donald J. Leu, Jill Lewis-Spector, Barbara Marinak, Susan B. Neuman, and Marcie Craig Post. From the Southeast were Richard Allington, Donna Alvermann, Estanislado Barrera IV, and Linda Gambrell. The Great Lakes area was represented by Nell Duke, Patricia Edwards, Timothy Rasinski, William Teale, and Timothy Shanahan. Julianne Scullen represented the Plains area, while the West was represented by Diane Barone, Douglas Fisher, and P. David Pearson. Other areas included the Southwest, represented by Katy Landrum and Chase Young; the Rocky Mountains, represented by Ray Reutzel; Canada, represented by Shelley Stagg Peterson; and outside North America, represented by Bernadette Dwyer.

We interviewed the literacy leaders by phone, Skype, or in person during the summer months. Each interview began with the reading of a standard 178-word paragraph explaining that a rating of “hot” and “not hot” would not be a measure of his or her personal interest in a topic, but instead would refer to the amount of attention the item was currently receiving. Next, each of the 30 items from the survey were read aloud to the respondent and a rating of “hot” or “not hot” was assigned. In addition, the respondent stated whether the item “should be hot” or “should not be hot.”

The final step was analyzing the results. This involved tallying the collected ratings. Items receiving 100% consensus among the literacy leaders were reported as “extremely hot” or “extremely cold.” Items receiving 75% consensus were reported as “very hot” or “very cold,” while those receiving 50% consensus were reported as “hot” or “not hot.”

Read about the results of the What’s Hot in Literacy Survey in Literacy Today magazine (formerly Reading Today).

The International Literacy Association (ILA), formerly known as the International Reading Association, honors its inaugural 30 Under 30 list in the September/October 2015 issue of Literacy Today (formerly Reading Today). The list recognizes the next generation of young innovators, advocates, and educators who are leading efforts to address the challenges of today’s evolving education field and make a difference in the global literacy landscape.

“I’m thrilled to unveil our first 30 Under 30 list of young individuals who are tirelessly working to impact the future of global literacy advancement,” said Marcie Craig Post, ILA’s executive director. “Today, an astounding 12% of the global population is unable to read or write. These 30 young education champions are developing new, creative strategies to close the literacy gap and, in the process, are transforming lives in their communities and around the world.”

ILA’s 30 Under 30 list highlights young trailblazers from 13 countries and several different sectors and includes nonprofit leaders, classroom teachers, authors, volunteers, researchers, technology startup founders, and entrepreneurs. Each honoree has created and implemented an initiative that either has improved the quality of literacy instruction directly or has increased access to literacy tools in the classroom, community, or online.

See the full story in the latest issue of Literacy Today, ILA’s bimonthly magazine, released today. The honorees will be invited to participate in upcoming global literacy community activities to support the shared cause of advancing literacy for all. To view the magazine feature, visit literacyworldwide.org/30under30.