Category Archives: Literacy

Library of Congress Literacy Awards

Through the generosity of philanthropist David M. Rubenstein, the Library of Congress Literacy Awards Program honors nonprofit organizations that have made outstanding contributions to increasing literacy in the United States or abroad. The awards also encourage the continuing development of innovative methods for promoting literacy and the wide dissemination of the most effective practices. They are intended to draw public attention to the importance of literacy, and the need to promote literacy and encourage reading.

Since 2013, the Library of Congress Literacy Awards Program has awarded $2,247,250 million in prizes to 136 institutions in 36 countries. By recognizing current achievements, the awards seek to enable any organization or program that does not operate on a for-profit basis to strengthen its involvement in literacy and reading promotion and to encourage collaboration with like-minded organizations.

Prizes

The David M. Rubenstein Prize ($150,000) is awarded for an outstanding and measurable contribution to increasing literacy levels to an organization based either inside or outside the United States that has demonstrated exceptional and sustained depth in its commitment to the advancement of literacy. The organization will meet the highest standards of excellence in its operations and services.

The American Prize ($50,000) is awarded for a significant and measurable contribution to increasing literacy levels in the United States or the national awareness of the importance of literacy to an organization that is based in the United States.

The International Prize ($50,000) is awarded for a significant and measurable contribution to increasing literacy levels in a country other than the United States to an organization that is based either inside or outside the United States.

Best Practice Honorees ($5,000): Each year up to 15 organizations that apply in the three major prize categories are recognized for their successful implementation of a specific literacy promotion practice.

Winners

The 2020 winners and their efforts were celebrated in December, and are showcased at http://read.gov/literacyawards/index.html. Application information for the 2021 literacy awards will be available at this same website by late January.

Why Apply?

  • Receive cash awards and public recognition for your work.
  • Network with other award recipients.

Summer Reading Program Research

The National Summer Learning Project (NSLP) examined the implementation and effectiveness of voluntary summer learning programs developed by five school districts—Boston, Massachusetts; Dallas, Texas; Duval County, Florida; Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania; and Rochester, New York—and their local community partners. The study spanned three phases. The RAND research team (1) collected formative data for strengthening the five summer programs in 2011 and 2012; (2) examined student outcomes after one summer (2013) and after two summers of programming (2014 and 2015); and (3) examined student outcomes in spring 2017, at the end of three school years after the second summer of programming.

This seventh report in a series summarizes the findings of this third phase in the context of earlier findings and offers implications for policy and practice. Student outcomes tracked in Phases II and III included mathematics and language arts performance, social-emotional skills as measured by teachers, and school-year behaviors (e.g., school-year attendance, suspensions).

Overall long-term findings were that academic benefits for attenders decreased in magnitude three school years after the second summer of programming and were not statistically significant; however, when benchmarked against typical achievement gains at the same grade level, they remained large enough to be educationally meaningful.

Free download of the report is available at https://www.rand.org/pubs/research_reports/RR3201.html?utm_source=WhatCountsEmail&utm_medium=NPA:2627:6554:Dec%2018,%202020%205:32:38%20AM%20PST&utm_campaign=NPA:2627:6554:Dec%2018,%202020%205:32:38%20AM%20PST

Journal of Lifelong Learning issue

The new issue of the International Review of Education – Journal of Lifelong Learning aims to contribute to international discourse on literacy, numeracy, adult education and basic education. It brings together leading scholars in the field, engaging with numeracy and mathematical literacy, New Literacy Studies, adult education, and lifelong learning in the context of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), both from theoretical perspectives and from an empirical viewpoint.

This special issue was guest-edited by Richard Desjardins (Professor of Education and Political Economy at the University of California, Los Angeles), Anke Grotlüschen (Professor of Lifelong Learning at the University of Hamburg) and Huacong Liu (Research Associate jointly engaged at the University of Hamburg and the UNESCO Institute for Lifelong Learning).

The first part of this special issue contains two articles that critique the monitoring and measurement of adult literacy and numeracy, complemented by three articles that discuss methodological advancements. The second part presents five articles that relate to findings from qualitative and quantitative literacy and numeracy research, and reveal key insights and nuances relevant to the measurement and monitoring of literacy and numeracy.

The contributing authors reflect on the complexity of literacy and numeracy assessments, focus on the need to contextualize literacy and numeracy practices, and demonstrate what can be gained by analysing existing data generated through large-scale skills assessments over the past 30 years. They offer critical considerations regarding the monitoring and measuring of literacy and numeracy, and focus on learners typically excluded in policy debate around literacy and numeracy improvement.

Between them, these 10 articles cover a rich and sometimes controversial array of approaches, avoiding easy answers, while instead offering a critical discourse that matches the aims of the SDGs.

International Literacy Day Summit Results

On International Literacy Day (ILD), 8 September 2020, experts from around the globe contributed to a UNESCO webinar on how literacy teaching and learning can be realized in the COVID-19 crisis and beyond. The pandemic revealed the unpreparedness of education systems, infrastructure, educators and learners for distance learning, and the fragility of adult literacy programmes. It hit hardest those who were already marginalized and showed, at the same time, the great importance of adult literacy educators for meaningful literacy teaching and learning . Learn more about the webinar outcomes

National Literacy Week and Month

In the United States, September is National Literacy Week and Month.

Here are a few organizations’ activities:

https://national-coalition-literacy.org/adult-education-and-family-literacy-week/#:~:text=For%202020%2C%20National%20Adult%20Education,their%20families%2C%20and%20their%20communities.

https://www.partnersforpubliced.org/PartnersForPE.aspx?id=148704

September is National Literacy Month