Research on Literacy in the USA and Europe found on the educational cyberplayground™
Persons saying it cannot be done
should not interfere with persons doing it. ~ Proverb
Literacy Research, Literacy Resources
2. Balanced vs. Phonics vs. Cross Curricular vs. thematic vs. Whole Language etc.
7. What Teachers Can Contribute to the Research recommendations for research topics you might want to explore.
8. About Literacy and Dialect Speakers
9) Experts, Evolution of Language, About the Brain, Speech and Music
10) Music, and Reading, Motivation,Thematic Model, Multiple Intelligence, Relevant Content
11) Speech and Music Connection Interdisciplinary Social Rhythm Researchers William Condon
12) Babies Remember Music Heard In The Womb
13) About the Digital Divide and Digital Equity
14) Reading Excellence Act Grant Descriptions
16) America's Most Literate Cities
12) REASONS WHY The English language is so hard to learn. Learning to read in English is more difficult than other languages for everyone to learn.
LITERACY AND GOVERNMENT
State Takeover, School Restructuring, Private Management, and Student Achievement in Philadelphia
It didn't help. "Schools in Philadelphia have shown strong improvement that has been reflected widely across the district," said Jolley Christman, a co-author of the report. "But our findings show the investment in private management of schools has not paid the expected dividends."
NFER educational research and test development business - Literacy
Current levels of literacy and numeracy: the story so far - (March 2007)
Key Stage 2 English in Wales, optional support for teacher
assessment - (January 2007) Research Summary
Raising the achievement of bilingual learners in primary schools:
evaluation of the pilot/programme - (December 2006)
Research summary and downloadable reports
Christy Gullion National Institute For Literacy Policy Update contact
OERI Testifies on Budget March 20, 2000 PDF Page 10 COSSA Updates Office of Educational Research and Improvement
U.S. Dept of Education -
Research and Statistics 1-800-USA-Learn
They do not have information about Dialect Speakers because there are no federal funds. Funds are only for ESL~EFL~TSOL etc.
Teaching Children to Read: The fragile link between science and federal education policy
Abstract:
Teaching Children to Read (TCR) has stirred much controversy among reading experts regarding the efficacy of phonics instruction. This report, which was conducted by the National Reading Panel (NRP), has also played an important role in subsequent federal policy regarding reading instruction. Using meta-analysis, the NRP found that systematic phonics instruction was more effective than alternatives in teaching children to read. In the present study, the findings and procedures leading to TCR were examined. We concluded that the methodology and procedures in TCR were not adequate for synthesizing the research literature on phonics instruction. Moreover, we estimated a smaller though still substantial effect (d = .24) for systematic phonics, but we also found an effect for systematic language activities (d = .29) and tutoring (d = .40). Systematic phonics instruction when combined with language activities and individual tutoring may triple the effect of phonics alone. As federal policies are formulated around early literacy curricula and instruction, these findings indicate that phonics, as one aspect of the complex reading process, should not be over-emphasized.
National Assessment of Adult Literacy (NAAL) 2002 will assess the current status of the English-language literacy skills of adults in the United States, as well as indicate how literacy proficiencies have changed over time. Reports, sources and information available.
Literacy Research and Best Practices
Government Agenda was http://208.241.98.182/litweb/WebList_40.asp
The PIRLS Report
From: U.S. Department of Education April 8, 2003
Contact: David Thomas (202) 401-1576
NEW INTERNATIONAL STUDY COMPARES FOURTH-GRADE READING LITERACY IN U.S. AND 34 OTHER COUNTRIES
For further information on International Comparisons in Fourth-Grade Reading Literacy: Findings from the Progress in International Reading Literacy Study (PIRLS) 2001
The PIRLS report can be ordered
1-877-433-7827, TTY/TTD 1-877-576-7734
customerservice@edpubs.org;
http://www.edpubs.org.
A new international study of reading literacy, International Comparisons in Fourth-Grade Reading Literacy: Findings from the Progress In International Reading Literacy Study (PIRLS) of 2001, was released today by the U.S. Department of Education's National Center for Education Statistics (NCES). This report compares findings about U.S. fourth-grade reading literacy with those from the 34 other countries that participated in PIRLS.
"The results from this study indicate that U.S. fourth-graders performed well on many reading tasks, but there is room for improvement," said Grover "Russ" Whitehurst, director of the U.S. Department of Education's Institute of Education Sciences. "In the United States there are significant gaps in reading literacy achievement between racial/ethnic groups, between students in high poverty schools and other public schools, and also between girls and boys."
International Comparisons in Fourth-Grade Reading Literacy provides information on a variety of reading topics, but with an emphasis on U.S. results: comparisons of average scores across the 35 countries on two reading subscales and a combined reading scale; and achievement broken out by sex internationally, and by race/ethnicity, by public and private schools, and by poverty levels of the school within the United States. The report also presents information on reading and instruction in the classroom and explores the reading habits of fourth-graders outside of school.
LITERACY | U.S. GOVERNMENT
Key findings:
- U.S. fourth-graders out perform their counterparts in 23 of the 34 other countries participating in PIRLS, but they score lower than students in Sweden, the Netherlands and England.
- Fourth-grade girls outperform boys in reading literacy in every participating country, including the United States.
- Fourth-graders in U.S. public schools with the highest poverty levels score lower on reading literacy compared to their counterparts in schools with lower poverty levels.
- Almost all (95 percent) of U.S. fourth-graders attend schools with a curricular emphasis on reading. This is greater than the international average of 78 percent.
- Sixty-five percent of U.S. fourth-graders receive more than six hours of reading instruction per week, a higher percentage than the international average of 28 percent.
What's going on in Jamaica?
LITERACY IN EUROPE
WHAT'S GOING ON IN EUROPE
International and National Government support for less-prevalent languages
Listed below are several initiatives that clearly move in the direction of support for less-prevalent languages, cultures and regions from multiple perspectives (i.e., linguistic, economic, education / literacy, etc). These are specific examples of past, present and upcoming funding and investments into projects.
European Commission and European Union initiatives
Over the years, the European Parliament has adopted a number of resolutions defending the idea of a European Union which respects its linguistic and cultural diversity. To this end, the European Commission has been instructed to implement actions in favor of regional or minority languages and cultures and for less-developed regions.
Minority Language funding
The European Commission is now examining the feasibility of proposing a multi-annual action program in the area of regional and / or minority languages.
The objective of the action is to reinforce the European dimension of activities for promoting and safeguarding regional and minority languages and cultures.
In various parts of the Member States of the European Union there are indigenous groups which speak a language different to that of the majority of the national population. More than 30% of all London schoolchildren speak a language other than English at home.
"The languages of London's schoolchildren" in Multilingual Capital: The languages of London's schoolchildren and their relevance to economic, social and educational policies
It is estimated that almost 40 million citizens of the Union routinely speak not only the official language of their country but also a regional or minority language that has been passed on from generation to generation.
The Final report to the European Commission on the implementation of the European Commission / Council of Europe Joint Programme on "National Minorities in Europe" Strasbourg, June 2000 is available at:
LITERACY | TONGUES
SELLING IN TONGUES
Translation services are booming because global customers want to buy in their native language
[... Some of the largest companies in the field--Bowne Global Solutions, Lionbridge Technologies and Berlitz GlobalNET (a sister company of the language school)--say they expect a surge in U.S. government contracts involving Arabic, Dari, Pashtu, Uzbek and other languages useful in the war against terrorism. But that's a small part of the business. More broadly, the industry is thriving because American companies are learning--after years of denial--that to profit in the global economy, it's critical to speak the customer's native tongue. "An American company expanding abroad is competing with merchants who speak the local language," says Donald Plumley, chief marketing officer of Bowne Global Solutions, based in Parsippany, N.J. "You may have a better product, but if your customers don't understand your product, you lose. You have to speak their language."
Native English speakers are, in fact, fast becoming a minority in the marketplace. In the U.S. alone, 18% of the population speaks a language other than English at home, according to the 2000 Census. In California, the world's sixth largest economy, the figure is nearly 40%. And on the Internet, it's a Tower of Babel. Only 48% of the world's Web users are native English speakers, down from 77% in 1997. By the end of 2003, the figure will drop to 32%, according to the Aberdeen Group, a tech-research company in Boston.
Consumers are four times as likely to buy a product online if the website is in their preferred language, according to IDC, a research firm in Framingham, Mass. Some of the big dotcoms--Amazon, eBay and Yahoo--figured out this trend earlier than most, and report fast-growing revenues from overseas divisions, which generate indigenous content. But most U.S. firms have not yet done a great job of marketing to non-English speakers online. Last year just 37 of the large companies in the FORTUNE 100 operated non-English sites, according to Forrester Research, based in Cambridge, Mass..] <snip>