Time to Act An Agenda for Advancing Adolescent Literacy for College and Career Success Final Report from Carnegie Corporation of New York’s Council on Advancing Adolescent Literacy © 2010, 2011 Carnegie Corporation of New York. All rights reserved. Carnegie Corporation’s Advancing Literacy program is dedicated to the issues of adolescent literacy and research, policy, and practice that focus on the reading and writing competencies of middle and high school students. Advancing Literacy reports and other publications are designed to encourage local and national discussion, explore promising ideas and incubate models of practice, but do not necessarily represent the recommendations of the Corporation. For more information, visit: www.carnegie.org/literacy. Published by: Carnegie Corporation of New York. 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An Agenda for Advancing Adolescent Literacy for College and Career Success Final Report from Carnegie Corporation of New York’s Council on Advancing Adolescent Literacy C ontents Acknowledgments ............................................................................................................... iv Council Members ................................................................................................................ vi Signatories ...................................................................................................................... vii Foreword .........................................................................................................................viii Executive Summary .............................................................................................................. x History of the Report ........................................................................................................... xii The Vision: Literacy for All ......................................................................................................1 Riverside High School: An ideal school experience for adolescent learners .............................................2 Conclusion: Accomplishing the Vision .......................................................................................4 The Challenge: What It Will Take to Get Our Adolescents College and Career Ready ...................................7 Early Literacy: Success, but No Inoculation .................................................................................7 Adolescent Literacy: Specific Challenges .................................................................................10 Literacy Demands Change ...............................................................................................10 Students Change ......................................................................................................... 13 Yet Schools Have Not Changed ..........................................................................................14 Overcoming the Challenges is Both Possible and Necessary ............................................................14 The Keys to Successful Reform ...............................................................................................17 Learning from Reading First ................................................................................................17 Teacher Preparation, Support and Professional Development ...........................................................18 A Major Challenge: The Current High Level of Teacher Attrition ..........................................................18 Dispelling the Three Most Common Myths about Teaching ..............................................................20 What Teachers Need to Know: Elaborating a Core Knowledge Base ....................................................20 Improving Pre-service Initiatives .........................................................................................22 Improving Professional Development Initiatives .........................................................................24 Data Collection and Use ....................................................................................................30 Informing Instruction .....................................................................................................30 Informing Program and Policy Decisions .................................................................................31 Other Kinds of Data ...................................................................................................... 33 Using Test Information ....................................................................................................33 The Agenda: Re-Engineering for Change at All Levels .....................................................................35 Re-Engineering for Change at the School Level........................................................................... 35 1. The school culture is organized for learning ..........................................................................35 2. Information drives decisions ..........................................................................................36 3. Resources are allocated wisely .......................................................................................36 4. Instructional leadership is strong .....................................................................................36 || ii TIME TO ACT 5. Professional faculty is committed to student success ........................................................................36 6. Targeted interventions are provided for struggling readers and writers .......................................................36 7. All content area classes are permeated by a strong literacy focus ..........................................................36 School Case 1: Hopkins West Junior High .......................................................................................37 School Case 2: Duncan Polytechnical High School .............................................................................39 Re-Engineering for Change at the District Level ..................................................................................41 1. Organize to promote a culture of learning ....................................................................................41 2. Use information to drive decisions ............................................................................................41 3. Allocate resources to support learning priorities .............................................................................42 4. Build human capacity .........................................................................................................42 5. Ensure the provision of targeted interventions for struggling readers and writers ...........................................42 District Case 1: New York City’s Region 9 ........................................................................................43 District Case 2: Union City, NJ ...................................................................................................47 Re-Engineering for Change at the State Level ....................................................................................51 1. Institutionalize adolescent literacy ............................................................................................52 2. Revise standards ..............................................................................................................52 3. Develop and revise assessments .............................................................................................53 4. Improve data collection and use ..............................................................................................53 5. Align instruction with standards and assessments ...........................................................................55 6. Support targeted intervention for struggling readers and writers .............................................................55 7. Improve human capacity across the state ....................................................................................56 State Case 1: Florida .............................................................................................................57 State Case 2: Massachusetts ....................................................................................................59 A Call to Action: Where to Begin .....................................................................................................65 Actions for School Leaders .........................................................................................................65 Actions for District Leaders ........................................................................................................66 Actions for State Leaders ...........................................................................................................67 Actions for Federal Policymakers ..................................................................................................67 Conclusion ...........................................................................................................................69 Appendix A: Bibliography, Carnegie Corporation of New York’s Advancing Literacy Initiative, Works and Commissioned Papers ................................................................................................70 Appendix B: Essential Elements of Literacy for Adolescent Learners ...........................................................72 Biographies ..............................................................................................................................80 References ..............................................................................................................................83 Endnotes .................................................................................................................................90 || CONTENTS iii Acknowledgments Time to Act: An Agenda for Advancing Adolescent We would like to thank the “panel of five” that Literacy for College and Career Success would not have drew up the recommendations for Reading Next: Don been possible without the hard work and myriad Deshler, David Francis, John Guthrie, Michael Kamil contributions of the Carnegie Council on Advancing and James McPartland. Thanks especially to Gina Adolescent Literacy. For more than three years, members Biancarosa for culling through lots of newsprint with of the Council met regularly to discuss the broad issues barely legible notes to give birth to the publication and of adolescent literacy and to review relevant research, to Catherine Snow for her wise guidance. Thanks also state and federal policies, and commission reports. to Steve Graham and Dolores Perin for completing The body of work presented here and other reports the commissioned paper on writing which gave rise commissioned by the Council are listed in Appendix A. to the Writing Next report and the journal article, We would like to thank Vartan Gregorian, A Meta-analysis of Writing Instruction for Adolescent President of Carnegie Corporation and the Students, published in the Journal of Educational Corporation’s Board of Trustees for making this Psychology. project possible. A million thanks to Catherine Snow, We would like to thank Dan Mangan and Anne who chaired the Council with great diplomacy, humor, Fuller at the International Reading Association for and hard work. their guidance and for publishing Informed Choices for Time to Act could not have been completed without Struggling Adolescent Readers and Standards for Literacy the help of Michele Cahill, Peter Heaney, Manami Coaches. Great appreciation goes to Don Deshler, Kano and Nancy Hoffman, all of whom made Annemarie Sullivan Palincsar, Gina Biancarosa, and profound contributions to the development of the Marnie Nair for their extraordinary effort in authoring report. The editorial support and endless patience of Informed Choices. Andrew Wilson and Gina Biancarosa were crucial to Thanks to early Council members Jacquelyn Eccles bringing this work and many other publications of the and Arturo Pacheco whose schedules did not permit Council to fruition. them to participate fully in the Council’s activities Early on, the Council’s English language learner and to Jacy Ippolito, Trent Kaufman, Bridget Dalton, subcommittee helped to guide the publication of David Rose, Russell Miller, and Shalom Fisch for Double the Work. Thanks to members Diane August, their work on commissioned reports that informed the Gina Biancarosa, Margarita Calderón, Fred Carrigg, Council’s work. Nancy Cloud, Michael Fix, David Francis, Michael Thanks to the public and private foundations— Kamil, Delia Pompa, Mel Riddile, Cathy Roller, Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Institute of Maria Santos and Aida Walqui. A big thanks goes to Education Sciences, Leeds Family Foundation, Deborah Short and Shannon Fitzsimmons and the National Institute of Child Health and Human Center for Applied Linguistics for their stewardship Development, National Science Foundation, The of this work and to Michael Fix and Jeanna Batalova Walmart Foundation, Office of Elementary and at the Migration Policy Institute for their deep-dive Secondary Education, Office of Vocational and study of the patterns of immigration and education Adult Education and Carnegie Corporation of New that led to the publication Measures of Change. York—that have participated in the Adolescent || iv TIME TO ACT Literacy Funders Forum. This group, formed in was so inspirational and encouraging in the publication 2003, has met annually to discuss the challenges of, of Reading Next, one of our earliest and most widely and new developments in, the field of adolescent distributed reports. literacy. The increasing popularity of this forum Thanks to my colleagues at Carnegie Corporation signaled to us the growing recognition of adolescent for all of their support with the nuances of the literacy’s significance in efforts to improve America’s Council’s work: Susan King, Eleanor Lerman, George educational system. Soule, Adrienne Faraci and Karen Theroux. Thanks To all of our grantees that we partnered with over to Michele Cahill for her continued encouragement the years, many thanks for your contributions to the and support of the initiative. The Council owes a great field and your considerable efforts in communicating debt to Sara Wolpert for taking care of all the logistics. your research, advocating for adolescent literacy and Thank you, Sara. Finally, thanks to former Carnegie translating the work into accessible forms for others Corporation colleagues Dan Fallon and Neil Grabois to utilize. for embracing the importance of adolescent literacy Colleagues at the Alliance for Excellent Education and the work of the Council from the beginning. have been enormously helpful over the years in co- publishing a number of the Council’s works (i.e., Reading Next, Writing Next, and Double the Work). Thanks to Bob Wise, Britt David, M. Miller, Haven Cushman, Jason Amos and Elizabeth Schneider as well Andrés Henríquez as to those formerly with the Alliance who are off to Program Officer and Manager of the new endeavors: Jeremy Ayers, Rafael Heller, Bethany Advancing Literacy Initiative Little, Cindy Sadler, and of course Susan Frost, who Carnegie Corporation of New York || ACKNOWLEDGMENTS v Council Members Carnegie Corporation of New York Henry M. Levin William Heard Kilpatrick Professor of Economics 437 Madison Avenue New York, NY and Education and Director, National Center for the Study of Privatization in Education Council on Advancing Adolescent Teachers College, Columbia University Literacy (CAAL) New York, NY Chair, CAAL Elizabeth Birr Moje Arthur F. Thurnau Professor, School of Education; Catherine Snow Faculty Associate, Research Center for Group Patricia Albjerg Graham Professor of Education Dynamics, ISR; Faculty Affiliate, Latina/o Studies Harvard Graduate School of Education University of Michigan Cambridge, MA Ann Arbor, MI Council Members Mel Riddile Mary Laura Bragg Associate Director for High School Services Former Director, Just Read! Florida National Association of Secondary School Principals Tallahassee, FL Reston, VA Donald D. Deshler Melissa Roderick Director, Center for Research on Learning Hermon Dunlap Smith Professor, The University of Kansas School of Social Service Administration Lawrence, KS University of Chicago Chicago, IL Michael L. Kamil Professor, School of Education Robert Schwartz Stanford University Academic Dean and Professor of Practice Stanford, CA Harvard Graduate School of Education Cambridge, MA Carol D. Lee Professor of Education and Social Sciences Council Coordinators Northwestern University Gina Biancarosa School of Education and Social Policy Assistant Professor, School of Education Learning Sciences University of Oregon Evanston, IL Eugene, OR Michael Kieffer Assistant Professor Teachers College, Columbia University New York, NY || vi TIME TO ACT Signatories Gina Biancarosa Mary Laura Bragg Donald D. Deshler Michael L. Kamil Michael J. Kieffer Carol D. Lee Henry M. Levin Elizabeth Birr Moje Mel Riddile Melissa Roderick Robert Schwartz Catherine Snow || SIGNATORIES vii Foreword Since the beginning of the last century, Carnegie has focused on a challenging “disconnect” in our Corporation of New York and its U.S.-based sister educational system, namely, that while what is expected organizations, including the Carnegie Institution for in academic achievement for middle and high school Science, the Carnegie Endowment for International students has significantly increased, the way in which Peace, Carnegie Mellon University, The Carnegie students are taught to read, comprehend and write Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, and the about subject matter has not kept pace with the Carnegie Council for Ethics in International Affairs, demands of schooling. Students who are not proficient have helped to advance American education and the at understanding what they read and in communicating world of ideas. Carnegie Corporation in particular what they have learned are also at a tremendous has a long history of convening and supporting disadvantage when it comes to succeeding in college study groups and commissions charged with delving and in competing for success in what is becoming an deeply into how the quality of teaching and learning increasingly knowledge-based global economy. in our K-12 school system, as well as in our colleges Perhaps part of the problem is that for too long we and universities, impacts the strength of our nation have ignored a critical but silent factor in the many and our democracy. That importance of keeping efforts at school reform that have been launched in a national spotlight on this issue was perhaps best recent years: while there is wide access to education expressed by the great education reformer Horace in the United States, the excellence of that education Mann, who believed that “education is the engine and the depth of its content, particularly in our public of democracy.” From the Carnegie Commission schools, is often nowhere near what it should be—or on Science, Technology, and Government to the needs to be. It is not enough to simply open the Carnegie Task Force on Learning in the Primary schoolhouse doors and invite children in. Once they Grades to the Carnegie Task Force on Meeting the are in the classroom, providing all students with a Needs of Young Children to the recently launched high-quality and challenging educational experience Carnegie Corporation-Institute for Advanced Study aimed at developing intellectual skills, critical thinking Commission on Mathematics and Science Education, and effective communication has to be at the center of the Corporation has concentrated much of its everyone’s efforts. As Time to Act, the capstone report resources on efforts to enrich and improve education of the Carnegie Council for Advancing Adolescent for all American students—who are, after all, our Literacy, forcefully points out, “Our charge now is future leaders and thinkers. Without high-quality to turn our nation’s secondary schools into high- education at every level, America will lose its greatest functioning organizations led by principals who asset: a knowledgeable and engaged citizenry. prioritize instructional excellence (and use detailed In that tradition we created the Carnegie assessments to tailor instruction), staffed by well- Corporation of New York Council on Advancing informed teachers with a strong commitment to Adolescent Literacy to explore issues of adolescent academic achievement by all students.” literacy and the research, policy, and practice related Throughout its work, the Carnegie Council on to the reading and writing competencies of middle Advancing Adolescent Literacy, under the direction and high school students. In particular, the Council of chairperson Catherine Snow, and with the || viii TIME TO ACT