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Due to current public health concerns, the Ohio Department of Education (ODE), like many state education agencies, is addressing the challenge of how to provide all prekindergarten through grade 12 students this fall with appropriate, standards-aligned, and evidence-based literacy instruction within the context of remote learning environments. Remote learning can be fully remote or some combination of a traditional in-person classroom setting and remote learning (e.g., a hybrid/blended format). The purpose of this white paper is to provide ODE and regional technical assistance staff with a multidisciplinary perspective on the challenge of providing all prekindergarten through grade 12 students with appropriate, standards-aligned, and evidence-based literacy instruction within the context of blended/hybrid learning environments. It is an initial attempt to integrate multidisciplinary information that may be relevant for addressing this challenge. This white paper also specifies implications for practice across different contexts (state and regional leadership systems, districts and schools, and educators and families) and disciplines (designing and delivering remote literacy instruction, new literacies in online research and reading comprehension, and home-school partnerships for literacy learning, likely impacting remote literacy instruction and learning).

The Illinois Striving Readers (ISR) Project had two purposes: (1) implement a supplemental reading intervention for students in ninth grade who were reading below grade level; and (2) study the impact of the intervention on students' performance on standardized assessments using a randomized control trial design. The Illinois Striving Readers (ISR) project focused on ninth grade students who scored at the bottom two quartiles on the state assessment (grade 8 EXPLORE®). A total of 855 students participated in the project. Of these, 427 students were randomly assigned to the treatment group, with 428 students going to the control group. This report presents findings from the first year of implementation of the Illinois Striving Readers. The report is divided into three parts: (1) describes the intervention as proposed by the developers and the project's logic model; (2) discusses findings from the first implementation year; and (3) presents the analysis of the intervention's impact on student academic performance, as measured by standardized assessments.

By the end of school year (SY) 2008-2009, Virginia Department of Education (VDOE) applied for and was awarded a four-year Striving Readers grant to implement the "Virginia Striving Readers Intervention Initiative" (VSRII). VSRII proposed to implement a supplemental reading intervention with students in seventh and eighth grades at nine public schools in three school divisions in Virginia. The school division representatives chose to implement "Passport Reading Journeys (PRJ)," an intervention that was already in use in many Virginian schools. "PRJ" had been studied previously in other school districts using quasi-experimental designs, but had not been tested with an experimental study. A total of 913 students were eligible to participate. This report presents provisional findings from the first implementation year of VSRII (SY 2010-2011) and its preliminary impact on participating students. [Written with Kristina Najera, Laura Taylor, and Trina Willard.]

A literacy advocate supports or speaks out for someone else's educational needs or rights in reading, writing, and language. As a family member, you know your child best. You have seen your child's literacy skills progress over time. You can embrace your role as an advocate and learn how to work together with your child's school toward common goals.

You and the school share responsibility for your child's language and literacy learning. Collaborate with your school to make decisions about your child's literacy education right from the start. Your child benefits when you and the school work together to support her literacy development. Working together promotes faster development and catches trouble spots early.