Educational Architects of Literacy Programs: Built on a Sturdy Foundation or Shifting Sand?

• In Event: Friday Roundtable Session 7:45 am
  In Roundtable Session: Reforming Policy, Curriculum, and Programs for a Justice-Oriented Teacher Education (Table 26)

Abstract

For more than a century, the United States (U.S.) educational policies promoting literacy education have been unsustainable and ineffective. Spanning from the Blair Education Bill of 1881, which intended purpose was to eliminate the countries 72% illiteracy rate particularly in the southern states, to other reauthorized legislations of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) of 1965, including Improving America's Schools Act (IASA) of 1994; No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) of 2001; and Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) of 2015. These legislations failed and negatively impacted 130 million (54%) Americans who read below a sixth-grade level. In fact, literacy in the U.S. has only improved by 17% in 142 years and cost the U.S. $2.2 trillion a year.

Authors

• Robbin Parker, Chicago Public School

• Kimberly D. Lloyd, WGYC Inc