Contact: Lisa James Goldsberry (518) 437-4989 or Janet Angelis (518) 442-5023 [email protected]
UAlbany Research Unit Granted Additional $5.3 Million toEnhance Effective Literacy Instruction
The U.S. Department of Education (U.S. ED) has rewarded the University at Albany's National Research Center on English Learning & Achievement (CELA) with an additional $5.304 million to extend its national leadership on student learning and achievement in new school settings.
The two-year award will aid CELA in the task of finding ways to help additional schools improve students' learning and achievement in English and language arts while studying the effects of the intervention.For the next three years, supported by the U.S. ED's Office of Educational Research and Improvement, CELA will partner with 18 such schools to implement an instructional development program. The program aims to improve teachers' knowledge, skills, and understandings about what their students are capable of doing and to provide strategies for them to be able to act on this new knowledge in their classrooms.
Since receiving its first award in 1987, CELA's research teams have been at the forefront in learning what "works" in those schools in which students perform well in English. According to Center Director Judith A. Langer, "When certain things are not in place in a school or district, even good teachers who are using effective instructional practices do not get the same results as teachers using similar practices in a supportive school environment." This is especially true for schools that serve poor, diverse student bodies. Along with fellow UAlbany School of Education professor Arthur N. Applebee, Langer directs the Center, which includes eight additional faculty from the School and an additional five at UAlbany's partner in the program, the University of Wisconsin-Madison."The next step for this team of researchers," says Applebee, "is to learn how to put into place the features that we have learned are important - the plans, programs, and processes that make it possible for all students in a school to be successful in English." Researchers in the new program will assess the effectiveness of the intervention and compare its results to those from a set of similar, comparison schools. The Center is currently inviting interested middle schools to contact them about joining this Partnership for Literacy. Those selected will be paired and randomly assigned to the intervention or comparison group in the first year. In the second year, the comparison schools will receive the intervention, thus enabling researchers to also compare results from one year to the next. All the schools chosen for the program will be middle schools in New York and Wisconsin and will include schools in a variety of communities and contexts, with an emphasis on those that serve poor, underperforming youth. Some of the research findings that will be incorporated into CELA's work with the schools include the importance of:
· engaging students in thought-provoking activities that involve challenging skills and subject matter,· using diversity to enhance learning,· increasing the cohesiveness of curriculum and instruction,· raising the level of student engagement in higher order talk and writing,· aligning curriculum with assessment, · supporting students as they perform new and difficult tasks, and· helping struggling readers.
In addition, it is important that teachers in the new program
· continually reflect on all aspects of their teaching and their students' progress,· understand theories about how students learn and have instructional strategies for teaching literacy, and
· develop as a professional community of reflective teachers.
For more information about the Partnership for Literacy, contact the Center at 518-442-5026; visit http://cela.albany.edu for more information about CELA.
For more University at Albany information, visit our World Wide Web site at http://www.Albany.edu.
October 20, 2000
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