About

The Strategic Literacy Initiative (SLI) is a professional development and research project of WestEd. The project serves middle and high school teachers and administrators, literacy coaches, and teacher educators nationally. SLI's book, Reading for Understanding: A Guide to Improving Reading in Middle and High School Classrooms, describes the Reading Apprenticeship® framework and the 9th grade Academic Literacy course developed in collaboration with teams of teachers in the San Francisco Bay Area. The Reading Apprenticeship framework combines affective and cognitive aspects of literacy support, promoting adolescents' engagement and achievement in reading and writing in their content area classes. Through this work, SLI has gained a national reputation for leadership in professional development programs to improve adolescent literacy and for research on adolescent literacy development. Among the many publications by SLI staff and others, the following links provide good illustrations of Reading Apprenticeship in action: Harvard Educational Review, Middle Matters, Phi Delta Kappan. Research and Development Since 1995, SLI's research team, led by Cynthia Greenleaf, has carried out a series of research studies that build cumulatively on each other. Research on students whose teachers participated in intensive professional development with SLI shows significant gains on standardized reading comprehension tests. Studies are in progress, including one from the National Science Foundation (NSF) and the other from the Institute for Educational Sciences (IES) of the U.S. Department of Education. NSF is funding a study of the impact on student achievement of Reading Apprenticeship embedded in biology classes. The IES study is investigating the impact of SLI's 9th grade Academic Literacy course on student achievement. In addition, SLI's research team continues to develop case studies and analyses based on an in-depth study of teachers embedding Reading Apprenticeship in a variety of content area classrooms. Professional Development Building from SLI's research and from collaboration with communities of teachers, SLI provides professional development and develops materials to support teachers' and students' learning. These materials include text-based and videotaped literacy cases of adolescent readers, books, curriculum for a 9th grade Academic Literacy course, and other materials for use in teacher education, professional development, and classrooms. In addition SLI offers fee-for-service contracts for professional development services to schools, districts, county offices of education, and a variety of school reform networks.

Co-Directors Cynthia L. Greenleaf Ruth Schoenbach Staff Jana Bouc, Program Coordinator Jane Braunger, Senior Research Associate Willard Brown, Professional Development and Materials Development Associate Gina Hale, Professional Development Associate Rita Jensen, Professional Development Associate Margot Kenaston, Conference Coordinator Cindy Litman, Senior Program Associate Kate Meissert, Conference Coordinator Elisa Ordona, Administrative Assistant Ruth Schoenbach, Co-Director, Strategic Literacy Initiative Funding Agencies Current and recent funders include: Carnegie Corporation Institute for Education Sciences, U.S. Dept. of Education James Irvine Foundation National Science Foundation Stuart Foundation Walter S. Annenberg Foundation Walter S.Johnson Foundation W. Clement and Jessie V. Stone Foundation