Literacy.org

Welcome to Literacy.org

Welcome to Literacy.org, your source for research and development on literacy in the U.S. and worldwide. Literacy.org at the University of Pennsylvania, Graduate School of Education, is comprised of NCAL and ILI. The National Center for Adult Literacy (NCAL) has been engaged for more than two decades in cutting edge and high-impact research, innovation, and training in adult education and technology, as well as in other areas of adult basic education and literacy. The International Literacy Institute (ILI), co-founded in 1994 by UNESCO and Penn, focuses on a broad range of literacy issues from early childhood through youth and adult education, particularly in developing countries.

Featured Recent Publications

Smaller, quicker, cheaper: alternative literacy assessment strategies in the UN Literacy Decade

Literacy(ies), culture(s), and development(s): The ethnographic challenge

News

UNESCO Chair established at Penn GSE

ILI Director and Penn GSE Professor Dan Wagner was recently named the first UNESCO Chair in Learning and Literacy. Read the press release here.

Two Timely Publications Just Released

Quality of education, comparability, and assessment choice in developing countries : Published in Compare, this article is a summary analysis of the options for using various types of learning assessments in developing countries. This 2010 paper argues that larger international and regional assessments have liabilities that are often overlooked. A longer report, sponsored by IIEP-UNESCO and the Education For All - Fast Track Initiative is currently in press.

Technology and Mother-Tongue Literacy in Southern India: Impact Studies among Young Children and Out-of-School Youth : Empirical results have just been published in 2010 by the journal Information Technologies and International Development. The results show the positive impact of ILI’s BFI project on children and youth in Andhra Pradesh, India. In particular, this study demonstrates that carefully planned interventions allow the effective use of ICT in supporting literacy in illiterate and poorly schooled populations.

Launch of First Multimedia Learning Platform To Promote Literacy in South Africa

July 2009 - Representing a first for South Africa, The International Literacy Institute, in partnership with Molteno Institute for Language and Literacy in South Africa, and under the sponsorship of the South African Department of Education launched on July 23, 2009, the Bridges to the Future Initiative (BFI-SA), a multimedia education programme for the promotion of literacy and other learning skills in South Africa...

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