Perspectives on Literacy: A Response

Abstract

The United States faces great challenges externally, to be competitive in an economy that will be even more dominated by high-skill, knowledge-intensive jobs, and internally, by the need to maintain a strong democracy in an increasingly complex and diverse society. Essential to meeting these challenges of economic success and social unity is the literacy ability and problem-solving capacity of all of its citizens. The general belief that many Americans currently lack these indispensable skills is fueling concerns that, as a nation, we face a literacy crisis. Although we will not argue for any one way to resolve, or even define, the literacy problem, we do believe that whatever intervention taken must be guided by the twin goals of quality and equality. Raising the overall literacy standard in America must go hand-in-hand with aggressively tackling the persistent gap between the reading levels of different groups of children. Moreover, although the responsibility for improving literacy lies mainly with families, schools, and communities, state and federal policy and resources can play an important supporting role in enabling the nation and all children to meet our society's rising demands for literacy. In their articles, David Pearson (1996), Sharon Quint (1996), and Judith Green and Carol Dixon (1996) raise several provocative issues about literacy and the potential role of policy. In this article, we will address three of those issues the nature both of literacy and the literacy problem, in-school interventions that can enhance literacy levels, and the importance of out-of-school literacy interventions.