The Future of Children: Literacy Challenges for the Twenty-First Century

The economic, political, and social challenges facing the United States demand literacy skills that go well beyond the ability to recognize words and decode text. To attain adult success today young Americans must be able to use reading to gain access to the world of knowledge, to synthesize information from multiple sources, to evaluate arguments, and to explore in depth fields as disparate as history, science, and mathematics. To complicate the challenge, schools must not only better prepare students for these demands but also reduce sharp disparities in literacy outcomes between disadvantaged and privileged children. Low literacy levels among children from less advantaged families dramatically reduce the potential for upward mobility.

The Future of Children seeks to translate high-level research into information that is useful to policy makers, practitioners, and the media. The Future of Children is a collaboration of the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs at Princeton University and the Brookings Institution.

Volume 22 Number 2 Fall 2012

Full Journal (1.3 MB)

Executive Summary (164.3 kB)

Policy Brief (318.2 kB)

Contents

Literacy Challenges for the Twenty-First Century: Introducing the Issue

Richard J. Murnane, Isabel Sawhill and Catherine Snow

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Patterns of Literacy among U.S. Students

Sean F. Reardon, Rachel A. Valentino and Kenneth A. Shores

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The Role of Out-of-School Factors in the Literacy Problem