Fall 2023      Volume 51, Number 4

Progress and Potential in Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA): Comprehensive Literacy Policy
By Susan M. Foster

Document: Article  

Introductory Paragraph:  While a significant body of research exists on literacy policy implementation, there is a need for further study of how reading education policies are formed and transformed (Cassiday et al., 2016; Coburn et al., 2011; Elleman & Oslund, 2019). Existing studies show reading education policies are influential and change over time, but there is comparably less information explaining why some ideas about reading education (and some researchers) become part of policy initiatives and become embedded in legislation; why certain documents and voices become influential in the policy-crafting process; how and why certain bodies of research move in and through policy networks; and what forces facilitate change in policies over time (Coburn et al., 2011; Goodman, 2014; Torgerson et al., 2019).  To form productive relationships between researchers and policymakers who endeavor to improve reading education, literacy scholars have called for a fundamental reconsideration of literacy policy and practice, a broadening of perspectives on literacy achievement and assessment, and a deeper analysis of academic achievement patterns (Avineri et al., 2015; Elleman & Oslund, 2019). To this end, we need more information on the “loose” relationship between literacy research and the policymaking process, and a better understanding of the circumstances under which some research makes it into the hands of key figures in policy-crafting positions (Coburn et al., 2011, p. 8; Pearson et al., 2014).

DOI: https://doi.org/10.33600/IRCJ.51.4.2023.3

Page Numbers:   3-21