Racial and ethnic diversity has increased dramatically over the past 35 years, enriching our public schools with students whose families embody a global village. Of the children born in the U.S. to at least one foreign-born parent, the majority are Hispanic. This is a pattern that reflects the recent rise of immigration from Latin America.…

Although the concept of communities of practice (CoPs) has been applied to many fields, the application within the context of the senior citizens' interaction must be different from those in the vocational arena. In Toy Clinic Shops (TCSs) in Taiwan, senior volunteers together sharpen their skills of repairing toys for school children, which can…

Parents of Chapter 1 reading students were invited to take part in a reading program using courseware for adult beginning readers. A group of 52 parents completed the program; on average they gained more than one year in reading level after 20 hours of instructional time. Impact on children and delivery models are discussed. (CH)

The approaches taken by two separate family literacy programs on Chicago's South Side to create unique literacy-health projects demonstrate the fluid nature of partnerships; the essential but time-consuming building of trust and credibility; and recognition of mutual benefits. (JOW)

Family literacy programs are a collaborative effort of adult basic education, early childhood/elementary education, and parent education. The key factor is parent education, focusing on application and generalization of learned skills to family life and providing services to minimize barriers to participation. (SK)

Reflects upon the development, implementation and research of specific intergenerational family literacy initiatives in the Anglophone section of New Brunswick. Presents four initiatives and discusses working with the community, working in the neighborhood, and working within a university context. (SG)

Considers how a spiritual connection across age differences affects literacy education. Notes that the Bible is foremost among the texts adult basic literacy students want to read. Claims that being students of stories of faith and religion does not mean that educators become proselytizers or that they ignore the difference between public and…

Finds that the supportive environment of "women helping women" was the hallmark characteristic of a local Even Start family literacy program and that participants were not consciously thinking about family literacy but joined the program for themselves and gave no indication of seeing the connection between the adult literacy component…

More than 500 intergenerational literacy programs exist in the United States, yet the idea is untested and it is difficult to identify and classify these programs. A typology identifies and classifies programs by key components and provides examples of each type. A typology, useful to practitioners, helps in planning programs, discussing them, and…

The following intergenerational literacy programs are described in this document: (1) a Boston University program that provides about 112 hours of training for work-study students who then work as tutors for adults; (2) a program that uses the paired reading technique to involve parents in the development of their children's reading in the United…

Twelve articles in this special issue look at changes in adult basic education (ABE) including the following: changes in policy, the overhaul of welfare, state governance, workforce development, family literacy, the connection with employment and training, contextualized literacy, health education, political and economic literacy, adult literacy…

The prevailing issues in the development of family literacy were reviewed, and assumptions about families, family support, and learning upon which the concept is being developed were examined. A total of 173 studies on the following topics were reviewed: parent-child relationships and reading, parent-child early reading, parent/family beliefs and…

Family literacy programs have been demonstrated to have significant and widespread benefits for children, parents, families, and society. Documented benefits of family literacy programs to children appear in the following areas: children's achievement in school, school attendance, oral language development, reading comprehension and vocabulary,…

The field of cognitive science (as represented, for instance, by intergenerational literacy programs) offers new ways to think about increasing cognitive abilities, which is particularly important in view of the disappointing outcomes of many intervention programs that do not seem to make their participants more knowledgeable or better thinkers.…

Today's literacy crusade still emphasizes economic rather than humanistic reasons for literacy education. However, lasting change will come only through breaking the familial cycle of illiteracy, integrating improvement of work-based, family, and generic learning skills. (SK)