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##  Literacy Interventions in Low Resource Environments: An                         International Perspective. ERIC Digest.                                      

While much attention is currently being focused on classroom-based              practices that increase literacy acquisition, many supportive                   literacy initiatives continue to be implemented outside the                     classroom. Given the presence of similar contextual elements in most            low resource educational environments, examining interventions that             support students' literacy in different parts of the world can                  illuminate common issues and provide relevant insights. This digest             presents a description of three innovative interventions designed to            support student literacy acquisition outside the classroom in low               resource communities. LITERACY RELATED ISSUES IN LOW RESOURCE                 ENVIRONMENTSArticle 1 of The World Declaration on Education for             All (Inter-Agency Commission, 1990), reaffirmed the global                      community's commitment to provide an education where: 
"Every                  person-child, youth, adult-shall be able to benefit from educational            opportunities designed to meet their basic learning needs. These                needs comprise both essential learning tools (such as literacy, oral            expression, numeracy, and problem solving) and the basic learning               content (such as knowledge, skills, values, and attitudes) required             by human beings to be able to survive, to develop their full                    capacities, to live and work in dignity, to participate fully in                development, to improve the quality of their lives, to make informed            decisions, and to continue learning. The scope of basic learning                needs and how they should be met varies with individual countries               and cultures, and inevitably, changes with the passage of time." (p.            3) 
The commitment to ensuring literacy for all was reiterated by              countries at international meetings throughout the 1990's, and again            at the World Education Forum held in Dakar in 2000. Yet, it is                  currently estimated that about twenty percent of world's population             aged fifteen and above is illiterate and that about 115.4 million               school-age children are not in school (UNESCO, 2002). Besides                   non-school enrollment by millions of children, two other issues of              concern are school drop-out and completion of school without                    acquiring functional literacy (Lievesley and Motivans,                          2000). 
While the majority of children who are not acquiring a                 basic education live in developing countries, it is a matter of                 increasing concern that a significant number of these children and              youth live in impoverished sections of industrialized                           nations (International Institute for Educational Planning, 1997). In            a comparison of child poverty in twenty-three of the worlds richest             countries (comprising the Organization for Economic Cooperation and             Development or the OECD), Adamson, Micklewright, and Wright (2000)              found child poverty rates to range from under 3% to more than 25%               and that approximately one in six children live in poverty. 
In a              recent Innocenti Report (UNICEF, 2000), it was found that in OECD               nations children's educational achievement is strongly linked to                the "occupation, education, and economic status" of their                       parents (p. 2); that non-native children tended to be particularly              disadvantaged in some countries (p. 17); and children of less                   educated mothers tended to have lower reading levels (p. 22). Also,             in many developing countries and low resource educational settings              in the industrialized world, the language of school-based                       instruction is not the same as the language students speak at                   home. 
Irrespective of geographical region, schools located in poor            communities and characterized by low levels of children's academic              achievement have certain common features. As stated in the U.S.                 Department of Education's 1998 report on Turning Around                         Low-Performing Schools, "many low-performing schools are located in             impoverished communities where family distress, crime, and violence             are prevalent" (Executive Summary section, paragraph 2). Also,                  educational contexts characterized by low levels of student literacy            present high-stress teaching-learning environments as they are often            crowded, have poor quality school facilities, lack well qualified               teachers, and have teachers and administrators who have low                     expectations of students. Thus, children living in poverty tend to              go to schools that are poorly resourced and receive a poor-quality              education that does not help them break free of their disadvantaged             backgrounds. 
In order to support disadvantaged children's academic            success in school, communities around the world have adopted a                  variety of creative and effective literacy interventions. A profile             of a few such interventions is presented below. READING CLUBS IN              NIGERIAInformal initiatives that support literacy in the                    language of instruction in schools by making relevant and                       interesting reading materials accessible to community members offer             a valuable resource that supplements the formal educational system.             One important example is Onukaogu's (1999) description of a Nigerian            grassroots initiative where reading clubs were conducted by a local             organization called The Center of Excellence for Literacy and                   Literacy Education (CELLE). Based on student and community interest             in acquiring literacy in English, school teachers and university                faculty functioned as facilitators to provide opportunities for                 literacy empowerment of primary school-age children, newly literate             adults, as well as adults from secondary schools and universities               who were already mature readers. The goal of the reading clubs was              not only to foster language skills in reading, writing, listening               and speaking, but to provide opportunities for critical thinking,               questioning, and building self-esteem through group-based                       reading-writing activities. While facilitators offered each group               options in reading, writing and activities according to their                   interests, they also facilitated critical literacy and supported                family literacy activities between parents and children (Onukaogu,              1999). INVOLVING PARENTS IN CHILDREN'S LITERACY IN                            AUSTRALIAAnother interesting example of a supportive literacy               intervention program described by Cairney and Munsie (1995) is The              Talk to a Literacy Learner (TTALL), which was implemented in an                 elementary school located in an urban suburb of Sydney, Australia               where the local community was characterized by a low level of                   educational participation, high levels of crime and unemployment,               problems with drug use, and also high levels of family breakdown. In            their article, the authors demonstrate TTALL's effectiveness in                 making meaningful connections between schools and parents in a                  troubled, low resource setting. (This program was also implemented              in a hundred other schools in New South Wales). 
The goal of TTALL             was to engage and assist parents in their children's reading and                writing, and it was implemented in three stages. In phase I parents             who were interested in interacting more effectively in their                    children's literacy acquisition process were identified and trained.            In phase II these parents were trained to be literacy tutors in the             school, and then in Phase III to become community tutors who would              introduce other parents to TTALL strategies in their own homes. In              describing program outcomes at the end of the initial year-long                 implementation phase, Cairney and Munsie found qualitative gains in             children's literacy levels.  Children not only reported finding                 school work less difficult, but were also observed to select and                read a range of materials at higher reading levels and to have                  increased their confidence in themselves as readers and writers.                They also observed notable outcomes among the parents, who had not              only developed a repertoire of effective strategies to assist their             children's literacy development, but who felt more confident, and               had begun to take a greater level of interest in the school and its             activities. 
In a more recent Australian study, Lawson (2000)                  explained how parental involvement in literacy could be further                 improved by going beyond the kind of initiative described by Cairney            and Munsie. Lawson recommends recognizing parental insights about               literacy that may be very different from those proposed within                  schools and recognizing the need to learn from families who may see             home-based literacy practices as being distinct from school based               literacy. She suggests that rather than developing literacy support             programs that use a common script both in the school and home,                  home-school relationships can be "mutually supportive"                          and "harmonious" (p. 4) if they build on the different elements of              literacy practiced in the home and the school. PROTECTING CHILDREN            FROM FAILURE THROUGH OUT-OF-SCHOOL

PROGRAMS IN THE UNITED                    STATESWhile the Australian initiative described above built on              parent knowledge and interest in children's literacy, Query and                 Hausafus (1998) report on a program developed to shield elementary              and middle school students from factors that contribute to school               failure and to assist them in improving their academic performance.             This long term project conducted in a low income area of Des Moines,            Iowa was implemented over approximately two years, and involved 507             students in: long-term after school sports and recreational                     programs; summer camps designed to increase students reading,                   writing, math, and science literacy; field trips; job shadowing                 opportunities for middle school students; and mentoring programs                where students developed a long-term relationship with a caring                 adult. During implementation, both qualitative data (in the form of             observation forms, journals, teacher and parent surveys) and                    quantitative data (in the form of grades on student report cards)               was collected on participants. In a case study of nine participating            elementary students, records maintained over the two years indicated            their academic achievement levels had improved. Mentors and tutors              identified improvements in student behavior and attitudes as well as            in their social skills, self-esteem and problem solving. It was also            noted that during the course of interventions, students had                     developed a close and supportive relationship with a peer, a caring             adult, as well as some community members. These positive changes                occurred along with a reduction in the number of times students had             been in trouble in school and at home. CONCLUSIONAs the above             examples indicate, involving students in out-of-school based                    literacy activities that connect them with their communities and                enrich their day-to-day lives can play a key role in literacy skills            acquisition in school. While contextual factors always need to be               taken into account in designing and implementing interventions to               develop children's literacy skills, insights obtained from projects             across the world can be used to enrich local                                    implementation. REFERENCESAdamson, P., Micklewright, J., &                Wright, A. (2000). A league table of child poverty in rich                      nations (Innocenti Report Card, Issue No. 1). Florence, Italy:                  UNICEF. [ED 442 911] 
Cairney, T. H., & Munsie, L. (1995). Parent              participation in literacy learning. The Reading Teacher, 48(5),                 392-403. [EJ 498 787] 
Department of Education. (1998, May).                   Turning around low-performing schools: A guide for state and local              leaders. Retrieved December 16, 2002, from                                      http://www.ed.gov/pubs/turning/part3.html 
Inter-Agency                        Commission. (1990). World declaration on education for all and                  framework for action to meet basic learning needs. New York:                    UNICEF. 
International Institute for Educational Planning. (1997).             Alternative education strategies for disadvantaged groups. Paris:               UNESCO. 
Lawson, J. (2000, December). Be it ever so humble:                    Home-school congruence and literacy for poor kids. Paper presented              at the annual meeting of the Australian Association of Research in              Education, Sydney, Australia. [ED 451 515] 
Lievesley, D., &                   Motivans, A. (2000). Taking literacy seriously. Retrieved December              16, 2002, from                                                                  http://www.uis.unesco.org/en/news/news_p/news8.htm 
Onukaogu,                  C.E. (1999). Enhancing reading clubs in Nigeria: the CELLE's                    experience. Journal of Adolescent and Adult Literacy, 43(1),                    68-78. [EJ 592 829] 
Query, S. L., & Hausafus, C. O. (1998).                   Promoting literacy in at-risk youth: Protective factors and academic            achievements. New York: Garland 
UNESCO. (2002). Education for all:            Is the world on track? Paris: Author. 
UNICEF. (2000). A league                table of educational disadvantage in rich nations. (Innocenti Report            Card, Issue No. 4). Florence, Italy: Author. 
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Digest #179              is EDO-CS-02-10 and was published in December 2002 by the ERIC                  Clearinghouse on Reading, English and Communication, 2805 E 10th                St. #140, Bloomington, IN 47408-2698, Tel.1-800-759-4723. Full text             at: http://eric.indiana.edu. 
ERIC Digests are in the public domain            and may be freely reproduced. This project is funded at least in                part with Federal funds from the US Dept. of Education under                    contract ED-99-CO-0028. The content of this publication does not                necessarily reflect the views or policies of the US Department of               Education nor does mention of trade names, commercial products, or              organizations imply endorsement by the US Government.                        **Title:** Literacy Interventions in Low Resource Environments: An                         International Perspective. ERIC Digest.                                      **Note:** Digest number 179.                                                           **Document Type:** Information Analyses---ERIC Information Analysis Products (IAPs) (071); Information Analyses---ERIC Digests (Selected) in Full Text (073); **Available From:** ERIC Clearinghouse on Reading, English, and Communication, 2805 E.              10th St. #140, Bloomington, IN 47408-2698. Web site:                            http://eric.indiana.edu.                                                     **Descriptors:**  After School Programs,  Disadvantaged Environment, Elementary                  Education,  Enrichment Activities, Foreign Countries, Intervention,              Literacy, Parent Participation,  Poverty Areas, Program Descriptions        **Identifiers:** Australia,  Book Clubs, ERIC Digests, Nigeria                                
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