Describes collaborative efforts by the Strategic Literacy Initiative at WestEd and secondary teachers and administrators in California to develop and implement an interactive approach to reading improvement called Reading Apprenticeship in an effort to help adolescent readers break through the "literacy ceiling" in all their subject area…

Describes several strategies California principals can use to make effective use of thematic assessment data to improve reading instruction, guide staff training in the use of assessment data for instructional decision-making, and establish schoolwide norms for aligning assessment data with instructional practices. (PKP)

Many high-school students responding to a teacher's in-class literacy survey are frustrated, unprepared readers lacking metacognitive knowledge and comprehension monitoring. Respondents own few books, avoid libraries, and cannot name a favorite book title. They must be taught to question, predict, summarize, and clarify until meanings emerge. (MLH)