This article reports a case study of two Chinese-English bilingual families in Singapore and illustrates the importance of incorporating two hitherto disconnected fields of research--family language policy and family literacy practices--to an understanding of early language and literacy acquisition in the familial milieu. Specifically, this work…

Research Findings: The home literacy environment and other early learning settings such as preschool play a role in children's language and literacy outcomes, yet research suggests that Latino, Spanish-speaking families are less likely than other families to participate in family literacy activities. This study explored the relations among…

This article advocates for the inclusion of transnational and community literacies in the literacy instruction provided to all students, but especially those who are ELLs (English language learners). Transnational and community literacies are texts and literacy practices that reflect the multidirectional movements of people, media, language and…

Latino families highly value education and are committed to their children's educational success; however, Latino students often experience educational challenges. Well-designed family involvement programs can encourage Latino families, especially new immigrants or monolingual Spanish-speakers, to increase their involvement resulting in positive…

This qualitative case study examines an after-school, bilingual family literacy programme that brought together several groups to form a community of practice (CoP) that worked to support the literacy development of English language learners and their families. We explored the following question: How do parents, teachers, students, and other…

This report is a compilation of California's responses to the four questions that the United States Department of Education (ED), Division of Adult Education and Literacy (DAEL) poses annually to all states and territories receiving federal supplementary funding from the Adult Education and Family Literacy Act (AEFLA), Title II of the Workforce…

Building on Freire's (1970) emancipatory learning theory and Yosso's (2005) community cultural wealth (CCW) approach, this article examines parents' participation in a family literacy project. Specifically, we focus on 10 Latina mothers and explore their interactions and relationships as a type of meaningful parental involvement. The research…

The aim of this article is to make visible many ways in which a group of parents of marginalized status participate in their children's schooling and to reveal something of the societal machinery that can render invisible many admirable parental efforts. Adapting somewhat the analysis of Graue et al. (2001), the author outlines strands within the…

As thousands of communities--especially in the South--became booming gateways for immigrant families during the 1990s and the early years of the new century, public schools struggled with the unfamiliar task of serving the large numbers of English-learners arriving in their classrooms. Instructional programs were built from scratch. Districts had…

This report is California's response to the four questions that the United States Department of Education (ED), Office of Vocational and Adult Education (OVAE), requires of all states and territories receiving federal funding through the Workforce Investment Act (WIA), Title II and Adult Education and Family Literacy Act (AEFLA). The questions…

The goal of this paper was to examine promising effects of a bilingual family literacy program: to track the changes of families' literacy activities through a bilingual family literacy intervention, and to examine the children literacy gains in both Chinese and English across socioeconomic sub-groups. The intervention was an eight-week, two hours…

Background/Context: Educational reform has emphasized the importance of parent involvement. Perhaps the most common instantiations of parent involvement are various efforts to encourage particular reading practices in the home. Although there is some research supporting the efficacy of "family literacy" initiatives, these efforts have been…

Many different views of literacy exist. In my study, I make use of Brian V. Street's two major models of literacy--the autonomous and the ideological. These models show contrasting views of literacy and are based on very different assumptions. I examine the views of literacy prevalent in family literacy campaigns, with special focus on Barbara…

This article reports a multi-method evaluation of a one-year small-scale preschool family literacy programme with bilingual Pakistani-origin families in the UK. The programme was implemented mostly through home visits and included provision of literacy resources, some postal communication and group meetings. The study was conducted in…

At least 5.1 million U.S. students in kindergarten through 12th grade are English Language Learners today--10.5 percent of the entire student population. That amount is expected to grow to 25% by the year 2025. Numbers on the educational levels of these students' parents vary, though it appears that at least one-third of the heads-of-household…