"This rich resource walks middle and high school literacy leaders through a comprehensive process for conceptualizing, initiating, and, most important, sustaining a schoolwide literacy learning program. The authors clearly know teachers and schools, and their reality-tested tools will prove invaluable in guiding and supporting middle and high school literacy leaders."
—Doug Buehl
Author, Classroom Strategies for Interactive Learning



A systemic and sustainable approach for improving adolescent literacy and learning!



Taking the Lead on Adolescent Literacy provides educational leaders with a user-friendly and comprehensive planning process for developing a new literacy initiative—or for dramatically enhancing a current plan--that has the power not only to raise student performance levels but also to positively impact graduation rates, employability, and higher education success.



Using a five-stage framework that has been field-tested nationwide for more than a decade, the authors provide an array of resources to guide in-depth planning, implementation, and monitoring to ensure sustained results, supported by examples from literacy-rich schools, checklists and assessments, and a glossary of terms. Each stage in the process builds upon a school or district′s existing capacities and focuses on six detailed rubrics that can be implemented at every stage to help ensure long-term success:



Student motivation and engagement
Literacy across the content areas
Literacy interventions
Literacy-rich environment, policies, and culture
Parent and community involvement
District support of school-based efforts



Helping educators build the critical skills in students for communicating and making meaning within an increasingly complex world, this book shows how a sustained focus on literacy can serve as a powerful lever for school improvement.