Alternative assessment, literacy education, and school reform

LITERACY AND THE ROLE OF LITERACY EDUCATION Literacy is more than learning to read and write. Listening, speaking, reading, writing, and spelling are interrelated, since all are communicative processes. Literacy includes both oral and written communications. At one level, being literate is a confirmation of the social identity as a full participant in a community. In addition, since language transcends immediate temporal and spatial constraints, it is a potentially powerful metacognitive tool for creating, understanding, and revising ideas about the world. This chapter presents an analysis of literacy and its assessment in the context of American education reform, particularly with regard to the systemic school reform movement.