Abstract of

Equity and Literacy in the Next Millennium

Kathryn H. Au

Taffy E. Raphael

Considerable evidence documents the existence of a gap between the literacy achievement of students of diverse backgrounds and their mainstream peers. Given the increasing diversity of the population of students in classrooms in the U.S. and around the world, the task of addressing the literacy achievement gap will become even more urgent in the new millennium. The challenges posed by the gap are considered in terms of three key groups of participants in the process of literacy of education: students, teachers, and researchers. While the population of students of diverse backgrounds is steadily increasing, similar diversity is not seen in the populations of teachers and researchers. Changing definitions of literacy, literature, and instruction appear to offer great promise for bringing students of diverse backgrounds to high levels of literacy. However, barriers that presently sustain conditions of inequity in schools will need to be surmounted before promising new approaches to the teaching of literacy can be made available in many classrooms with students of diverse backgrounds. Research to support educators in narrowing the literacy achievement gap includes studies of efforts to connect literacy practices at home and at school, to promote multicultural teacher education programs, and to bring individuals of diverse backgrounds into teaching and research.

Abstract from Au, K.H., & Raphael, T.E. (2000). Equity and Literacy in the Next Millennium. Reading Research Quarterly, 35(1), 170–188. doi: 10.1598/RRQ.35.1.12