This professional resource is the 2007 publication of a 48-page pdf full-text literacy report from the Alliance for Excellent Education. The report emphasizes that the "real goal [of content literacy instruction] is to help all students master the knowledge, procedures, and skills of the academic disciplines that rule the secondary school curriculum, and which serve as the gatekeeper to success in college, work, and other facets of adult life." The next step for those working to improve adolescent literacy instruction, the report concludes, must be "to integrate the teaching of reading and writing more fully into the academic content areas."

An executive summary introduces the report, and four sections lend substantial support to the report's call for action: (1) Adolescent Literacy Reform: Expanding the Agenda; (2) Rethinking the Role of Literacy in the Content Areas; (3) Rethinking Teacher Quality: Taking Content Area Literacy Instruction into Account; and (4) Key Considerations for Education Leaders and Policymakers. Readers will find helpful, too, samples pulled from middle and high school content area textbooks as well as an extensive resources list that provides a look at pivotal research. Additionally, the report builds its foundation from a review of adolescent and content area literacy instruction that both summarizes and encapsulates current and recent research. A list of these reports may be found on page 3 of the pdf. (author/ebm)