This professional resource by the Alliance for Excellent Education is the 2002, full-text pdf report on adolescents and literacy and reading for the 21st century. Based on research that demonstrates we do know enough about adolescent literacy to make positive changes today, this professional article makes clear that policymakers should use such research as a foundation for change in secondary schools. Four major conclusions point to a flexible revisionist approach for policymakers: (1) that methods of maximizing motivation and engagement in adolescents should be a major focus when designing adolescent literacy programs, and that one such focus should include the integration of computer technologies into literacy instruction; (2) that while the focus of much concern in adolescent literacy is on comprehension, at least 10 percent of adolescents still have difficulties with word analysis and related skills, thus calling for policies that encourage the careful assessment of reading skills to be certain that individualized instruction is provided to each student; (3) that English-Language Learners face additional, unique challenges, and that policies that guide instruction need to reflect the research that examines the transfer from first language to second language and ESL teaching strategies; and (4) that research shows that a teacher's professional development can positively affect student achievement, which is sufficiently suggestive to warrant policies that encourage sustained, embedded professional development for teachers in secondary schools. (author/ebm)

Although this professional resource’s sole purpose is to address only the ongoing problems with adolescent literacy without including the practical application of lesson plans for the classroom, career-tech teachers teaching general career skills and human resources will find useful the major theoretical points concluded by this study. A national policy, advocacy, and research organization, the Alliance for Excellent Education focuses on America’s most at-risk secondary students in an effort to see such students succeed both in school and in life, and the study at this site draws attention to what can be done today to increase adolescent literary, good background for the career-tech teacher who wants to educate the whole student. (dam)