America Reads: A Critical Policy Analysis - Softcover

In America Reads: A Critical Policy Analysis, Jacqueline Edmondson explains how the goals of America Reads and the program's implementation were not as straightforward as President Clinton imagined. By looking at the origins of the America Reads policy and analyzing a case study of the program at one university, Edmondson provides a glimpse into the values that are behind literacy education policies. The author demonstrates how values have clashed concerning the policy's goals, organization, and implementation, resulting in a literacy initiative that has served some, but not all, U.S. children.

This book will reinforce that an educator's work in and around schools is unavoidably political. The book is a call for readers to consider the political aspects of policy, rather than buying into policy because of a belief of an individual or group far removed from the classroom. Through political knowledge and participation, educators can do much to effect change in schools.

America Reads: A Critical Policy Analysis is a part of the Literacy Studies Series. The Literacy Studies Series is a thought-provoking series of books about research, theory, and practice centering on important issues in literacy. The series is designed to advance our understanding of literacy, literacy practices, and policy issues. Other titles included in the Literacy Studies Series are, Children's Writing: Perspectives From Research, by Karin Dahl and Nancy Farnan (ISBN: 0-87207-189-8), Popular Culture in the Classroom: Teaching and Researching Critical Media Literacy, by Donna Alvermann, Jennifer Moon, and Margaret Hagood (ISBN: 0-87207-245-2), Resilient Children: Stories of Poverty, Drug Exposure, and Literacy Development, by Diane Barone (ISBN: 0-87207-199-5), Literacy Instruction in Half- and Whole-Day Kindergarten: Research to Practice, by Lesley Mandel Morrow, Dorothy Strickland, and Deborah Gee Woo (ISBN: 0-87207-188-X), What Should We Expect of Family Literacy? Experiences of Latino Children Whose Parents Participate in an Intergenerational Literacy Project, by Jeanne Paratore, Gigliana Melzi, and Barbara Krol-Sinclair (ISBN: 0-87207-246-0), and Literacy Shutdown: Stories of Six American Women, by Daphne Key (ISBN: 0-87207-196-0).