[Reading-hall-of-fame] National Black History Month 2024

[Donna E Alvermann]

Well said.  Thank you, Carol.

Donna Alvermann

________________________________
From: Reading-hall-of-fame <reading-hall-of-fame-bounces at lists.nottingham.ac.uk> on behalf of Carol D Lee <cdlee at northwestern.edu>
Sent: Saturday, February 10, 2024 1:56 PM
To: Thomas Sticht <tgsticht at gmail.com>; reading hall of fame <Reading-hall-of-fame at lists.nottingham.ac.uk>
Subject: Re: [Reading-hall-of-fame] National Black History Month 2024

[EXTERNAL SENDER - PROCEED CAUTIOUSLY]


We know now that literacy entails more than cognitive skills.



Carol



Carol D. Lee, Ph.D.

Edwina S. Tarry Professor Emerita

School of Education and Social Policy

Northwestern University



Member, National Academy of Education

Member, American Academy of Arts and Sciences

Fellow, American Educational Research Association

Fellow, National Conference on Language and Literacy

President, National Academy of Education

Member, Reading Hall of Fame

Fellow, International Society of the Learning. Sciences

Member, National Board for Education Sciences







From: Reading-hall-of-fame <reading-hall-of-fame-bounces at lists.nottingham.ac.uk> on behalf of Thomas Sticht <tgsticht at gmail.com>
Date: Saturday, February 10, 2024 at 12:38 PM
To: reading hall of fame <Reading-hall-of-fame at lists.nottingham.ac.uk>
Subject: [Reading-hall-of-fame] National Black History Month 2024

February 10, 2024

February is National Black History Month

The Past is Prologue Part 2: The Intergenerational Transfer of Cognitive Skills (ITCS)
                                                                                                                                                                             Tom Sticht, International Consultant in Adult Education (Ret.)

Three African American colleagues with whom I have worked have long addressed issues concerning the transfer of literacy and other cognitive skills from parents to their children, and in some cases vice versa.  In April of 1988 I chaired a Conference on the Intergenerational Transfer of Cognitive Skills (ITCS) in San Diego, California where each of these colleagues discussed the role of family influences on the development of cognitive skills. Each of these presenters had considerable experience with educational research and development in both white and black communities and offered ideas for improving both parental and children’s educational achievements.

Dr. Diane Scott-Jones, Families and Cognitive Development                                                                                                                                           At the 1988 conference on the ITCS, Scott-Jones reviewed programs aimed at improving  economic and educational outcomes for poor minority children, families, and communities. She concluded that while these programs had had some positive outcomes, “In the future, more  attention must be given to family and community control of programs; to delivery systems that do not segregate and stigmatize poor and minority children and families, to service delivery, monitoring, and evaluation that emphasize family processes over the lifespan; and to policies for the well-being of all children, families, and communities.”

She went on to further these recommendations with work at the National Science Foundation where she started a grants program in child learning and development,  She served on the American Psychology Association’s Task Force to revise its Ethical Principles for Research with Human Participants and on former President Clinton’s National Bioethics Advisory Commission.

Dr. Diana T. Slaughter-Defoe, Home-School Relations                                                                Slaughter-Defoe (later Slaughter Kotzin) brought to the 1988 ITCS conference her expertise in human development focused on black and white families and the discrepancy between how research in the early 1960s and 1970s had focused on creating policies to improve educational achievements of children while more recent R & D was not as clearly policy oriented.  She concluded, “The hard-won, virtually conventional wisdom of the past about the important interface between research in human development and social and educational policy are only infrequently addressed in the more recent research efforts.”

Slaughter-Defoe continued work on families and educational policy at Northwestern University’s Institute for Policy Research Studies and department of African American studies. In 2012 she was elected to the National Academy of Education and in 2019, the American Psychological Association designated her a “pioneer woman of color among the first to break into psychology’s ranks.”

Dr. Warren Simmons, Developing Programs for the ITCS                                                          At the 1988 ITCS conference Simmons discussed issues in the development of educational delivery systems to improve education of underserved students. He had recently published a book chapter concerned with the uses of computer technology and how this differed in white and minority schools. Simmons went on to serve in several research, development  and policy positions carrying out activities to advance educational opportunities for disadvantaged students.

In 1998 Simmons became Executive Director of the Annenberg Institute for School Reform at Brown University to improve schools serving economically disadvantaged students, including the use of computer technology. With his educational technology background in 2006 he was invited by PLATO Learning, Inc.  to join its Board of Directors to help advance the use of digital technologies in education. For his many educational services he was awarded the Distinguished Citizen’s Award by the National Governors Association.

And the Past is Prologue

Shortly following the ITCS conference with its focus on family literacy by Scott-Jones and Slaughter-Defoe  and others, the national Even Start program for the development of family literacy was initiated by the U. S. Congress in 1991. Then in 1998 the U.S. Congress created the Workforce Investment Act with Title II the Adult Education and Family Literacy Act which was carried over into the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA) of 2014 which is still ongoing.

The U.S. Congressionally initiated Museum and Library Services Act of 2010 incorporated instructions for the provision of services  and resources for the development of computer technology skills  (referred to as digital literacy) addressed by Simmons at the 1988 ITCS conference. The presently ongoing WIOA supports education for digital literacy defined as “the skills associated with using technology to enable users to find, evaluate, organize, create, and communicate information”.

Reference

Chapters by these three Black History Month honorees can be found in:  Sticht, T., Beeler, M., &  McDonald, B., (Eds.). The Intergenerational Transfer of Cognitive Skills: Volumes I & II: Ablex Publishing Corporation, Norwood New Jersey
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