About Us

Mission

The Goodling Institute provides national leadership that promotes the value of family literacy and supports program improvement through research and its application to practice and professional development.

What is family literacy?

Family literacy programs build on existing resources to provide integrated educational programs to:

• Improve parents' basic academic and literacy skills;

• Support children's development and emergent literacy skills; and

• Increase parents' skills and knowledge about their rights and responsibilities as their children's first teachers.

These programs provide integrated literacy services focused on families' educational needs, establish community collaborations that build on existing resources, and offer instruction that provide families with the tools and support needed to become self-sufficient.

What does the Goodling Institute do?

The Goodling Institute challenges family literacy researchers to look beyond the individual disciplines of early childhood education, elementary education, adult education, and parent education and engagement. Research must focus on how each discipline works together in family literacy settings. Based on the Goodling Institute's National Family Literacy Research Agenda, researchers and practitioners are encouraged to study the issues detailed in the agenda. Study findings, such as those found in our research briefs can help policymakers make sound decisions about these programs, and can help practitioners to develop professionally and apply research to improve practice at the local level.

There are three overarching goals for the Goodling Institute:

GOAL 1: Research

To develop a sound conceptual, interdisciplinary research base for guiding practice and policy.

GOAL 2: Professional Development

To build, in cooperation with the National Center for Family Literacy, the capacity of the field to provide high quality, research-based instruction and program development in family literacy.

GOAL 3: Policy

To provide leadership in family literacy through communication and collaborative action with professional organizations, state departments of education, policy makers and the general public.

Where is the Goodling Institute located?

The Goodling Institute, housed within The Pennsylvania State University's College of Education, works collaboratively with the College's Institute for the Study of Adult Literacy and the National Center for Family Literacy (NCFL) in Louisville, Kentucky. Operating funds for the Goodling Institute are available through an endowment established at Penn State through a $6 million federal appropriation.

To find out more about Pennsylvania Family Literacy, go to PA Family Literacy resources.