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Institute For the Study of Adult Literacy.

National Center for Family Literacy.

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 research agenda for family literacy, 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.

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) Louisville, Kentucky. Operating funds for the Goodling Institute are available through an endowment established at Penn State through a $6 million federal appropriation.


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Goodling Institute
405 Keller Building, University Park, PA 16802
Phone: (814) 865-5876
goodlinginstitute@psu.edu

Copyright 2005 Goodling Institute
Web page last modified January 28, 2010




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