March 2014
Canadian Chamber of Commerce (2013). Opportunity Found: Improving the Participation of Aboriginal
Peoples in Canada’s Workforce. Retrieved January 31, 2014, from
http://www.nald.ca/library/research/ccc/opportunity_found/opportunity_found.pdf
The following presentation was given at the McGill Training and Retention of Health Professionals
Project 2013 Research Conference - Healthcare Access for Linguistic Minorities: Breaking the barriers,
Montreal, March 24-25, Montreal:
Supporting Community Literacy for Improved Health and Literacy Outcomes in Urban and Rural
Quebec
Principal Investigator: Robert Savage, Associate Professor, Department of Educational and Counselling
Psychology, McGill University
Click here for video, presentation, and poster.
Strong relationships between early literacy and health outcomes
National Council of Teachers of English. (2013). Implementation of the Common Core State Standards: A
policy research brief. Council Chronicle, Vol. 23, no. 1
This is a review of recent research done on the implementation of the Common Core State
Standards (CCSS) for English Language Arts, including a survey conducted by the Center for
Education Policy. The CCSS were released in the United States in June 2010 and have been
adopted by 45 of 50 states in order to be eligible for a stream of federal funding. These states
agreed to fully implement these standards by the 2014-15 academic years. The CCSS are
supposed to make students college and career ready. The researchers note that recent research
on learning indicates that students when instruction encourages interaction and engagement.
However, some of the standards suggest a narrow vision of seminal U.S. texts that maarticle
recommends that administrators should support teachers in developing a curriculum that
includes “socially informed” literacy experiences, diverse texts, assessment that informs
instruction, that policy makers
Widening education gap leaves aboriginal Canadians further behind
JOE FRIESEN
The Globe and Mail
Published Monday, Oct. 07 2013, 9:50 PM EDT
Last updated Tuesday, Oct. 08 2013, 5:12 AM EDT
http://www.nber.org/papers/w18893
The number of aboriginal people with university degrees has nearly doubled over the past decade, yet
the gap in education levels between aboriginal and other Canadians has only grown wider.
Closing that gap is one of Canada’s greatest public-policy challenges. New projections show that under
current conditions the post-secondary attainment of aboriginal Canadians will not catch up to the rest of
the population “any time soon.” At best, progress is stagnant; at worst, it’s showing alarming signs of
decline, according to research by Catherine Gordon and Jerry White of Western University.
6
Entry to the vocations: strengthening VET in Schools
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------_Kira Clarke_
How VET in Schools can be strengthened to provide stronger links to post-school pathways is explored in
this report. Integrating vocational learning into the general disciplinary curriculum or having a schoolbased vocational program separate from the Australian Qualifications Framework qualifications were
identified as possible ways to strengthen VET in Schools. This work is part of the three-year research
program Vocations: the link between post-compulsory education and the labour market.
http://www.ncver.edu.au/publications/2678.html
******************************************************************************
Australian vocational education and training statistics: the likelihood of completing a VET qualification
2008-11
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------_NCVER_
In order to fill a gap in performance measures for the vocational education and training (VET) sector, this
publication estimates the course completion rates of publicly funded VET courses in Australia.
Completion rates for qualifications commenced in 2008-11 are given for various groups, including by
qualification level, field of education and state. The corresponding load pass rates are also shown.
http://www.ncver.edu.au/publications/2647.html
New Literacies: Everyday Practices and Social Learning (Peter Lankshear and Michele Knobel, 2011)
Call number: 3.1 LANKSHEAR 2011
This book takes a fresh look at what it means to think of literacies as social practices. Lankshear and
Knobel explore what is distinctively 'new' within a range of currently popular everyday ways of
generating, communicating and negotiating meanings. Online collaborative writing, blogging and social
networking are discussed.
Using e-books and e-readers for adult learning. With a focus on adult literacy (Sandi Gay and Tina
Richardson, 2013)
Call number: 14.1 GAY
Specifically written with the adult learning sector in mind, this straightforward guide discusses the
advantages and effective features of using e-books in adult literacy teaching.
Étude des profils et des besoins des élèves handicapés ou ayant des difficultés d’adaptation ou
d’apprentissage (EHDAA) qui fréquentent un centre d’éducation des adultes (Michelle Dumont)
http://www1.mels.gouv.qc.ca/sections/prprs/index.asp?page=fiche&id=101
La mise en évidence des obstacles au processus de reconnaissance des acquis et des compétences
(Geneviève Talbot)
http://www1.mels.gouv.qc.ca/sections/prprs/index.asp?page=fiche&id=94
Les besoins des adultes en formation générale de base (Carine Villemagne)
http://www1.mels.gouv.qc.ca/sections/prprs/index.asp?page=fiche&id=111
PARcours : Pratiques d’accompagnement du raccrochage scolaire des 16-20 ans (Danielle Desmarais)
http://www1.mels.gouv.qc.ca/sections/prprs/index.asp?page=fiche&id=295
Embedding Literacy and Essential Skills (ELES) in the Workplace – Case Study by ABC Life Literacy Canada
(2012)
The Canadian Institute for Research on Linguistic Minorities, which partners with Concordia for the
QUESCREN initiative, has collaborated on two new publications related to the ESCQ: Richard Bourhis,
ed., Decline and Prospects of the English-Speaking Communities of Quebec and Rodrigue Landry, Réal
Allard and Kenneth Deveau, The Vitality of the English-Speaking Community of Quebec: A
Sociolinguistic Profile of Secondary 4 Students in Quebec English Schools.
Bourhis, R.Y. (2013). Decline and Prospects of the English-speaking Communities of Quebec. New
Canadian Perspectives, Ottawa: Canadian Heritage.
Adults Learning, Vol. 25, No. 2 (Autumn 2013)
Publisher: NIACE
Location: United Kingdom
Includes articles on:

Looking at policy proposals on education and training from the Government and opposition
parties, including signs that the idea that increasing apprenticeships is the “answer to
everything” is losing its dominance
Council Chronicle, Vol. 23, no. 1 (September 2013)
Publisher: The National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE)
Location: United States
Theme: Finding and using evidence of student learning
Includes a policy research brief on the implementation of the Common Core Standards (CCSS) by NCTE
that reviews research on the learning theory behind, and implementation of, CCSS, and makes policy
recommendations.
Journal of Research and Practice for Adult Literacy, Secondary, and Basic Education, Vol. 2, No. 2
(Summer 2013)
Publishers: The Commission on Adult Basic Education and Western Kentucky University
Location: United States

A web scan of free online tools that can be used for project-based learning for low-literate
learners, edited by David J. Rosen
Fine Print, Vol. 36, No. 3
Publisher: VALBEC
Location: Australia
Topics include:



Part Two of “Lessons Learned from International Assessments”: a discussion of PIAAC and how it
provides a reference for teachers developing tasks and assessments. Later in the issue there is a
“practical application” of the pedagogical ideas on this article
Family literacy in Canada’s north
A new Australian framework for employability skills
Fine Print, Vol. 36, No. 2
Publisher: VALBEC
Location: Australia
Topics include:


Part One of “Lessons Learned from International Assessments”
An ethnographic perspective on literacy that presents another way of seeing Aboriginal literacy,
including a section on youth and digital literacies
Journal of Adolescent and Adult Literacy, Vol. 57, No. 4 (December 2013 – January 2014)
Publishers: The Commission on Adult Basic Education and Western Kentucky University
Location: United States
Topics include:
 A critical look at the concept of “multiliteracies”
Journal of Adolescent and Adult Literacy, Vol. 57, No. 3 (November 2013)
Publishers: The Commission on Adult Basic Education and Western Kentucky University
Location: United States
Includes feature articles on:
 Adolescent males’ “hidden literacies”: their appreciation and understanding of the visual
Journal of Adolescent and Adult Literacy, Vol. 57, No. 2 (October 2013)
Publishers: The International Reading Association
Location: United States
Topics include:

Adolescents’ use of iPods
Journal of Adolescent and Adult Literacy, Vol. 57, No. 1 (September 2013)
Publishers: The International Reading Association
Location: United States
Topics include:

A study of the “literacy-infused” instructional practices used by a community-based arts
program for urban adolescents
Reading Today, Vol. 31, No. 2 (October/November 2013)
Publisher: International Reading Association
Location: United States
Theme: Implementing the Common Core State Standards (CCSS)
Includes:
 European Conference on Reading’s focus on digital literacies
 The changing of the New Zealand’s Reading Association’s name to “New Zealand Literacy
Association”
Reading Today, Vol. 30, No. 5 (April/May 2013)
Publisher: International Reading Association
Location: United States
Topics include:
 International Reading Association’s lobbying for the LEARN (Literacy for Every American, Results
for the Nation) Act, based on the argument that 600,000 manufacturing jobs are going unfilled
for lack of workers with the specific literacy skills required.
o The LEARN Act would “support comprehensive national, state and local literacy
programs” for children from birth through Grade 12
Literacy: New study on boys and reading
http://www.todaysparent.com/family/education/boys-and-reading/
Boy-Girl Differences in Parental Time Investments: Evidence from Three Countries
Michael Baker, Kevin Milligan
NBER Working Paper No. 18893
Issued in March 2013
NBER Program(s): CH
We study differences in the time parents spend with girls and boys at preschool ages in
Canada, the U.K. and the U.S. We refine previous evidence that fathers commit more time
to boys, showing this greater commitment emerges with age and is not present for very
young children. We next examine differences in specific parental teaching activities such as
reading and the use of number and letters. We find the parents commit more of this time
to girls, starting at ages as young as 9 months. We explore possible explanations of this
greater commitment to girls including explicit parental preference and boy-girl differences
in costs of these time inputs. Finally, we offer evidence that these differences in time
inputs are potentially important: in each country the boy-girl difference in inputs can
account for a non-trivial proportion of the boy-girl difference in preschool reading and
math scores.
You may purchase this paper on-line in .pdf format from SSRN.com ($5) for electronic delivery