What is the Strategic Literacy Initiative (SLI)?

As Co-Director of WestEd's Strategic Literacy Initiative (SLI), Schoenbach has worked closely with Co-Director Cynthia Greenleaf and other staff since 1995 to increase access to higher-level literacy learning for adolescents, particularly those who have not yet met their academic potential.

Building on prior research and locally based research, Schoenbach and Greenleaf developed the Reading Apprenticeship® instructional framework, which they describe in their best-selling WestEd book, Reading for Understanding: A Guide to Improving Reading in Middle and High School Classrooms. This book has become the catalyst for an international movement of educators who use the Reading Apprenticeship framework in their local schools — from elementary schools to community colleges to teacher education courses.

In response to requests for training related to the book, SLI has developed national training institutes, regional (continued on next page) professional development services, a growing cadre of certified consultants, and numerous publications and tools for classroom and professional development use. Literacy coaches, middle and high school teachers, district and site administrators, community college teachers and teacher educators from more than 28 states and Germany have participated in SLI-led professional development, impacting an estimated 170,000 students nationally and several thousand more in Germany, where Reading for Understanding has been translated into German. Numerous local studies in schools and districts reflect promising outcomes for students whose teachers are implementing Reading Apprenticeship. SLI's Reading Apprenticeship Academic Literacy course was chosen in 2005 as one of only two adolescent literacy programs in the nation designated by the U.S. Department of Education's Institute of Education Sciences for further study and evaluation. Schoenbach directs SLI's participation in this Enhanced Reading Opportunities study. The program was chosen by an independent panel of experts on adolescent literacy, which evaluated the extent to which an adolescent reading program is high quality, including issues of how to motivate adolescents to read, whether there is research-based evidence of the program's effectiveness, and whether the program is comprehensive and linked to content-area reading.



Schoenbach has co-edited two more books — Building Academic Literacy: An Anthology for Reading Apprenticeship, and Building Academic Literacy: Lessons from Reading Apprenticeship Classrooms, Grades 6-12 — and has co-authored numerous articles appearing in such publications as the Harvard Educational Review and the Phi Delta Kappan. The Reading Apprenticeship framework is cited as one of four programs in Reading Next, a document on adolescent literacy published by the Alliance for Excellent Education. View more articles about Reading Apprenticeship.



Schoenbach received a BA in social sciences from the University of California, Berkeley, a Bilingual Multiple Subjects Teaching Credential from San Francisco State University, and an EdM in teaching, curriculum, and learning environments from the Harvard Graduate School of Education.



SLI's Reading Apprenticeship Academic Literacy course was chosen in 2005 as one of only two adolescent literacy programs in the nation designated by the U.S. Department of Education's Institute of Education Sciences for further study and evaluation. Schoenbach directs SLI's participation in this Enhanced Reading Opportunities study. The program was chosen by an independent panel of experts on adolescent literacy, which evaluated the extent to which an adolescent reading program is high quality, including issues of how to motivate adolescents to read, whether there is research-based evidence of the program's effectiveness, and whether the program is comprehensive and linked to content-area reading.



Schoenbach has co-edited two more books — Building Academic Literacy: An Anthology for Reading Apprenticeship, and Building Academic Literacy: Lessons from Reading Apprenticeship Classrooms, Grades 6-12 — and has co-authored numerous articles appearing in such publications as the Harvard Educational Review and the Phi Delta Kappan. The Reading Apprenticeship framework is cited as one of four programs in Reading Next, a document on adolescent literacy published by the Alliance for Excellent Education. View more articles about Reading Apprenticeship.



Schoenbach received a BA in social sciences from the University of California, Berkeley, a Bilingual Multiple Subjects Teaching Credential from San Francisco State University, and an EdM in teaching, curriculum, and learning environments from the Harvard Graduate School of Education.