Literacy and Education

Roughly two-thirds of American primary and secondary school students are unable to read and write at grade-level. A disproportionate number of those not performing at grade level are students from low-income, minority, English learning backgrounds, or are students with language and literacy related learning disabilities. Research shows that language skills in the early primary grades predict literacy skills in secondary school and beyond. Improving our understanding of how language affects reading and writing development, and how to translate this understanding into helping children to better learn to read and write is of national and international importance.

Maryland Language and Literacy Center
The LLRC is a new interdisciplinary center emerging from the College of Education’s Department of Counseling, Higher Education, and Special Education. It is affiliated with the broader Language Science Center on campus. Center faculty have made significant contributions in areas such as early oral language development, reading and writing acquisition, bilingual language and literacy learning, language based learning disabilities, and curriculum and instruction in language and literacy. The LLRC aims to bring together individual faculty members with various areas of expertise to collaborate with each other, school personnel, and policymakers to improve children’s language and literacy skills across the lifespan.