About the Institute

The National Institute for Literacy, a federal agency, provides leadership on literacy issues, including the improvement of reading instruction for children, youth, and adults. In consultation with the U.S. Departments of Education, Labor, and Health and Human Services, the Institute serves as a national resource on current, comprehensive literacy research, practice, and policy.

The National Institute for Literacy was established in 1991 by the National Literacy Act (NLA) and reauthorized by the Workforce Investment Act (WIA) in 1998. In creating the Institute, the U.S. Congress recognized that building a competitive workforce required a concerted effort to improve adults' basic skills. Congress tasked the Institute with initiating a coordinated, interagency effort to strengthen and expand adult literacy services. Both laws positioned the Institute as a national leader on adult literacy, a central source of knowledge about research, practice, and policy, and a catalyst for innovation.

The Institute is authorized under the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) law to help children, youth, and adults learn to read by supporting and disseminating scientifically-based reading research. The Institute is responsible for:

• Making the findings of scientifically-based reading research available to educators, administrators, and families.
• Identifying effective classroom reading programs and reading programs that include the components of reading as defined by scientific research.
• Carrying out scientifically-based reading research that determines the most effective ways of improving the literacy skills of adults with reading difficulties and how family literacy services can best provide parents with the knowledge and skills they need to support their children's literacy development. The Institute implements this requirement by providing the appropriation authorized by Literacy Involves Families Together (LIFT) law to the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) to award as research grants.

The Institute also receives guidance from the two entities that form its governance structure: the Interagency Group and the Advisory Board. The Interagency Group, composed of the Secretaries of Education, Labor, and Health and Human Services, reviews the Advisory Board's recommendations concerning Institute goals and programs. The Presidentially-appointed Advisory Board advises on the Institute's operations within the parameters established by WIA and NCLB.

With the Advisory Board's guidance, the Institute developed a framework for integrating its policies, programs, and resources in order to more effectively carry out its mission. The Institute uses the core elements of the framework, listed below, to help organize its major areas of work.

• Disseminate high-quality information and resources grounded in rigorous research;
• Translate scientifically-based or the most rigorous available research into guidance and tools that can be used in practice;
• Identify high-performing programs, practices and policies that produce desirable outcomes;
• Support rigorous research on literacy acquisition; and
• Understand educators' and other practitioners' knowledge of scientifically-based research findings and their applications to practice.