9.7
Percent of
15-year-olds in 18
countries ranked top
performers in the
inaugural fi nancial
literacy portion
of the Program of
International Student
Assessment (PISA)
Percent that
didn’t meet the
“baseline level of
profi ciency”
The top
performing
region:
Shanghai-China
Students who are more likely to
fi nish a book they picked out,
according to Scholastic’s Kids &
Family Reading Report
Percent of countries
in an Organization
for Economic
Cooperation and
Development
study where girls
outperformed boys
in reading, math,
and science literacy
BY THE NUMBERS
15.3 No.1 9 out of 10 70
Did You Hear?
“Parents in the U.S. are
obsessed with teaching
their kids the ABCs…what
they should be doing is
‘scaffolding’ their children’s
writing.” —Tel Aviv University’s
Dorit Aram, whose study
supporting writing among
preschoolers as a key
to literacy development
was published recently in
Early Childhood Research
Quarterly
Our newest Alpha Upsilon Alpha (AUA) honor society chapter was established
at New York’s Hofstra University. Created in 1985, AUA encourages the
development of personal and professional leadership and service to the field
of literacy. The inaugural members, who join 21 other chapters across the U.S.,
will spend the semester holding book discussion groups, a speakers’ series on
campus, and collecting books for local schools in need.
ILA’s Future Leaders
Welcome to ThisWeek
We’ve introduced a new weekly e-mail called ThisWeek. You’ll
receive fewer e-mails from us (which you’ve been asking for);
but we’ve streamlined the content you want into a more user-
friendly format. If you’ve unsubscribed from ILA e-mails and
want back in, visit literacyworldwide.org/thisweek.
Keep your eye on
your e-mail on
March 23. That’s
when election ballots
will arrive for the
2015-2016 ILA Board
of Directors. Voting
will be open until
April 27, and winners
will be announced in
early May.
Don’t Forget to Vote
READING TODAY | March/April 2015