The National Center for Literacy Education

In 2011 NCTE and the Ball Foundation joined together in a project to identify, celebrate, and elevate the work of successful school teams across the country who were achieving remarkable results in advancing literacy learning. That initiative became known as the National Center for Literacy Education (NCLE).

For six years, NCLE provided support to and compiled evidence about how educators working in cross-disciplinary teams were designing and implementing plans to support literacy learners in every classroom. By sharing stories, vignettes, and cases from these schools, NCLE not only made teaching and learning practices visible, it also highlighted the organizational conditions and community supports that made real progress possible.

At the core of this work is the Framework for Building Capacity , a useful way of thinking about a group’s ability to learn and adapt to changes from within or from outside. An Asset Inventory  was also created which enables school teams to evaluate their areas of strength and need within that framework.

The myriad projects developed through NCLE were fueled not only by NCTE but by a group of stakeholder organizations  that dedicated time and resources to research initiatives and an online Literacy and Learning Exchange.