Hello-

I was a subscriber (albeit a quiet one) to this listserv for many
years, and I always enjoyed reading about the different issues that come up around family 
literacy. I recently re-subscribed, and I am writing now with the hope that some of you may be 
able to help me.  (This list has been of enormous help to me and my fellow researchers at Harvard 
over the years!)

I am a doctoral student at Harvard University Graduate School of Education, and I am working on a 
dissertation on family literacy. (My adviser is John Comings, the director of the National Center 
for the Study of Adult Learning and Literacy.) For my dissertation, I am looking at instructional 
practices in urban family literacy programs across the country in order to get a better idea of 
what kind of instruction is taking place and how this instruction is similar and different in 
different cities as well as in different types of programs.

Family literacy is a relatively new subset of adult education, and I believe it would be of great 
benefit to the field to better understand what is taking place in different kinds of programs 
across the country. To obtain this information, I have asked family literacy teachers (those that 
work with parents) at approximately 300 randomly selected programs in 15 geographically 
representative urban areas to complete an online survey for me.

I attempted to make as complete a list as possible of family literacy programs (actually with the 
help of this list, several years ago), but I have found through the process of emailing, calling 
and snail mailing programs, that family literacy is a constantly changing field.  To the extent 
that programs I have contacted still exist, or still offer family literacy services, I have been 
very pleased with the response I have gotten.  (To those programs that have completed the survey, 
thank you, thank you, thank you!)  However, many of the programs I contacted no longer offer 
family literacy, or are in between classes, or have cut back services due to funding issues, etc. 
 For that reason, the number of programs that have participated in my study is less than I would 
have hoped.

I am hoping to increase the number of participants by appealing to the readers of this listserv. 
 If you’ve received a letter, phone call or mailing from me, and haven’t yet responded, please 
consider doing so.  And if you haven’t heard from me, but work with parents at a family literacy 
program in one of the cities listed below, or if you know of someone who does, would you please 
consider helping me?  Either fill out the survey yourself, or forward this message to a 
practitioner who might be willing to do so.

The survey can be accessed at the following web link:

http://gseacademic.harvard.edu/~degeneso/

Survey respondents need to fill in a respondent id number at the beginning of the survey.  If you 
do decide to complete the survey, please use the code “listserv” in the respondent id box.

The survey takes about half an hour to complete.  I cannot financially compensate respondents, but 
I will share the results of the survey as well as my final report with every participant that 
wants to receive them.

The cities that are included in my study (as well as the greater metropolitan areas of those 
cities) are:

Boston, MA
Chicago, IL
Cleveland, OH
Dallas, TX
Denver, CO
Detroit, MI
Jacksonville, FL
Los Angeles, CA
Memphis, TN
New York, NY
Phoenix, AZ
San Antonio, TX
San Francisco, CA (Bay Area)
Seattle, WA
Washington, DC

I have limited my study to large urban areas (the above cities represent 15 of the 30 largest 
cities in the U.S.) because I am most interested in the educational problems associated with 
cities. I know that there are wonderful programs in rural and suburban areas as well, but for this 
study I am focusing on urban programs.

Any help that you can provide would be MUCH appreciated!! Please
let me know, too, if you have any questions about my study. (Please send any questions or comments 
to me at my email address: degeneso at gse.harvard.edu, not to the entire list.)

Sincerely,

Sophie C. Degener

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Sophie Degener
Harvard Graduate School of Education
sophie_degener at gse.harvard.edu
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