Literacy Collaborative is a comprehensive school reform project designed to improve the reading, writing, and language skills of elementary children. The cornerstone of this project is dynamic, long-term professional development. School-based literacy coordinators are trained in research-based methods; provided with ongoing professional development as they continually implement research-based approaches in their own classrooms; and supported as they provide on-site training for the teachers in their schools. The goal of this comprehensive effort is to significantly raise the level of literacy achievement for all students.

The Literacy Collaborative incorporates all of the elements of effective schools to support improved literacy instruction and student achievement through:

• Providing a research-based instructional model that is language-based, student-centered, process-oriented, and outcome-based;
• Creating in-school and in-district leadership through the training and support of school-based literacy leadership teams, administrators, and literacy coordinators;
• Establishing long-term site-based development for every member of the school’s literacy faculty; and
• Helping schools monitor the progress of every student through systematized assessment, data collection, and analysis.

Literacy Collaborative is a comprehensive model designed to provide a school-wide approach for improving the reading and writing achievement of children. Literacy Collaborative includes ten essential characteristics, which define a Literacy Collaborative school. The curriculum is based on a comprehensive language and literacy framework that includes a wide range of individual, small-group, and large-group reading and writing activities guided by ongoing assessment consistent with recommended national standards for K-6 literacy education. The language and literacy framework, the instructional core of the Literacy Collaborative model, includes components which address the five essential elements of reading instruction – phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary, and comprehension – as identified by the National Reading Panel. Literacy Collaborative schools have Reading Recovery as a safety net for first grade children experiencing difficulty with reading and writing.

Literacy Collaborative has been a service mark of The Ohio State University since 1998. Lesley University was granted use of the service mark in 1999 for the development of the intermediate model, and in 2004 for the development of the middle-school model. Schools that meet the Literacy Collaborative Standards are granted royalty-free use of the service mark on a yearly basis. National governance is provided by the Literacy Collaborative Trademark Committee. Current members are Jill Eurich, Irene Fountas, Andrea McCarrier, Gay Su Pinnell, Diane Powell, and Patricia Scharer (chair).