The Alliance for the International Study of Texts and Literacy (AISTL)

The Alliance for the International Study of Texts and Literacy (AISTL) at the University of Texas at San Antonio is an interdisciplinary, international academy designed to improve the health of children and women in developing countries through the use of literacy in schools and communities, while simultaneously improving education in San Antonio and south central Texas. The objectives of the AISTL are to:

· Promote improvements in curriculum content to make curricula relevant to learners’ economic and social environment and allow for continuity through different grade levels;

· Promote the adoption of appropriate teaching methods that involve students in the learning process;

· Assist international education ministries in developing effective policy analysis and adopting effective personnel recruitment, training and monitoring systems;

· Encourage girls in schools by removing gender stereotypes from learning materials;

· Train teachers to use modern technology to strengthen communications within national education systems and linking those systems into regional and global networks; and to

· Provide teachers in San Antonio and South Texas with opportunities to become more effective in their classrooms by studying the teaching methods used in underserved communities throughout the world.

The mission of AISTL is to collaboratively address issues of literacy in health, gender equity and economic prosperity that reach beyond those faced in the Western Hemisphere with ongoing emphasis on partnership with South Africa within the framework of the AISTL.

Academy Charter
The ASTLH Charter, promulgated in October 2005, through a cooperative grant funded by the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), the University of Texas at San Antonio (UTSA), RealeStudios and faculty from throughout the country, establishes the top-level organizational relationships (Figure 1) and academic and expertise described in the following Academic Leadership Areas.

Academic Leadership Areas
The Academy will bring to bear the primary objective of the Textbooks and Learning Materials Program and the African Book Community (ABC) Literacy Initiative, that is to enhance girls’ and boys’ learning opportunities in sub-Saharan African primary schools by providing 3.6 million copies of high-quality, cost-effective textbooks and learning materials by the year 2008.

· Building a lasting working relationship between the UTSA and its African partners to build sustainable linkages and to continue technical assistance and support for its African partners after the completion of this activity;

· Creating a central location in which research on language learning, health and literacy, and textbook materials creation can be housed and accessed world-wide; and

· Strengthening the capacity of the UTSA to maintain a tracking system to monitor expenditures and budget and to monitor and manage technical inputs so that benchmarks are met on schedule and expenses are within budget.

Housed at the UTSA, the Academy will initially include faculty from the UTSA’s College of Education and Human Development and the University Health and Science Center. Collectively, the work of the faculty in these colleges represents expertise in language and literacy learning, language and literacy policy, sociolinguistics, women’s health and women’s issues, and teaching and teacher education. Further, the Academy will include experts from around the country, including the University of California at Berkeley, the University of Texas at Austin, the University of Louisville, Rutgers University, and Johns Hopkins Hospital. These outside experts will contribute as consultants and will be a significant part of meeting the goals of the AEI and the Textbooks and Learning Materials Program throughout the world.