The Reading/Writing/Literacy program prepares students as practitioners, researchers, and policy makers in educational settings that include K-12 schools, colleges and universities, community-based literacy programs, and educational publishing and government programs.

Four principles guide the program. (1) It is interdisciplinary because literacy, language, and culture interact in rich and complex ways. Literacy and language are studied from sociopolitical, cultural, psychological, historical, linguistic, and literary perspectives. (2) The program is inquiry-based, intended to raise questions about the relationships among theory, research, policy, and practice while encouraging students to build their own theories of research and practice. (3) It focuses on diversity and on urban settings, and the contexts of different schools, communities, families, and cultures. (4) The program is committed to educational change, recognizing that educational institutions are sites in which to work for social justice, equity, and transformation.

Through internships in settings such as the Weingarten Learning Resources Center, public and independent schools, and community and social service agencies, students in RWL work with learners across generations. Students collaborate with RWL faculty in research associated with some of the most distinguished research centers and professional development projects in the country: the Philadelphia Writing Project; the Penn Literacy Network; the National Center on Fathers and Families; the National Center on Adult Literacy; Penn's Early Childhood and Family Studies Institute; and the International Literacy Institute.

The faculty's research and scholarly interests include early literacy, critical and feminist theory and pedagogy, literacy in families and communities, adolescent, intergenerational, and adult literacy, multiculturalism, curricular organization and design, practitioner inquiry assessment and evaluation, children's responses to literature, post-secondary literacies, and teacher education/professional development/teacher leadership.