Elementary teachers today are sometimes urged to integrate reading and writing instruction throughout their curriculum (for example into science and social studies lessons), both to foster deeper learning of content and to develop stronger literacy skills. However, simply mixing subjects may not help students either learn basic facts or develop higher thinking and literacy skills. On a national survey conducted in the 1990s, teachers and state language arts specialists identified the need to know more about whether and how to integrate the elementary curriculum as their top concern overall. CELA researchers responded to that need by studying:

Research sites located primarily in four states -- California, New York, Texas, and Wisconsin -- provided geographic and demographic diversity and enabled researchers to make comparisons across studies. The total study sample included more than 75 teachers and 2000 students. Two major research questions included: