The NCLB Act is a measure intended to help children read - but what about those areas of the country where adult illiteracy is the problem? The Arkansas Democrat covers a movement to help adults who are struggling with reading, especially in areas such as the Mississippi Delta, where illiteracy rates approach 40% in some areas:
In some Delta counties, more than 40 percent of the adult population reads at a basic, limited level or can’t read at all. Often parents who read poorly raise children to have the same problem, creating a generational cycle of illiteracy and poverty, say literacy experts. At a time when state lawmakers and educators are struggling to reform Arkansas public schools and improve school performance, a small group of people is working quietly to help the adults.
The term illiteracy has become politically incorrect. It stigmatizes poor readers, keeps them from admitting their problem and from possibly getting help, literacy experts say. Instead, functionally illiterate adults are now "low-level" readers — those who read on an eighth-grade level or lower.
Sigh. Let me guess. These "literacy experts" are the same folks who consider it politically incorrect for schools to identify, through testing, students who can't read. They're dancing around the topic with their euphemisms, a technique which does nothing to help those who are suffering. Applying a new term to this old problem might remove a stigma, but unless those adults are taught to read, the problem is not solved.
In the bygone era of sharecropping, earning a living didn’t require an education. So, many dropped out of school and never learned to read. Some even graduated high school functionally illiterate. "When you’re dealing with 40- to 60-year-olds, back then they didn’t have all the testing they have now," said Sheree Jackson, an administrative assistant at Desha County’s literacy council. "They could [graduate high school] without knowing how to read."
Do I believe my eyes? We have an educator here who admits that testing can help prevent the problem of graduating functionally illiterate students? How wonderful. I wonder if she knows that her philosophy directly contradicts that of many educators today, who believe that testing impedes learning?
Luckily, it looks like people like Ms. Jackson will have an impact on the education of children, if she can help improve adult literacy in her area:
Typically, Delta schools have lower standardized-test scores than in other parts of the state, and most school districts in danger of a state takeover are in the Delta. To succeed in school, children need to be read to, advocates say. And they need help with their homework.
Posted by kswygert at August 5, 2003 04:37 PM