Literacy – Spanning the US :: Oklahoma City OK :: Carlsbad CA :: Hamilton MT

Literacy: Spanning the U.S.     

@LiteracyOKC

Project Oklahoma: Dropout Rate Rises

KOKH Fox 25: 1.16.2019 by Phil Cross

For the last decade Oklahoma’s dropout rate seemed to be going down, but now it's back on the rise. Project Oklahoma found out there’s a good reason why the dropout rate rose dramatically, it is because the state’s previous reporting for students who quit school was not accurate.

In 1997 the state’s dropout rate was reported as 5.5% and for a decade the rate fell until it was 1.9% in the 2015-2016 school year. However, in the last reporting year the Oklahoma Department of Oklahoma reported a sharp uptick in the number of dropouts, raising the rate to 3% which represented 5,668 students.

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Keeping tabs on struggling students or those who leave the education system has not always been as much of a priority as it is now.

“There's just not a whole lot of options jobs that pay well when you don't have a high school diploma,” said Riz White of the Community Literacy Centers. White runs the organization that teaches Oklahomans to read. Some people dropped out of school and some had technically graduated, but failed to ever learn to read in a traditional classroom.

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“There's a huge problem with illiteracy,” White said, “And it is intergenerational and we are hoping to move the needle a little bit.”

According to the Oklahoma Literacy Resource Office, 16% of adults under the age of 24 do not have a high school diploma. For adults over the age of 24 the percentage of people who have no high school degree is 9% and both of those percentages are often much higher in rural communities.  WATCH 03:13

@carlsbadlibrary

Literacy Breakthroughs: Carlsbad Library Learning Center Literacy Pairs

Learning Connections: January/February 2019 by Carrie Scott

Even with the most effective tutoring pairs, plateaus can happen. Sometimes, you may find you’re in a rut, struggling with a new learning theory or needing a different approach.

Here are three Carlsbad Library Learning Center literacy pairs who shared their recent breakthroughs and leaps forward! We hope that their stories will inspire you to try new techniques, tools and ideas.

Andrea G. and Anastasio S — Writer to Writer

Anastasio had never typed a letter before. He'd written some paragraphs, but never a complete letter, and certainly not to an author! Last year, he entered the Writer to Writer Challenge, a contest for adult learners to read a book and write a letter to the author about how the book impacted their life. Anastasio chose the book "Road Trip" by Gary Paulson. He said he liked the book, because he enjoyed how the characters became friends on the trip.

Stephanie S. and Adriana M. — Phono-Graphix

Tutor Stephanie had been working with her learner on Phono-Graphix for about six weeks. Because her learner had been in the program before, she flew through the initial lessons and even the advanced code sound lessons, because the words were familiar to her.

Rylee C. and Souad B. — Read Live

This pair had been meeting for about 6 months, and even though they were making progress, the learner was eager to learn faster. That's when we introduced them to Read Live, a computer program where the learner reads along with a story, while learning new vocabulary.  READ MORE >>

Literacy Bitterroot

Donors Keep Literacy Bitterroot Funded Until Tax Monies Kick In

Ravalli Republic: 1.20.2019 by Perry Backus

In November, Ravalli County residents passed a 1.5 mill levy to support adult literacy with 54 percent of the vote.

It was great news for Literacy Bitterroot director Dixie Stark, whose 30-year-old program was facing a financial challenge after losing about half its annual budget following changes made by the Montana Office of Public Instruction that made it impossible for the program to apply for a federal grant.

“We were so grateful to see the message was clear,” Stark said. “Our community understood that our program was both necessary and that its services needed to be provided locally.”

The levy is expected to bring in about $120,000 a year for the adult literacy program based in Hamilton. But that funding won’t be available for Literacy Bitterroot until the end of the year.

“The levy passed in November,” Stark said. “Tax bills go out in October, which means the levy won’t appear on tax bills until Oct. 2019. I assume we’ll get some funding sometime after that.”

Until then, Stark said the program will run off money that it has in the bank and generous donations from people interested in ensuring the adult literacy program continues to help the wide range of people who come through its doors.  READ MORE >>