Literacy – Spanning the US :: Ocala FL :: Plymouth MA :: San Antonio TX

Literacy: Spanning the U.S.     

How Low Literacy Rates and Lack of Education Funding Fuel the Cycle of Incarceration

Prisoners at Lowell Correctional Facility in Ocala, Florida, engage in a volunteer-led literacy program.

Truthout: 8.05.2018 by Michael Sainato

At Lowell Correctional Facility, a women’s prison in Ocala, Florida, incarcerated volunteers provide a literacy program to help fellow prisoners improve their reading capabilities. The facility is the  largest women’s prison in the United States, housing roughly 2,600 prisoners.

Over the past few decades, several studies and reports have been published in an attempt to establish a sense of the literacy rates in prisons throughout the United States. Though data is sparse, the few studies conducted by the Department of Education and several other organizations point to a continuing issue within the criminal legal system: Many of those currently incarcerated find themselves struggling with the literary skills required to function in society.

“We test them to see where they are and get them ready for the GED. This is more involved one-on-one than the teaching in the GED program,” Mary Christensen, a prisoner volunteer tutor in the Lowell Correctional Facility program, told Truthout. “I have some students who test at a second-grade level, so it varies. There are some students in here who never completed kindergarten.”

Like many prison education programs, the literacy program at Lowell Correctional Facility is entirely run by volunteers, all of whom are prisoners. All correctional department programs in Florida combined only constitute 2.3 percent of the state prison budget, and Republican Gov. Rick Scott has proposed further cuts to education services for prisoners and parolees in the 2018-2019 fiscal year.  READ MORE >>

@PlymouthLibrary

Plymouth Public Library’s literacy program expands

Plymouth Wicked Local: 8.06.2018 by Rich Harbert

With a little reshuffling of resources and some generous financing, Plymouth Public library is set to launch a major literacy initiative for the people of the South Shore.

The library recently finished construction of a new technology center that will serve as the centerpiece of the program.

The technology center will double as maker space for library programming when adult education classes are not in session. But plans call for weekday morning and evening literacy classes, with drop-in sessions for students on the waiting list or just looking for extra help.

Library Director Jennifer Harris said the program will consolidate the library’s literacy offerings under one roof for the first time in years and will nearly double the number of students taking classes, increasing enrollment from 50 to 92.

The expanded program is made possible with a combination of state grants and private donations.

Gifts from the late Lawrence Bongiovanni and local architect Jeff Metcalfe made construction possible. Bongiovanni left the library $250,000 to promote literacy in memory of longtime friend Donald Grimshaw. Metcalfe donated his architectural services to design the technology center in the former periodical reading room of the library.

The lightly used sitting area where patrons once read newspapers and magazines is now closed off and outfitted with 13 work stations for students in the literacy program. Each station includes hard-wired computer terminals. A gift from Entergy will outfit the room with an 80-inch smart TV that will allow teachers and library staff to hold seminars in the room as well.

The library’s old literacy center located right next door is being renovated as a literacy classroom.  READ MORE >>

@EOTO_SA

San Antonio’s Adult Literacy Epidemic

KROV FM: 8.07.2018 by Alexandra Lang

If you are reading this article, you’re one of the seventy five percent of of adults in San Antonio who are literate.  Sadly, approximately twenty five percent of San Antonio’s adult population reads at a 5^th grade level according to the U.S. Census.

Among the many challenges that permeate international conversations—poverty, human rights, and global climate change—adult illiteracy is often forgotten.

For most of us, learning to read is a blurry, forgotten childhood memory, a skill taken for granted, even though it is skill we use almost constantly.

According to the Central Connecticut State University, which has conducted a national literacy study since 2005, San Antonio is one of the least literate cities in the country. In 2016, out of the 82 cities studied, San Antonio was ranked the 76th most literate city, just below Fresno, CA.  Of the largest 35 cities San Antonio is ranked dead last.

The problem is by no means limited to San Antonio, however.  According to ProLiteracy, over 36 million adults in the U.S. “cannot read, write, or do basic math above a third grade level.”  In 2014, the Council for Advancement of Adult Literacy released an international study of literacy. The U.S.’s literacy level was lower than the international average, and it was ranked lower than 12 countries including Canada, Japan, and Australia—all of which we are in competition for jobs.

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Education has historically been a tool wielded by authoritarian figures. Those in power took measures to ensure that education was exclusively for the upper and ruling classes. Therefore those at a lower socioeconomic levels became dependent on the upper classes for employment.

The question has long been asked whether the low-information community of San Antonio is kept that way by decision makers and politicians because they have failed to allocate funds to deal with San Antonio’s reading crisis.  READ MORE >>