Literacy In The News :: Spanning the US
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The Garden Island: 1.19.2021 by Stephanie Shinno
Hawai‘i
Literacy, a grant-funded nonprofit organization, is
back on Kaua‘i with its free, adult-tutoring program that also helps adults get
their GED (General Education Development) degree, driver’s license, learn about
college, help with getting a new job and learning new computer skills while
their keiki get tutored, too.
According
to Hawai‘i Literacy, one in six adults in Hawai‘i struggle with literacy. Many
adults in Hawai‘i were forced to drop out of school when they were younger to
help their families work in their farms back in the plantation days, and today
there are more single parents who had to drop out of school to take care of their
‘ohana who are in need of help with going back to college.
Adults
can get tutored while their children get tutored too. However, adults don’t
need to have keiki in order to use their tutoring services. READ
MORE ➤➤
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Advocate: 1.20.2021 by Editorial Board
A
pastor who couldn’t read the Bible would memorize his sermons from an
audiotape. A doctor from overseas who couldn’t read English would clean motel
rooms in Victoria. A single father who was laid off from an oil field job
couldn’t find employment.
The
stories are heart wrenching.
What
do all of these people have in common?
They
all sought and received free help from the Victoria Adult Literacy Council.
Unfortunately,
the council, a nonprofit organization that has been in the Crossroads since the
early 1980s, has shut down. It began dissolving in August because of difficulty
in raising the necessary funding for operations.
“We
are still in the transfer phase,” said Stacey Milberger, executive director of
the council for 21 years. “As a nonprofit, we have an obligation to distribute
our possessions to other nonprofits. We can’t sell them. By the end of January,
the literacy council should be totally dissolved.”
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The
good news is that Kathy Hunt, the executive director of the Crossroads
Business and Education Connection, formerly the
Victoria Business and Education Coalition, has agreed to step in and help out. READ MORE ➤➤
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Delaware State News: 1.21.2021 by Cynthia E. Shermeyer, Ex Dir Literacy Delaware
If
the COVID-19 pandemic has proven anything, it’s that we can’t adequately combat
the literacy crisis in America without addressing digital literacy.
Literacy
is defined by the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA) as “the
ability to read, write, and speak in English, and compute and solve problems at
levels of proficiency necessary to function on the job and in society, achieve
one’s goals, and develop one’s knowledge and potential.” UNESCO takes it
further by positing that “literacy is now understood as a means of
identification, understanding, interpretation, creation and communication in an
increasingly digital, text-mediated, information-rich and fast-changing world.”
When
Delaware schools had to hastily shift to online learning, educational
inequities were exposed that could not be ignored. Research demonstrated that
online learning caused students of color, English-language learners and
special-needs students to fall between the cracks disproportionately and even
further behind in our schools. Many of these students had limited access to
technology. Many parents of these students did not possess adequate digital
literacy skills themselves, let alone basic literacy skills needed to help
their struggling children.
As
Literacy Delaware also pivoted to remote instruction for our
adult learners last spring, we encountered similar disparities in access to
technology. One in 5 homes throughout our state does not have internet access
at home. Many of our learners and tutors faced challenges to continuing
instruction. As one of our adult learners told his tutor, “I finally have a
tutor, but now I have to stop (instruction) because I don’t have or know how to
use a computer or smartphone.”
It’s
not just a lack of access to technology. Research by the Program for the International Assessment of Adult Competencies (PIACC) found that 16% of adults
(32 million) in the U.S. are not digitally literate, meaning they do not have
the competence or comfort using a computer to seek important information, find
a recipe or make an online purchase, nor to assist their children with online
learning. READ MORE ➤➤
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Philva: 1.21.2021 by Casey Prentice
“Without
literacy, there is no equity,” reads t-shirts and sweatshirts that help raise
funds for The READ Center, a community-based organization helping
adults improve their lives through literacy.
Founded
almost four decades ago, the nonprofit READ Center provides classroom
instruction, individual tutoring and community programming in an effort to help
improve reading, writing, math and digital skills to adults in our community.
We
caught up with Karen La Forge, executive director of The READ Center, to learn
more about the organization, its mission and how it serves the community.
What’s
The READ Center’s core mission?
The
READ Center changes lives by helping adults improve their reading, writing,
basic math and digital skills so they can fulfill their goals as workers,
family members and citizens. Everyone needs and deserves a literate life.
The
READ Center was founded in 1982 as the Literacy Council of Metropolitan Richmond
by Altrusa International Richmond, Inc., a professional businesswomen’s service
club. Altrusans recognized the impact of low adult literacy in their community
and felt compelled to offer solutions. READ became a 501(c)(3) organization in
1984.
For
more than 37 years, READ has trained and provided resources to volunteer tutors
who work on a weekly basis with adult students experiencing literacy issues.
Small classroom instruction was added to provide more focused study for
beginning readers. Research shows both instruction methods are effective for
adult learners. READ MORE ➤➤
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