ALElowliteracy

From LiteracyTentWiki

George Demetrion < george.demetrion@lvgh.org > posted to the AAACE-NLA electronic discussion list on May 30, 2006 a description of the various causes of low adult English literacy. He had posted such a description a few days earlier and had received comments from several list subscribers, some of which he incorporated in the revised description below. Over several weeks he offered and accepted other changes. Below is the most recent version.

George Demetrion in Collaboration with John Benseman, Cyndy Colletti, Martha Jean,

The following factors were distilled from various reports and on and off-line feedback from practitioners and other adult literacy education specialists. It is neither a definitive nor an authoritative statement on the interactive causes of low level adult literacy, but it is an informed one. Also, the points discussed present a correlational rather than strictly causal explanation. As a work in progress the list, while hopefully useful, remains incomplete. It is useful to keep in mind, as well, that the points identified are invariably generalized and are not, therefore, characteristic of all adults with low levels of English literacy.

Definition: Literacy is not a single skill or quality that one either possesses or lacks. Rather, it encompasses various types of skills that different individuals possess to varying degrees. There are different levels and types of literacy, which reflect the ability to perform a wide variety of tasks using written materials that differ in nature and complexity. A common thread across all literacy tasks is that each has a purpose-whether that purpose is to pay the telephone bill or to understand a piece of poetry. (Modified from Key Concepts and Features of the 2003 National Assessment of Adult Literacy p. 13 http://tinyurl.com/k6mkl).

• The enduring reality of poverty. Many adult learners were children who were not well-fed, well-nurtured, healthy, nor ready to learn when they went to school (if they made it to school that day). Physical and mental trauma at home due to poverty, or unemployment or transient employment, or ill health causes many children to miss school entirely or to come to school sleepy, ill or anxious. Divorce, chronic diseases, and disabilities are adult problems that children face while also trying to learn in school. Families with financial resources will be able to ameliorate these problems for their children with tutoring and counseling. Many schools do not have the flexibility to offer make up help with lessons, to change the way in which they are “tracking” the children, or to intervene when they see a problem that is les severe than actual abuse or neglect.

• Historical and current failed educational policy. (A) Particularly with older adults, the legacy of segregation is still a factor. Many people don’t realize that it wasn’t until the early 1970s that some districts integrated, followed by years of turmoil and disruption. (B) Many districts have still not developed adequate educational alternatives for high schoolers who need a different structure. (C) States that have an exit exam requirement may have added to the drop-out problem. Teens who are already behind flunk the test, and even though there are multiple chances to re-take it, the resulting discouragement often causes them to give up. The point is remediation strategies for those who do fail are often ineffective or are just not even used. Even more problematically, in some schools, particularly those under scrutiny for low performance, teachers or counselors implicitly and sometimes explicitly encourage students to drop out when they are far from close to passing the high stakes test. In many cases this is an admission that the resources are not in place to help the student, or worse, it is fed by the pernicious incentive that the school’s performance scores will improve when students with low scores drop out. Schools are rewarded for high and passing test scores, sanctioned for low and failing scores, but often there is no consequence for an increased drop out rate, or this phenomenon is hidden. (D) Programs that break the cycle of low literacy from one generation to the next are few and far between, and so parents can’t equip themselves to help their children. Unfortunately, the trend is now to slash funding for family and intergenerational programs.

• Increasing standards for what counts as literacy. Literacy is not something that can be defined by a static grade level, but is measured against the perceived literacy needs of individuals as shaped by society and culture. For the basic literacy population, the higher end achievement is high school equivalency. Also important is mastering the print-based needs of obtaining and keeping a sustainable job, understanding and filling out forms of various types, basic math, capacity to write a basic letter, rudimentary computer-based mastery, and knowing how to access information from various print sources in home, work, community, and commercial environments. All of these pertain to the ESOL population. The higher end here would be entrance into college and obtaining a professional or entry level administrative position. None of this is meant to dispel the notion that each individual determines what his or her “appropriate” level of literacy may be. It is to point out that as print-based demands in a society increase, the floor of what counts as literacy is invariably raised.

• Increasing immigrant population. 31.4 million immigrants were identified in 2000 census. Immigrant groups possess among the lowest levels of English literacy even though they may be highly literate in their native language or another language. The U.S.-based immigrant population includes the subgroup of refugees from African nations such as Ethiopia, Somalia, and Sudan, and also Afghanistan that have been war-torn for years, in which schooling was not an option for many in those countries. This also pertains to immigrants from English speaking countries, particularly the Caribbean Islands where those who sign up for literacy classes have often attained a much lower literacy level than U.S. born adults who sign up for literacy classes.

• Student mobility. About 60% of students in the US make unscheduled school changes between grades 1 and 12. Students who move may miss key pieces of instruction in reading and never catch up, a problem which gets compounded in the higher grades, particularly when students are passed through “social promotion.” Students with high mobility rates are particularly susceptible to getting more and more behind with each year of school and reading below grade level. In areas of high rent, poor housing and economic hardship, school populations changing as much as 100% per year are increasingly common.

• Undiagnosed learning disabilities. These include a broad range of disabilities which impact the ability to read, have been identified as an important cause of adult illiteracy. Based on research in the neurosciences from various countries, the critical factor which affects the persons ability to read is the neurologically-based damage that impacts the brains ability to processes the smallest bits of cut language sound, i.e., phonemes.** Other areas impacted by LD may include recall, sequencing, and rapidity of processing, all areas designated as significant tools needed to effectively read by the National Reading Panel.

The result of these impacts, in most cases, are deep deficits in receptive or receptive verbal processing in reading, writing, comprehension, and/or speech. As a result of these impacts, research has shown the most adult with LD will never learn to read or read well enough to function in an advanced educational setting. Part of this is due simply due to the damage to the brain. Other factors also include that people, who may benefit from literacy training, simple do not have the time and dedication needed for remediation to be effective.

It is estimated that at least 600 hours of highly structured and sequenced instruction (often one on one) with a great deal of intensity is needed to have major impact on adults with LD when they start with limited phonemic and phonic skills. Few persons have that time and few agencies have the resources and skilled teachers to offer these levels of service. In addition, few agencies have persons trained in the appropriate instructional approaches that have had the most success for persons with LD in increasing reading skills.

This need for intensive training and limited literacy skills should not be confused with not having “intelligence” or the ability to learn effectively by means other then reading. The same research indicates the persons with LD are able to learn knowledge and gain skills if the information is provided through media that they can process well in areas of the brain not impacted by the LD. (Often auditory and visual learning and combinations of the two seem to work best.) Therefore, for adults with LD, the use of “accommodated education” and assistive technology seems to have greater impact in increasing the skills of the person with LD then traditional literacy instruction.

• Learning difficulties. Whether one can always point to the highly technical term learning disabilities, it is indisputable that millions of adults have various learning difficulties in relation to reading and writing. For many, those difficulties were pervasive throughout their public schooling, which acted to keep them back in their learning, and in any event, impacts on their ability to learn as adults even if they have enrolled in an adult literacy or adult basic education programs.

• Modest progress. What we typically see in adult literacy, even among the most dedicated students, is modest progress, which, except for the most advanced students is still a far cry from fluent, independent literacy. Such “modest progress” in adult literacy is often due to a lack of time to study. For example, in New York State, 47% of adult education students are employed full-time or part-time. Many of them, particularly those who are women (60 percent of the student population in New York), have extensive family responsibilities. Adult learners who get children ready for school in the morning, rush to a job, work all day, then do the shopping, fix dinner, do the laundry, and put the children to bed, have to be highly motivated to enroll in a literacy class. Thousands are. Even so, family emergencies and other responsibilities may prevent them from attending every lesson. When they stay up late to read an article or write an essay, they sacrifice sleep. Limited time and sheer exhaustion can slow progress as easily as weak preparation, low self-expectations, or a learning disability. Regardless as to the reasons, one of the causes of adult illiteracy is the current rate of low literacy, and the difficulty of students for reasons cited and others, of moving substantially beyond current levels of mastery. One might say that, for whatever sets of reasons, illiteracy is self-perpetuating even as people can and do make progress in ways that matter to them as reflected in various ethnographic studies of adult literacy. One might say, then, that there is a progression from illiteracy to literacy and that students are at various places within the continuum which they themselves may deem more or less unsatisfactory or satisfactory.

• Low self expectations. In addition, students who have had trouble specifically in reading during school not only struggle to learn to read but often suffer from poor self- efficacy and self-respect. They learn early that they must be “dumb” since they have trouble learning to read. This perception follows them through adulthood, regardless of their gains in reading skill. One of the major outcomes in adult literacy programs is student self-perception. For example, often learners go into programs with a goal of say, achieving their driver's license, but when you talk to them post-program, they almost always talk about their new-found levels of confidence even before they mention any achievements like passing their tests. It’s important to keep in mind that enhanced self-perception and self-efficacy, while related, are not the same. Learners can achieve changes in self-confidence, but not necessarily their self-efficacy; it is rare however to achieve greater self-efficacy without a corresponding positive change in self-confidence. This distinction is important perhaps in understanding how some evaluations show no/minimal changes in learners' literacy skills and yet the learners themselves report that the programs have been a success for them. Thus even among students with minimally improved literacy, positive impact accrues in greater self-confidence, which can open up opportunities which might not otherwise be tapped.

• Lack of use. The literacy skills that students might have had at one point in their lives diminish if not used on a regular basis. Many adults who enter programs in their 30s, 40s and 50s have read little or nothing since they attended school as children or teenagers. Whatever literacy skills adults possessed in their youth, however modest, the use it or lose it saying has much applicability here. The positive point is as students participate in adult literacy programs skills they once have are regained, and often enhanced upon.

** Alternative statement on learning disabilities: A learning disability is not due to a damaged brain (as in head trauma or drug use), but is a brain with different ways of sending and receiving information. If a child does not receive the appropriate teaching method (for example, those with dyslexia must have an explicit multisensory structured language approach) then that disability will interfere with them learning at a normal pace. If not addresses in childhood with the adaptation and accommodations that learner needs (minimal to severe), then the disability will continue to have serious impact on the adult learner.

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Also see: Discussion of Obstacles: Poverty, Race, and Literacy

• Obstacles to Literacy - AAACE-NLA Discussion
• Obstacles to Literacy - Learning Disabilities Discussion