[AAACE-NLA] Critical Elements of Quality Programs

[AWilder106@aol.com]

I hope this is not one of those times when I should sleep on my remarks.

Usually we think of literacy as a "solution" to economic problems, not a 
complete solution, but one way out.   Recent research pushes that back, to ask: 
What makes school achievement possible?   Some of the answers to this question 
are: medical care, vision care, dental care, nutrition--enough food to eat of 
the proper kinds.   We know we need these things, at a minimum, for kids to 
succeed in school, to graduate.   (Andres's programs make some inroads here.)

Now we move to Tom Sticht's concern, breaking the cycle of poverty, except he 
has better phrases.   We assume that somehow newly literate parents pass on 
to their children their literate habits.   That    literacy can be passed on 
within the family has been well-researched.   However, there is a time lag, 
unless the parent is exceptionally diligent, the time lag will probably affect the 
other elements that children need to succeed in school--a poor parent, newly 
literate, cannot supply suddenly for their children all that we know is needed 
for better school performance.

So we should short circuit the process, and build into adult literacy 
programs as many of the elements we know are needed for children's success in school 
as we can.   I think some programs must already be doing this.   (Yes, there 
is probably overlap between Head Start and Evenstart, I haven't researched this 
fully.)

I want to make another remark concerning need.   A couple of weeks ago,   I 
was able by chance to triangulate data on a high school in Mississippi and I 
reported it here:   1)     a first person account of two years teaching in the 
school,   2)     a Johns Hopkins   study which identified that school among 
others as a low performing high school,   3)     a plea from an adult literacy 
administrator(aaace-nla) who wanted to start up a program in the town, she 
needed money.   

So we have a community which has generated low literate adults.   It has a 
low performing high school in a poor community. An almost closed loop (some kids 
escaped). A map--a graphic--of the towns/regions where these low performing 
high schools are located could be drawn--these are the areas where adult 
literacy programs are most needed and least available.   This is the sociology of 
low literacy.

The slums of Chicago, Detroit, Boston and other northern cities are the 
resting place for the black citizens of some of these blasted communities.   
Midwestern cities have taken former white Appalachians, displaced over the last 100 
years by absentee landlords and the mining industry.

Another remark:   a Wall Street Journal article this week confirmed what 
pundits have been talking about, the two tier job market of our very soft economic 
recovery.   This implies retraining, which means adult literacy.   An 
economic map is probably available which shows where the softest of the soft spots 
are located.   We can predict need.

What I am suggesting is a comprehensive plan for adult literacy, based on 
available information and pieces of theory--studies--which when strung together 
form an integrated picture of need now, and future need.   With the right 
people with the right skills this shouldn't be hard to do. 

Legislators do not want to   invent the wheel.   My bet is that a group of 
extremely well-informed people with the necessary charts, graphs, and 
information about linkages--what makes for strong communties--would get a hearing and 
support.    

My unit of analysis is the community.   Schools anchor communites. 
Communities are built around industries and mutual economic interests.   The relevant 
research will be found within adult literacy, but also outside it.

Andrea
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