[AAACE-NLA] [LearningDisabilities 468] Re: Causes of Low Level English LiteracyAmong Adults - Response by George Demetrion

[Michael Tate]

This is great information, Glenn!  

I would contend that by persisting in using the discrepancy model that
we continue to segregate students with LD on the basis of class, race
and gender, because the discrepancy model is just too expensive.

In adult education programs, I think we are 'gilding the lily' to
require ANY eligibility process to access the modifications or
alternatives a student with LD needs to succeed.  

But, if we are going to have an eligibility system, let's pick one that
fits our delivery system.  Here are five criteria I'd use to design an
eligibility assessment system.

No cost.  Since we serve primarily low-income students, the eligibility
instrument would need to be free.

Simple.  The instrument would need to be simple enough to be
administered and interpreted by a teacher.

Quick, with immediate results.  Since our students are very short-term,
we need to know what to do for the students before the first hour of
instruction.

Available on site.  The organizational skills and follow-through that a
student would need to go to another location is problematic.  The
student's LD sometimes affects these kinds of skills as well.

Universal.  The instrument should be useable with the entire range of
students who come to our programs.  It should not be limited by language
or national origin or educational history.  To be clear, I am not saying
that LD is caused by poor schooling or poverty or ethnicity.  What I am
saying is that the eligibility instrument needs to be administered to
all the students who come to our programs not just the English-speakers.

The discrepancy model is discriminatory.  It is expensive; it is not
available in some regions; it is language and culture bound; it is slow
and it requires an expertise that is in limited supply.  If it has
value, it is in four-year baccalaureate programs where there is unlikely
to be the concentration of student with LD that we see in adult
education classrooms, and where students either have resources or have a
track record of being able to find resources.


Michael Tate
(360) 704-4329

-----Original Message-----
From: learningdisabilities-bounces at nifl.gov
[mailto:learningdisabilities-bounces at nifl.gov] On Behalf Of Glenn Young
Sent: Monday, June 12, 2006 1:16 PM
To: 'The Learning Disabilities Discussion List';
aaace-nla at lists.literacytent.org
Subject: [LearningDisabilities 468] Re: Causes of Low Level English
LiteracyAmong Adults - Response by George Demetrion

 
Thank you for the comments, and you raise two significant points.   So I
will reply in two parts

Point I  ... The old style concept of LD as being based in "expectations
of
achievement" led to it mostly excluding poor people and often people of
color since there was little social expectation of them achieving. This
model is mostly discredited (Google "Rethinking Learning Disabilities",
as
well as IDEA 2005) This was the concept developed in the early 1960's
designed to help middle class (and upper class) persons gain services
without having to resort to calling their children Mentally Retarded
(MR) or
as having  Minimal Brain Dysfunction (MBD).  So in the definition of LD
it
states that 

	The learning disabled have difficulties with academic
achievement
and progress. Discrepancies exist between a 	person's potential for
learning and what he actually learns. 

	The learning disabled show an uneven pattern of development
(language development, physical development, academic 	development
and/or
perceptual development). 

	Learning problems are not due to environmental disadvantage. 

	Learning problems are not due to mental retardation or emotional
disturbance. 

Even with this definition ... It was  misinterpreted ... It did not say
that
LD was not caused by poverty, but that the learning problems were not
due
exclusively to the lack of stimulation or access to education
opportunities
... Therefore it was misinterpreted to saying you could not be poor and
LD
... Which was and is ridiculous.

It also resulted in children with identical profiles being called
different
things  - the poor African American child would be called MR and the
white
middle class child would be called LD.  The services and expectations
for
each of these children would have been very different.  Law suits in the
1970's were brought and the overt racist nature of the LD definitions
were
found to be exactly that by courts, and the "environmental disadvantage"
issue was reduced and explained to mean ... Not just ... But not to
exclude
someone because they are poor ...

It is somewhat shocking to me that a school or any programs is still
excluding a person from the LD definition simple because the are poor
... If
that is what you are doing ... You are doing something very wrong and
need
to do a lot more research into the meaning of the terms ... And more
current
research.

In addition, all the recent research especially from NICHD and elsewhere
has
shown this "expectation" model to be very unreliable and a false
premise.
The research showed a number of things that was counter to this model
including that it was not just a disorder of white middle class boys in
the
suburbs, but one that was based in neurological disorders and that these
disorders were based not so much in genetics (which was need to justify
the
classist model) but was caused by insults to the neurological systems
...
Including lead poisoning, fetal malnutrition, untreated childhood
fevers,
etc All the things that middle class families were not suppose to have
...
SO therefore the models of definition have been changed in both schools
and
in Voc Rehab, to focus on actual performance, and the failure to respond
to
interventions, and a real focus on neurological impairments ... Not race
or
class backgrounds.

So it is very important that everyone gets with the newer understandings
of
the roots of LD and the causes of LD and not to maintain the models and
the
head set that was developed to meet the needs of white middle class
parents
in the 1960's.
The past bad practices has led to extensive gender bias and class
issues,
where research found that 50 plus percent of persons on Welfare (mainly
poor
women) were found to have LD previously unidentified in schools (based
on
the old concepts) and that extensive amount the people in adult ed also
have
this unidentified LD (again, not identified in schools) and that there
is
more resent research in immigrants that show high rates of LD in this
population as well but not identified in schools based on both language
and
"expectation"

So ... It is really time to get rid of the old racist and classist
models
and go with what we know LD to really be ... Neurological disorders
based on
insults to the nervous system.
 
The second point ... 

Your second point also shows a failure to understand a major concept of
research --- You can not generalize from the outliers.  You can not
generalize from your our personal experience. You can not generalize
from a
few examples of success.  You have to look at what happens to the whole
of
the population.   

What research has charily shown us is that low literacy is not some
thing
that develops later in life (except in rare cases of brain injury)  ...
It
develops early in life and continues and it has consequences all
throughout
life. (Thus the continued effort to support "head start", and trying to
get
all children in to pre- pre- schools) So the failure to pass high stakes
tests at age nine or at age 16 is very predictable in many cases by age
3 or
4 (without intensive interventions) Being kept back one grade is a clear
predictor that the child will drop out ... Etc. This we know from solid
research.

Can a person gain literacy skills later in life? Maybe, maybe not
depending
upon extensive factors, including access to resources, intensity of
interventions, skills of the provider, intelligence capacity of the
consumer, etc. (People in prison are actually more able to re-engage,
since
they have food, housing, work etc, all taken care of, they have not
child
care responsibilities, etc.  and have lots of time available to focus
learning, which most people do not)  ... However, research has clearly
shown
that most people who drop out of school do not return and that of those
who
try to return, later in life fail, most fail, and fail miserably.   And
it
is rare and rare in deed that people drop out of school and come back
later
in life to achieve great things (and when they do they are outliers, and
not
the norm and you can not generalize from the outliers) (Adult ed
programs,
which only serves about 5% of those who need skills, have a 20% drop out
in
the first 2 months, and those who stay only tend to gain a grade a year
in
reading skills) Less then 10% of those pass the GED a year So, what
research
show is that at best adult ed successes with about 1/2 of one percent of
those who need the services.

	Once again, however, we come to "class issues".  Low literacy
skills
should not be correlated to low-intelligence.  	We know that people who
have
low or no literacy skills can be  highly intelligent and have extensive
knowledge of 	"their world"  Their intelligence is not measured in
literacy terms however ... But in the knowledge of how to 	advance
in
their settings. (The old story of the Ghetto IQ test, where the question
is
when was Mother's day" and 	the correct answer was the first of the
month since that is the day that the checks came in the mail) SO we have
to
be careful about not stating that low-literacy skills is the same as
low-intelligence, or event lack of skills.

And we also need to understand that we need to change our views on how
people learn and gain skills .... We continue to attempt to use 16th
century
technology (a bit improved, but sill invented in the 16th century) to
try
and give people knowledge in schools and adult ed programs.  We spend so
much time in the early years trying to teach people to read and if they
do
not, we put them in special programs to focus on teaching them how to
read
... And they spend lots of time there ... But we fail to give them the
knowledge so they can remain competitive ... So they not only have
low-literacy skills, but they soon develop "information deficit
disorder"
and it is this information deficit that makes the less and less
competitive,
and leads to more and more disengagement ... And eventually exiting of
school and disconnect with "knowledge".  

But this is a new age ... People gain knowledge through all forms of
media,
computer games to audio cassettes, to movies etc.  Hey, almost all of
Shakespeare has been made into movies by now ... Let people watch it if
they
can't read it.  Same is true so many books on tape.  Go to Borders and
you
can get most of the classics as well as today's best seller, and then
the
Reading Services for Blind and Dyslexics will record any book needed.
Not
only that ... There is lots of software that will speak the words on any
computer program ... Lets use that for all kids, not just the few who
actually get good services from special education. 

In closing I want to again state that a good deal of the failure of
schools
to help keep people literate is that they are using mostly the 16th
printing
press to try to compete with the 21st cent. technology. Also, there we
are
using expectations of the understanding that literacy is important- when
for
most people it is not - without incentives. If you think that you are
going
to work in a fast food restaurant all your life ... It make economic
sense
to drop out at 16 and get two years salary and experience, rather then
waiting another two years and graduating and then going to work at the
restaurant ... People need to see schools as a ticket up again (which
they
do not now, unless you got the money to go to college, etc,) So a lot of
low-literacy can be dealt with by stopping information deficit disorder
by
using modern technology, lets get all children very early education
opportunities (this will also increase the success of those with LD
early on
and encourage them to stay engaged) Also, lets guarantee that all people
who
get through high school will have free college education, etc  and we
can
increase school retention and increase literacy skills of all people. 

SO ... As the old saying goes ... You can not fix illiteracy with a
degree
in caring. 


Glenn Young
505 East Braddock Rd # 608
Alexandria VA 22314
703-684-1750
gyoungxlt at comcast.net
 

-----Original Message-----
From: learningdisabilities-bounces at nifl.gov
[mailto:learningdisabilities-bounces at nifl.gov] On Behalf Of Woods
Sent: Saturday, June 10, 2006 9:56 PM
To: The Learning Disabilities Discussion List;
aaace-nla at lists.literacytent.org
Subject: [LearningDisabilities 466] Re: Causes of Low Level English
Literacy
Among Adults - Response by George Demetrion

I appreciate Glenn Young's well reasoned arguments about the causes and
consequences of low literacy levels. Glenn's assertion that a cause of
LD is
poverty is particularly interesting to me in light of the fact that when
when making a diagnosis of LD, the evaluator must rule out poverty as
being
a cause of a student's poor performance. I would be most interested in
hearing Glenn's ideas on the appropriateness of current special
education
laws and regulations as they pertain to the definition of LD.

Myself, having experience working with dropouts in prisons, I am
troubled by
Glenn's assertion that poor test performance and consequent dropping out
is
a result of low literacy, not a cause. George Demetrion's argument about
the
causal factor of dropping out of school has merit, I feel. When students
are
in school, their literacy skills increase. Maybe some develop more
slowly
than their peers, but they do learn and progress. When they drop out,
literacy skill development, at least the sort addressed by schooling,
stops,
and dropouts fall farther behind their peers who continue school. If you
put
this individual back in school and keep him or her there, the skill
development will resume. 
This meets the requirements for causation.

Still, we should know better than to argue such points. Arguing over
whether
something is a cause or a symptom is one of those Cartesian traps, like
the
nature versus nurture question, in which participants will spin their
mental
wheels and make no progress  towards an answer. 
George is wise to state that dropping out is both causal AND symptomatic
of
low literacy levels.
Tom Woods
Community High School of Vermont

 
RKenyon721 at aol.com wrote:

> Hello all,
>  
> I have been contacted by George Demetrion.  Originally he posted 
> thoughts in preparation for an upcoming presentation on adult literacy

> to a civic group, and requested feedback from subscribers to the 
> National Literacy Advocacy Discussion List.  Much interesting 
> discussion evolved from that.  Earlier, I posted his message because 
> of its relevance to LD. That message has since been responded to by 
> Glenn and Lucille.
>  
> George Demetrion has just revised his work and has sent it to me to be

> posted on our LD DIscussion List.
>  
> Please remember that this revision was completed prior to the 
> responses that I forwarded to him by Glenn and Lucille.
>  
> His work follows.  If anyone wants to respond, feel free to post your 
> response on our LD Discussion List _*and*_ to the National Literacy 
> Advocacy List at:
> aaace-nla at lists.literacytent.org 
> <mailto:aaace-nla at lists.literacytent.org>
> In that way, George will see the messages directly.
>  
> Thanks,
>  
> Rochelle
>  
> Rochelle Kenyon, Moderator
> National Institute for Literacy LD Discussion List RKenyon721 at aol.com 
> <mailto:RKenyon721 at aol.com>
>  
>  
>  
> *Contributory Causes of Low Level English Literacy Amongst Adults 
> George Demetrion in Collaboration with the Field June 8, 2006*
> *
>  *
> *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 causes of low level adult literacy, but it is an
informed
one.
> Also, the points discussed present a correlational rather than 
> strictly causal argument.
>
> *    The enduring reality of poverty. Many current 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 the ill health of the parents

> 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 stability will be able to ameliorate 
> these problems for their children with tutoring and counseling.
> Families without financial stability have much fewer resources.  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 on a lesser level than

> actual abuse or neglect.
>
> *    Failed Educational Policy, both currently and historically.  *
> * 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 
> alternative educational systems 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 utilized.     *
> *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.
>
> *    Increasing standards of 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 shaped, 
> in part, by society and culture.  For basic literacy population the 
> higher end achievement is high school equivalency achievement.  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.  One cause of low

> literacy is that the ladder of what functional proficiency consists of

> has been raised.
>
> *    Increasing immigrant population.  31.4 million immigrants were
> identified in 2000 census.  Immigrant groups as among the lowest 
> levels of English literacy. This 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 are typically at 
> a much lower literacy level than US 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." The student who moves 
> a lot is typically from a lower income family and/or attends an inner 
> city school.  In areas of high rent, poor housing and economic 
> hardship, school populations changing as much as 100% per year are 
> increasingly common.
>
> *    Drop out rates and increasing numbers of students, especially in
> the cities not reading at grade level.  All the way through their 
> schooling, such students are getting further behind as they are 
> socially passed year after year, or sometimes misplaced in special 
> education classes.  This would be a problem even if high school drop 
> outs were ready to prepare for the GED, but this is rarely the case.  
> Most, in fact, lack the basic literacy and numeracy skills needed to 
> succeed in a GED program, and may lack the basic skills to succeed in 
> a pre-GED program.  This, in turn, contributes to the alarming life 
> long gap between the educationally haves and have nots, which, in 
> turn, help to foster generational cycles of low literacy.  High drop 
> out rates are both a symptom of low literacy and a contributory
factor.
>
> *    Learning Disabilities. Undiagnosed learning disabilities,
> including a broad range of reading disabilities, have been identified 
> as an important cause of adult illiteracy.  Based on research in the 
> neurosciences from various countries, the critical factor is the 
> neurologically-based difference in the way the brain processes the 
> smallest bits of language, i.e., phonemes.  Those with LD have 
> abilities in many areas but have deep deficits in receptive or 
> receptive verbal processing in reading, writing, comprehension, and/or

> speech.
>
> *    Learning Difficulties.  Whether one can always point to the
> highly technical term learning disabilities, it is indisputable, at 
> the least that millions of adults have tremendous 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.  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.  Thus, one of the causes 
> of adult illiteracy is the current rate of low literacy, for whatever 
> reasons, and the difficulty of moving substantially beyond current 
> levels of mastery.  One might say that illiteracy is self-perpetuating

> even as people can and do make progress in ways that matter to them as

> we have seen in the case-study profiles.
>
>
> *    Low self expectations/ lack of use.  In addition, students who
> have had trouble specifically in reading during school not only 
> struggle to learn to read but often also 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 adult hood, regardless of their gains in reading skill.  
> Moreover, 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 her*
>  
>  
>
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