A regular Source feature, Undercurrents explores issues, ideas and events as they develop beneath the surface in the Virgin Islands community. This is Part II of a two-part series addressing literacy.
It’s a chilling thought. According to the website Do Something.org, two-thirds of people in the U. S. who couldn’t read proficiently by the end of fourth grade ended up either in jail or on welfare. Launched without so much as a paddle, they were set up to flounder. In fact, maybe the more startling statistic is that one-third of the people faced with this disadvantage are able to earn a decent living despite it.
Years ago the territory offered remedial programs aimed at correcting illiteracy. Today the emphasis is on prevention.
Gone, for instance, is the federally funded adult literacy program that used to be operated out of the Florence Williams Public Library.
Instead there are government and private-sector initiatives to foster reading by young children and programs aimed at catching those who fall through the cracks while they are still youth or young adults.
Besides operating a “family literacy” program itself, the V.I. Adult Basic Education division also funds a number of programs operated outside of the Education Department, said Eduardo Corneiro, ABE director. In the recent past, those have included programs run by the V.I. Housing Authority and the Bureau of Corrections. Now there are several nongovernmental groups.
Dee Baecher-Brown, president of the Community Foundation of the Virgin Islands, said the approach there is “very multifaceted. It’s a broad range of programs.” There’s the Early Childhood Learning Center that promotes reading to and with toddlers and young children. There’s a Book Bank that recently passed the 10,000 mark in book distribution. There’s the Pathfinders Award given to a third-grade reader. There’s a partnership with the Governor’s Summer Reading Challenge for V.I. students. There’s a kindercamp summer program.
Although children are the focus, Baecher-Brown said the programs involve the family and sometimes “parents get help acquiring literacy skills while their children are learning them.”
Like others interviewed for this series, Baecher-Brown noted there are no official, published figures showing how many people in the Virgin Islands know – or don’t know – how to read.
“We’ve never really seen literacy rates,” she said. “We’d like to know.”
Some related figures are available, the numbers of students reading at what is considered grade level, for instance. The 2013 Kids Count Report, an informational manual about V.I. children and families published annually by CFVI, traces what looks like significant improvement in reading skill, although the proficiency levels are still disappointing.
Kim Holdsworth, co-director for Kids Count, said the report traces reading progress at third-, fifth-, seventh- and 11th-grade levels.
In 2011, the latest year for which numbers were available, 55 percent of fifth graders were reading at grade level. Ten years ago, in the 2004-05 school year, that figure was just 30 percent.
Figures for seventh grade tell a similar story: just 18 percent in 2004-05, but 30 percent in 2011. For 11th grade, the numbers are 23 percent 10 years ago, and 37 percent in 2011. Figures for third grade were not recorded for the 2004-05 school year, so a comparison is not available; the 2011 number is 49 percent.
Holdsworth said the end of third grade is a critical time for language skills. From fourth grade on, virtually all school subjects, including math and science, are taught largely through reading. So if a student isn’t reading at grade level, he or she will begin to fall behind in other subjects too.
At the Women’s Coalition of St. Croix, where Susan Diverio directs the Project Link alternative high school, literacy deficiency “is a very big problem.”
The program is not designed for people who are actually illiterate, she explained. Some do apply, but are told, “We really can’t service you.” Most of those who do enter the program are generally far behind in their reading skills, which slows their progress in other subjects. The average entrant is reading at the third- or fourth-grade level.
Many of the students are single mothers, Diverio said, but the alternative high school accepts students of all ages from teens to older adults. So far, the oldest has been 60; the youngest, 15.
Project Link started in 2007 with just six students. Currently there are about 30 enrolled. It has graduated 91 so far, and many of those have improved their reading skills by two or three levels, Diverio said.
Back at the Florence Williams Public Library, where Debra Liger has been working for 10 years, she says “I have people coming in here every day that need help to read, especially older people.” But she can’t offer much help. “There’s not many of us working here anymore. It’s sad to turn people away.”
Liger said the adult literacy program that used to operate from the library closed down before she came aboard.
“I am trying to start that again,” she said. “I see the need … How can you graduate from high school and you can’t even read a whole sentence without stopping?” Some youth come to the library looking for jobs, but “they can’t write. They can’t even fill out an application.”
Clearly it’s not a situation unique to the Virgin Islands. Early this month, the world marked “International Literacy Day.” Next week is “National Adult Education and Family Literacy Week.”
