Why Alabama has to teach its children to read
As I sit here at my computer, staring at the 26 letters I can choose from in order to form an array of words that might get my point across, I think about all the people in Alabama that will never be able to read them anyway.
According to an overview of the state by the Nation’s Report Card, Alabama has consistently scored significantly lower in reading and literacy by grade school students than the national public since the state began recording scores in 1992. Only one time, in 2011, did Alabama reach a score of ‘average.’
If Alabama would unite and begin truly investing in its public schools and their students’ ability to read, maybe these numbers would not be so horrifying. Maybe Alabama would have fewer people with dyslexia and other reading challenges in prison and more in the workforce.
This unfortunate reality was revealed in an examination of the basic reading skills of incarcerated males by Auburn University professors Margaret E. Shippen, Nicholas C. Derzis and DaShaunda Patterson, Northern Kentucky University professor Steven A. Crites and Georgia State University professor David Houchins in 2010.
The purpose of the study was to “examine the basic reading abilities of Alabama inmates in a medium-security male facility using individually administered standardized measures.”
The results suggested that inmates under the age of 24 were reading at the beginning to middle of fifth grade in reading subareas of word attack, word identification and passage comprehension.
The question this study poses is whether or not these Alabama males would have still ended up in prison if their ability to read would have been invested in while they were still in grade school. Could they have been able to acquire and maintain a job? Avoid trouble with the law?
The only way for Alabama to find out is by making significant changes in its education system. It has to put an end to tenured teachers being able to close their doors and teach—or not teach—whatever they want. It has to stop relying on the retention of students to help them understand the concepts that trip them up.
For years Alabama has settled for unhurried progress. It has busied itself with issues such as how to reform prisons and improve the rate of employment—but what if Alabama focused its attention on the lives of its students?
If Alabama looked in the mirror and realized that the students it is neglecting will soon make up the prison population and workforce, maybe it could have more citizens in the latter rather than the former.