According to research by World Population Review, the United States ranks 36th in literacy, with Connecticut ranking 18th among the top 20 most literate states in the country.
The gap in literacy in the U.S. goes back to understanding education and its disparities. According to research by researcher Uta Papen, education plays a vital role in the success of children growing up and having literacy skills beyond an 8th-grade level.
u.s. education
Rachael Gabriel, a UConn literacy Professor and researcher, said, “When kids have more childhood education, they have more chances.”
While 79% of Americans are literate and Connecticut ranks higher than most, many other states face challenges. According to research by Mission Graduate, there is still 54% of adults in the U.S. who lack literacy skills that don’t go beyond a sixth-grade literacy level, and 21% of adults are still illiterate.
Gabriel said that if people have access to equal education early on in their development, they will be able to use the tools from their literacy for other learning throughout their lives.
One million teens drop out of school due to facing illiteracy challenges in their youth and also not being able to gain access to equal education, according to a research literacy guide by Regis College.
Gabriel said that new literacy programs she calls “Diet Programs” are given to quickly “fix” children’s literacy.
“There is a tight grip on what educators can teach. Diet programs that make it difficult for everyone to learn information in different ways. When we see young adults who still need help with development, people panic and they buy into untrustworthy programs. We need to meet people and teach in a way they can learn and process information,” Gabriel said.
Literacy and education programs
However, there are other programs that teachers feel do work. Student expert Amanda Montanez works at a program called Jump Start in Boston; the program serves 13 states and provides low-income students with access to early education.
“In Boston, there is a lot of low-income families, even back home in Connecticut, that benefit from these low-income programs. In our class, many students are at different levels, even some four to five-year-olds,” Montanez said.
Poverty plays a bigger role in the future of children’s education. 22% of children in the U.S. live in poverty, and around 80% of those children will lose access to their literacy skills when they are on breaks from school, according to research by Regis College.
Although states such as Connecticut and Massachusetts rank higher than most states in literacy, people living in low-income communities rely on early education programs to help their children.
“Access to literacy is essential for people to grow. But at the same time, educational systems have been set up, sometimes deliberately, to prevent access for some people. There is an elitism there that marginalizes huge numbers of people here.” UConn Literacy Professor and researcher Douglas Kaufman said.
Department of Education
These educators worry about how literacy will decrease and affect marginalized communities in the next few years, as the Department of Education gets dismantled by President Trump’s administration.
“The Federal Department of Education slashed half its workforce yesterday. They are pulling the money for vital programs. I look at what is happening as another act of white supremacy, and I think it is going to really really heavily damage the education system in the short term, the lack of funding is going to kill us,” Kaufman said.
The impacts of the changes with the Department of Education will be felt by not only teachers but also parents and students.
“The Department of Education being taken away is going to make things worse, especially for the children part of these programs from low-income backgrounds. There are kids in my class who have undiagnosed learning disabilities and will probably never be able to get the aid help they need with the elimination of the Department of Education,” Montanez said.
Educators such as Kaufman and Montanez believe that when teaching students, especially from marginalized backgrounds, there will be a more vital role of learning the students and remain open-minded as educators.
“I usually go in open-minded, kids love to talk a lot. So listening to them and showing empathy allows us to have a better relationship because they already have a lot of things going on,” said Montanez.
“You have to ridge yourself of this sorta saviorism complex we have, we are trained to look at children to think what am I going to do to fix their problems, We should be going in as learners and thinking about what gifts and talents do they bring to the table that I can help them build off of,” Kaufman said