Family Literacy Key to School Success
August 27, 2002
Over 50% of New York City’s fifth-graders are unable to read an age-appropriate book. The number rises to over 60% for African-American and Hispanic students. Research shows that the single most important predictor of literacy achievement for children is whether their parents read to them in the preschool years.
Yet, according to the 2000 National Adult Literacy Survey, roughly 25% of American adults are functionally illiterate, which means, among other things, that they cannot read fluently to their children. In New York City, adult functional illiteracy is closer to 40%; some 1 million foreign-born adults speak little or no English. Children with low-literacy parents are less likely to enter school prepared to learn and more likely to drop out before finishing high school.
In recent years family literacy programs have proliferated, all grounded in the belief that helping low-literacy parents learn together with their children means improved literacy for both. There are hundreds of family literacy programs in a variety of settings throughout New York City.
Many of these programs work virtually alone within their sponsoring organizations, with inadequate funds and little training for teachers and learning facilitators. What is needed is a comprehensive survey to determine what these family literacy programs are doing now, what works and what doesn’t, and how to disseminate effective learning practices more widely.
With the help of a grant from the Altman Foundation, the Literacy Assistance Center of New York City is beginning such a survey. The projected three-year project begins in September 2002 with a survey of existing family literacy programs in the city, whose services and locations will be published in a print and online directory. Project leaders will identify the most successful programs and select a sample to study in depth.
Subsequent phases of the project will assess the impact, for both parents and children, of participating in effective family literacy programs and will identify the common characteristics of highly effective family literacy programs. A report on the project will be disseminated to literacy practitioners, funders, and policymakers in order to improve family literacy practices and to expand support for well-constructed family literacy initiatives.
Each year the LAC helps thousands of professionals from family, basic education, English for Speakers of Other Languages, and GED programs develop and strengthen their educational services for over 60,000 low-income adults and children. The LAC also operates the city’s only Literacy Hotline, which each year refers 20,000 individuals to local adult education and job training programs.