OD Recap: RARE Looks at Literacy Equity Gap and Efforts To Close It
Literacy has a positive lifelong impact.
Before Roy Chang became the executive director of School Connect Washington, a literacy advocacy group, he did outreach work at a south-end elementary school.
One day a fourth grader was sent to Roy’s office after acting out in class. It was not the boy’s first time to be excluded from class. After Roy calmed the boy down he asked the student to read to him. The boy struggled, anguishing over some small common words. Roy looked at him and realized that the fourth grader could not read. The boy noted Roy’s look. “He slumped in his chair,” Roy said, “A blanket of shame poured over him.” From that moment on Roy has worked to close the gaping literacy equity gap in Seattle’s schools.
Mr. Chang, along with former principal Dr. Donald Felder and Ms. Maria Graham, founder of the non-profit Reading Equity Project were RARE’s July 23 Open Discussion guests. The topic was Closing the Literacy Gap. All three have seen the devastating effects that illiteracy has on kids and society. All three have seen the healing and redemptive powers of enhanced literacy. And all three have made raising literacy and closing the literacy gap their primary work.
Donald Felder spoke first, stating that if our society hopes to reduce recidivism and gun violence, our schools and communities have to do a better job of teaching our children to read.
He noted that during his first teaching position at Coleman Elementary in South Seattle, he immediately recognized that most of the students in his class couldn’t read at grade level. In his second year while teaching at the Seattle School’s Interagency School, a re-entry school for young people connected to the juvenile justice system, he saw that 80% of his students did not read at grade level. Donald made reading equity his focus.
To bring up reading levels, Donald focused on two core areas: establishing relationships with students and promoting to school administrators the importance of hiring good reading teachers. He cited the example of Ms. Gail Davis, a reading teacher who knew how to “diagnose and prescribe” as the kind of teacher whose students learn to read at grade level and beyond.
Like RARE’s other two guests, Dr. Felder cited the need to promote reading, not just in schools but in the community. He has seen the positive effects of kids whose reading scores have risen. They became more curious about the world and now “look over the fences of their neighborhoods rather than though them”. Part of the world Donald loves to see kids curious about are STEM classes. “Because that is where the money is,” he said. “Children who don’t have a world view, got a neighborhood view… where you don’t see all those STEM opportunities around the world.” Teaching reading creates curiosity to expand world view, children’s identity development, and the desire to learn more.
Roy Chang became involved in raising the literacy bar when as a pastor of the Seattle Chinese Alliance Church, he reached out to the people of Beacon Hill in order for the church to become more of a positive force in the community. His efforts led to a relationship with Dearborn Park Elementary School at Seattle’s most south end. It was there he met Dr. Kelly Aramaki, who is now the Superintendent of the Bellevue School District. Dr. Aramaki showed Roy two decades of reading score data that showed a common, unchanged trend: 30% of Black kids were reading at grade level, while 70-75% of white and Asian kids read at grade level.
Dr. Aramaki asked Roy if he could get three other churches to form partnerships with some other schools with similar challenges in literacy and math as of those at Dearborn Elementary. Roy found three. Over the years those school-church partnerships have expanded to over 50 churches. Roy credits those community partnerships in closing the literacy gap.
In the first two years, School Connect of Washington has established successful after-school programs where targeted students can get extra, often individual, coaching in literacy and math. The programs run from the end of the school day to 5:30 pm, Monday through Friday. In only two years, Roy has seen test scores soar.
“When you give kids a chance to learn, they excel.” – Roy Chang in response to rising reading and math test scores
Maria Graham was eager to learn about the science of reading by her son’s experience. He had benefited from a reading tutor whom he told his mother had “unlocked’ his brain. Motivated to learn more about the teaching of reading, Maria founded the Reading Equity Project last March. The project’s goal is to end low literacy by changing reading instruction.
“We have not taught reading in a way that aligns with the way we learn how to read,” – Maria Graham
She noted that reading for most people is not easy to learn. “We are wired for speaking-not reading.” Speaking is learned passively, not so with reading. Maria presented a plethora of graphics and charts that supported her assertion, with one showing far more brain activity in that of a literate brain than that of one an illiterate brain. The neural networks of the brain further increased when it hears the words translated with a “silent voice”. Thus, the more effective way of teaching reading is by stressing the “core” areas of phonological awareness, decoding/spelling, and sight recognition. Something that many districts had deviated from since the 1970’s and left a high percentage of American youth continually reading far below grade level.
Maria spent a year observing the Bethlehem, Pennsylvania elementary schools which had by law trained teachers in the science of reading. The results were immediate: 88% of Bethlehem’s elementary school students were reading at grade level after the first year of implementation, a 34% increase from the previous year. In regard to equity results, the “privilege gap” went from 52% deferential in scores to 8%. Mississippi’s legislature mandated what some have called a return to phonics and has seen its scores match those of the state of Washington. Citing such validating statistics, the Reading Equity Project is lobbying to get more than the current handful of states to mandate the teaching of reading that reflects proven research that has resulted in colossal gains in test scores.
The presentation by the three RARE guests was powerful and enlightening. It was followed by an enthusiastic discussion. RARE board member Michelle Fields noted the importance of closing the literacy gap, but reminded the audience that regardless of literacy score, which are important, they are secondary to the attitudes of teachers, especially those who are not culturally competent. Too many Black kids feel alienated, too many feel unjustly called out for behavior.
Michelle, who works in corrections, also lauded the redemptive effects on inmates she had seen who had improved their reading and received their GED’s. “It totally changed their make-ups,” she said, “You saw a whole difference in their body language and who they were. It starts with self-esteem.” She noted the importance of self-esteem in the classrooms.
Closing the literacy gap is not just a school issue. It’s a community issue and a national issue. The schools can’t make it happen alone. During this open discussion, the RARE audience was able to hear about the various community partnerships that have formed over this critical issue of closing this glaring gap. Dr. James Carter joined the discussion and reported how he has had contact with RARE Board Member Al Herron and the Breakfast Group with plans to purchase books for three elementary schools where members of the Breakfast Group can go in and read to students.
After a little more than an hour and a half of delving into the literacy gap issue and headway that is being made, host Robin Lange thanked the panel and the audience for their what was truly and educational and invigorating evening.
To learn more:
School Connect WA: https://www.schoolconnectwa.org/
Reading Equity Project: https://readingequityproject.org
