Parents! Give your kids Nick Magazine - for kids ages 6 to 14!
Parents! Give your kids Nick Jr. Magazine - for kids ages 2 to 6!
Give the Gift of Audio Books from Simply Audiobooks
Workforce Literacy
In order to stay competitive in the global economy, employers need
workers who can read, write, compute, solve problems, and communicate
well.
Need
American businesses are estimated to lose over $60 billion in productivity
each year due to employees’ lack of basic skills.
About 20 percent of America's workers have low basic skills, and 75
percent of unemployed adults have reading or writing difficulties.
Workers who lack a high school diploma earn a mean monthly income of $452,
compared to $1,829 for those with a bachelor's degree.
The number of companies reporting skilled worker shortages more than
doubled between 1995 and 1998, from 27 percent to over 47 percent.
A survey of more than 300 executives found that, while 71 percent reported
that basic written communication training was critical to meeting their
workplaces’ changing skills demands, only 26 percent of companies offered
this kind of training. While 47 percent of the executives reported the
need for workers to improve basic math skills, only 5 percent of companies
offered basic math skills training.
Solution
Workplace literacy programs provide workers with the skills needed to get
or retain a job, advance in their careers, or increase productivity.
Workplace literacy programs do not have to be expensive. Federal and state
grants and tax credits are available.
Percentage of Adult Population at Level 1 Literacy
(counties with adult populations of at least 5,000)
The National Adult Literacy Survey found a total of 21%-23% (or 40 to 44
million) of 191 million American adults at Level 1, the lowest literacy
level.
Although many Level 1 adults could perform many tasks involving simple
texts and documents, all adults scoring at Level 1 displayed difficulty
using certain reading, writing, and computational skills considered
necessary for functioning in everyday life.
The following details activities most adults at Level 1 usually can and
cannot perform successfully:
Skills of Adults at Level 1:
Can usually sign one's name, but cannot
usually locate eligibility from a table of employee benefits.
Can usually identify a country in a short
article, but cannot locate an intersection on a street map.
Can usually locate one piece of
information in a sports article, but cannot usually locate two pieces of
information in a sports article.
Can usually locate the expiration date
information on a driver's license, but cannot usually identify and enter
background information on a social security card application.
Can usually total a bank deposit entry,
but cannot usually calculate the total costs of purchase from an order
form.
Literacy and Health
This emerging area—new for both the literacy and medical fields—has
grown out of the recognition that there is a significant overlap in the
populations served and that better literacy skills can contribute to
greater well-being.
Overview
Individuals with low literacy skills are at risk of not being able to
understand materials distributed by health care providers.
Low birth weight is a condition that may increase a child's risk of
developing health, learning, and behavioral problems.
Children who are born at a low birth weight are more likely to be
enrolled in special education classes, to repeat a grade, or to fail in
school.
Family literacy programs provide parents with an opportunity to learn
about child development, good health, and proper nutrition through
parent support groups that enable them to discuss health issues with
specialists.
Partnerships between literacy and health providers are making a
difference in low literate communities. Massachusetts is a leader in
this effort and has had significant success with some of its programs.
Family Literacy
By using a comprehensive and holistic approach to education, family
literacy programs are making great strides in helping families break the
cycle of low literacy, poverty, and hopelessness.
Need
Children's literacy levels are strongly linked to the educational level
of their parents, especially their mothers. Parental income and marital
status are both important predictors of success in school, but neither
is as significant as having a mother (or primary caregiver) who
completed high school.
Children of parents who are unemployed and have not completed high
school are five times more likely to drop out than children of employed
parents. Solution The
National Center
for Family Literacy supports programs that include four
essential components for family literacy:
Early Childhood Education: focuses on pre-literacy skills such as
vocabulary building and verbal expression.
Adult Literacy Education: helps parents enhance their own
reading, math and language skills.
Parent and Child Together (PACT): brings parents and children
together in the pre-school classroom in order to teach parents how to
best fulfill their role as their child's most important teacher.
Parent Time: offers topics for study and discussion, including
child nurturing, managing and coping with child behavior, self-esteem,
career options, and community resources.
Outcomes
Adults stay enrolled in family literacy programs longer than in most
adult-only programs, and their attendance rate is higher.
Children participating in family literacy programs in 15 cities made
gains at least three times greater than would have been expected based
on their pre-enrollment rate of development.
Adults significantly improve their self-confidence, confidence in their
parenting abilities, and in their employment status (29 percent
increase).
Children showed an 80 percent increase in reading books, and made twice
as many trips to the library.
Long-term National Center for Family Literacy follow-up studies found
the following:
- 51% of adults participating in family literacy programs earned their
GED or the equivalent.
- 43% became employed, compared with 14% before enrolling.
- 13% enrolled in higher education or training programs and another 11%
continued in GED programs.
- 23% of those who were on public assistance when they enrolled are now
self-sufficient.
Information from the National Institute for Literacy, The
Oklahoma Literacy Resource Office and The Oklahoma Dept. of Libraries.
Parents! Give your kids Nick Magazine - for kids ages 6 to 14!
Parents! Give your kids Nick Jr. Magazine - for kids ages 2 to 6!
Back
