Orange County NC Website
IPItQPQSAlC. lE'OR COUNTY VYLRE LITERACY INITIATIVE <br />2 <br />Back,~roa~ad <br />In November 1998, meRnbers of the Orange Coutrty Board of Commissioners, the Orange County School Board, and <br />the Chapel Hill Carrboro School Board agreed that they wanted to work with other eomnnunity agencies to develop a <br />comprehensive, holistic literacy strategy for Orange County, aimed at an all-out effort to elixaainate adult illiteracy. This <br />initiative was driven by a concern that many school children in Orange Coutriy school children are trot sul~eiently <br />prepared to start, or to succeed, ira school. The focus of the initiative was on the need to improve the readiness, and <br />ongoing success, of school studerns by strengthening the literacy skills of their parents, and to use community and <br />school resources to help address this need. Following some exploratory discussions, a group of schools staff and <br />coznaaaunity agencies staff and Beard members began meeting in March 1999 to share ideas, develop a proposal, and <br />draft recommendations to the initiating bodies. Group participants included the Superintendent and key administrative <br />staff &an the Orange County School system, key administrative staff from the Chapel Hill-Carrboro School system, <br />Orange County Literacy Council staff' and Board President, and the Orange ~ County Partnership for Young <br />Children/Smart Start Parent Education Coordinator. <br />Ca~woiity Need <br />Orange County is a community of wide disparities in education and income. Although a majority of our residerns are <br />highly educated and have strong literacy skills, almost a third of all adult residents have sigaiifieant literacy needs. <br />According to 1990 US Census figures, S% of adults have less than a 9th grade education, 8% have an education <br />between the 9th and 12th grades, and 19% have obtained only a high school diploma or its equivalent. Thitty three <br />percent of Orange County adults have significant literacy needs, according to the National Institute Literacy Survey <br />(MILS) conducted by the U.S. Depa~~mem of Education: in 1992. The N1LS study was the most comprehensive <br />national study to provide a picture of how well adults use printed materials to accomplish day-today tasks -failing out <br />a job application, reading a bus schedule, using an autonnatie teller machine,, or reading to their children -and establish <br />five proficiency levels to measure performance. In Orange County, approximately 1 S% of adults function at a Level i <br />proficiency standard; an additional 18% function at Level 2 (an a scale of 1-5, with 1 and 2 being the lowest levels). <br />These adults have limited literacy skills, and have considerable difficulty carrying out tasks requiring therm to use <br />lengthy tests or do two-step mathematical calculations. <br />These disparities are also found among the county's public school population, reflecting the fact that numerous studies <br />have indicated, the correlation between a parent's educational level and the likelihood of their children's school <br />performance. Students in both school systems score significantly above the state average in standardized tests. <br />However, for years there have been major discrepancies between the test scores of white and African Anxerican students <br />in both school systems, and a significant number of both white and black students have tested below grade level. <br />A Bowing Latino caunity has also significacrtly impacted the literacy and language assessmeiat of Orange County <br />adult residents. According to 1996 US Census figures, there were 1951 Latino residents (out of a total population of <br />lOb,045). The NC Department of Public Instruction records indicate that there were 333 HispaniclLatuao children in <br />the county's public schools in the 1997-1998 school year, a 143% increase since 1991. Orange County Partnership for <br />Young Children's Los Ninon Task Force estimated that 20°!° of all Orange County births between July 1998 and <br />March 1949 were barn to Hispanic/Latino residents. Many of these parerrts are not proficient in spoken English. Some <br />are able to read and write inn Spanish, but not yet in English, while others may not have strong literacy skills in Spanish. <br />ComrnmoutY Solutio4 <br />Parents are their child's first teachers. Children. acquire their basic cognitive and linguistic skills within the family. <br />Children living in educationally and economically disadvantaged honnes often enter school two or mare years behind <br />their peers and are two to three times more likely to drop out of school. Parents who do not have basic literacy skills <br />are less likely to have readinng materials in tbeiur homes, be involved in their child's education, or traasxnit the value of <br />literacy to their children. As the education level of adults improves, so does theiz children's success in school. Helping <br />adults who have literacy needs to improve their basic skills has a direct and measurab}e impact on both the education <br />and quality of life for their children. According tv the National Institute for Literacy, "Children of aduhs who <br />participate in literacy programs improve their grades and test scores, improve their reading skills, and are less likely to <br />drop out." <br />