1. Welcome to OIC of Oklahoma County Literacy Services
Welcome to OIC’s presentation on Reasons for Illiteracy. When you have completed a slide, please click to advance to the next slide. As you go through the presentation, please write down any questions you may have. We will cover them during our in-person session or your questions to Blair Lanning

2. Illiteracy can indeed be a life sentence
Illiteracy can indeed be a life sentence. In this presentation we will be looking at illiteracy statistics in Oklahoma City and the causes why we have adults and youth do not read. Many of the following statistics pertain to adults. By the end of the presentation, you will see that low or non-reading adults are likely to raise non-reading adults.

3. Did you read today?
Think about the things that you have read so far today.  More than likely, reading just comes naturally for you and it is an integral part of your daily life.

4. Literacy in the United States
In a country with such wealth and opportunity, it may seem surprising to learn that an estimated 93 million adults lack adequate literacy skills.
For those who can’t read – it’s a prison. A one-on-one student recently compared her inability to read to being blind. It inhibits everything she wants to accomplish.
Because we are readers, many of us read all kinds of things everyday and it brings us joy – it is a pleasure. However, for millions of adults the written word is intimidating and challenging.

5. Literacy no longer simply means the ability to read and write.
What is literacy?
Literacy no longer simply means the ability to read and write.

6. The National Assessment of Adult Literacy defined literacy as:
“Using printed and written information to function in society, to achieve one’s goals, and to develop one’s knowledge and potential.”

7. The study found that 30 million adults or 14% of the adult population functioned at the Below Basic level due to poor reading, writing, comprehension, and math skills NAAL Report
30 million adults read at a below basic literacy level.
Below Basic indicates no more than the most simple and concrete literacy skills.
These individuals my be unable to sign a form or locate easily identifiable information, in short, commonplace text such as 'the' or "and". 

8. An additional 63 million or 29% of adults had only Basic literacy skills.
63 million adults in the US are at the Basic literacy level.
The Basic level indicates skills necessary to perform simple, everyday literacy activities.
An example of a Basic literacy skill is not being able to read and understand short, commonplace text such as using a television guide to find what programs are on at a specific time.

9. In Oklahoma…
342,045 (12%) adults over the age 18 functioned at the Below Basic literacy level, and 883,618 (31%) adults were at the Basic literacy level.
*Using percentage figures from the NAAL Report and population figures from the 2013 American Community Survey
In Oklahoma over 300,000 adults over 18 function at a below basic literacy level and almost 900,000 were at the basic level.   We are talking about non-readers and first, second, and third grade reading levels.

10. In Oklahoma County an estimated
1 in 5 adults function at Below Basic and Basic literacy levels.
What does that look like in Oklahoma County? Unbelievably the estimate is 1 in 5 adults function at Basic or Below Basic literacy levels. Think about how many people you come in contact with in one day. Statistically, how many of this potentially cannot read?

11. Those at Below Basic and Basic Literacy levels may have difficulty
signing forms
locating information in text
calculating the total cost on an order form
reading and understanding medicine labels, dosages, and warnings.
Individuals at these lower levels may having difficulty signing forms, find it difficulty to budget and total the cost on an order form, or find an aisle in the grocery store and pick the correct item desired. Frighteningly, these folks may have difficulty reading and understanding medicine labels, dosages, and warnings – a dangerous situation.

12. Illiteracy can be associated with many social problems.
Unemployment
Need for public assistance
Poverty
Health problems
Corrections
Illiteracy can be associated with many social problems such as unemployment.
Nationally, about 40% of high school graduates lack the literacy skills employers seek. In Oklahoma, only 29% of adults at the Below Basic reading level are employed full-time as compared to 53 percent at the Proficient level.
Let’s look at the Need for Public Assistance—The United States could save between $7.9 and $10.8 billion annually by improving educational attainment among all recipients of Temporary Assistance to Needy Families (TANF), food stamps, and housing assistance.
The average weekly salary for individuals with Below Basic reading skills is $432 as compared to $975 for those at the Proficient level. Among adults at the lowest level of literacy proficiency, 43% live in poverty. Among adults with strong literacy skills, only 4% live in poverty.
Annual health care costs in the U.S. are four times higher for individuals with low literacy skills than they are for individuals with high level literacy skills. Adults will low reading abilities may have trouble negotiating the healthcare system, difficulty filling out the required doctor’s forms, trouble understanding and taking correct medication/dosages, and challenges making informed and researched health care decisions.
One half of all adults in US federal and state correctional institutions cannot read or write at all. Eighty five percent of juvenile offenders have reading problems. High school dropouts are 3.5 times more likely to be arrested in their lifetimes than graduates.

13. Low Reading Adults Raise Low or Non-reading Children
Less than 47% of children whose mothers did not complete high school are school ready… —Barbara Bush Foundation for Family Literacy
If a child is not reading proficiently by 3rd grade, they are four times more likely to drop out of high school.—Barbara Bush Foundation for Family Literacy
Every year, more than three million youth drop out of school. They join the 6.7 million youth between the ages of 16 and 24 who are neither enrolled in school nor participating in the labor force. —World Education
Were you wondering about the youth and children statistics?  Here are a few…

14. …Continued
More than 1 in 3 American children start kindergarten without the language skills they need to learn to read. —American Academy of Pediatrics
Each year, approximately 2/3 of children in the United States and 80% of those living below the poverty threshold fail to develop reading proficiency by the end of the third grade. —American Academy of Pediatrics
Parents who do not read are likely to raise non-reading adults.

15. What are the causes of illiteracy?
Cycle of illiteracy
Learning disabilities/differences
Mobile society
Childhood illness &
Childhood trauma
Difficulty with the English language
What are the causes of illiteracy?
The Cycle of illiteracy—If parents cannot read, they are not likely to read to their children or help their children succeed in school. This can create a cycle of illiteracy. By the age of two, children who are read to regularly display greater language comprehension, larger vocabularies, and higher cognitive skills than children who have not been exposed to reading.
A variety of learning disabilities and learning differences may make it very difficult to learn.   The disabilities may or may not be recognized.
In the US our society is extremely mobile. The learning process may be disrupted when children move and change schools throughout the school years.  This can be very traumatic for a child.  
Prolonged illness and/or trauma (divorce, death in the family, parent’s loss of job, etc.) may affect a child’s learning process. Once a child is behind, it can be very difficult to catch up. 
For our English as a Second Language population, learning a new language can be challenging. A person might be literate in their own language but be unable to read and write in English. Many literacy programs in Oklahoma tutor both English speaking and non-English speaking adults.

16. Some basic FAQ’s
Students will be assessed prior to being matched with a tutor.
The Literacy Coordinator recommends materials.
Tutoring will take place the OK County Juvenile Bureau and an officer will be with you at all times.
Books and workbooks are supplied at no charge.
Students will be assessed prior to being matched with a tutor.
The Literacy Coordinator recommends materials.
Curriculum and materials are supplied free of charge.
The Oklahoma County Juvenile Bureau program consists of 8 weeks of tutoring sessions to be held at the Bureau after the youth are out of school. The session will be an hour long. After you have finished the online training program, you will meet with Blair Lanning, your trainer to look at the written materials and answer any question you may have regarding the program.

17. Thanks for joining us today!
Blair Lanning
Tutor Trainor
If you have questions about being a tutor, feel free to Blair Lanning at the number at or
Thanks for joining us today!