Trends in Dropout Rates

A new report on high school completion of students 24 and under published this month –provides a variety of trends.  In many ways—graduation rates have been trending up since the 1970’s.  Hispanic rates tend to be much lower than whites and blacks. 

Rates are higher when they include populations that did not go to schools in the U.S. which includes many enrolled in Florida’s adult literacy programs.  Lower income students have a higher drop out rate.

This study presents the dropout rate trends in a variety of ways.  One is based on the graduation rate of schools.  As you see from report data below, Florida is just below 70% with 8 other states.

State averaged freshman graduation rates for public school students:

Eight states had rates below 70.0 percent—Alabama, 69.9 percent; Florida, 68.9 percent; Georgia, 67.8 percent; Louisiana, 67.3 percent; South Carolina, 66.0 percent; New Mexico, 64.8 percent; Mississippi, 62.0 percent; and Nevada, 56.3 percent—as did the District of Columbia, 62.4 percent.

Check out the report at http://nces.ed.gov/pubs2012/2012006.pdf

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Testimony of an Adult Literacy Learner

VALF will be sharing stories from adult learners.  Read this one to get a better understanding of what it feels like to not be able to read.  It is from Gadsden County Public Library, Quincy, Florida, Literacy Volunteers of America (LVA)

VALF Member

In their own words.......

                In the beginning, I was trying to see if my tutor was serious about helping me, so I would leave with the van driver when I was suppose to meet with Mrs. Hall.  I wanted to see if she would give up on me like other people did, but she didn’t. 

Tutor Inservice for Adult Literacy in Tampa on October

Register today for the October 22, Saturday, workshop in Tampa, the Fast Track Reading System: Exploring the Relationship Between Sounds & Syllables.  It's an essential skill many adult literacy programs fail to teach. It is a method that helps adult learners see immediate results and encourages them to stay in programs longer. This training is for adult literacy tutors and for those who want to learn strategies to help teens and adults who have learning differences.

Sharon Jaskula will provide an overview of a curriculum developed by the Jacksonville Public Library with the support of a Library Services and Technology Act Grant administered by the Florida Division of Library and Information Services. This curriculum focuses on using syllable division and syllable types as a way to strengthen the word attack skills of new readers. Discover the piece that your students have been missing and open up a whole new world.

Location: Hillsborough County Public Library
              Town 'N Country Regional Public Library,
              7606 Paula Dr., Suite 120,
              Tampa, FL 33615-4116
              Time: 10:00 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. 
Lunch is being provided by the Hillsborough Literacy Council  To register email DouglasJS@hillsboroughCounty.org by Friday, October 14. 

VALF stands for Volunteers for Adult Literacy in Florida.
OUR
MISSION
The mission of Volunteers for Adult Literacy in Florida is to enhance and promote the abilities of individuals and organizations to provide direct and indirect literacy instruction to adults and families in need through volunteer service.

OUR VISION
The ability to read, write and speak the English language shall be provided in all 67 counties of the State of Florida by trained literacy volunteers. These volunteers will equip adults and families with the tools necessary to solve the literacy problems encountered in daily life.

Library Snapshot Day November 2, 2011

Make sure you literacy program is recognized in your public library's snapshot day.  Talk with your library to see if they are participating.  If so, coordinate with the library to show library partnerships with literacy programs.  Ask the library to make sure they snap a picture of a tutor with a student working together in your library.  Of course, get the permission of the pair first.  Other ideas for pictures-- your literacy program manager browsing the library's adult literacy collection, photo of a tutor talking with the reference librarian about his/her needs for topics to use in lessons, student taking his family to story time or using the instructional programs on the computer .... or --come up with your own brainchild for a photo and share with VALF too.

Plan Your Florida Library Snapshot Day on
November 2, 2011 With These Simple Steps

Welcome to our New VALF Members

Broward County Library Learning Services

Community Learning Center

DeSoto County Literacy Council

Hillsborough Literacy Council Inc.

Hope Community Center

Library Literacy Friends, Inc.

Literacy Council of St. Petersburg

Literacy Council of Upper Pinellas

Literacy Volunteers of Gadsden Co., Inc

Literacy Vol. of Big Bend

Martin Co Library Center for Reading & Literacy

Palm Beach Library Adult Lit. Project

Bay County Public Library Volunteers for Literacy

Recent Tools and Trends in English Language Literacy and Social Networking Literature Search

This summary highlights findings related to instruction, especially in the context of English Language Learners (ELL) and reading, writing and telling stories.  It also concentrates on use of technology, a tool that can motivate while providing implementation challenges for adult literacy programs.

Summary of Points from Recent Reports

• There is little research on adult literacy and adult English Language Learners (ELL).  The findings for these reports were thus based, in part, on other populations.  Because of this, more research needs to be done to confirm whether or not the findings apply to adult literacy.
• Adult ELL in the United States are very diverse.  Their education levels range from those who are highly educated with advanced college degrees to those who cannot read or write in their home language.  Those who come from countries where the home language is based on the alphabet rather than symbols generally have an easier time learning English.
• Adults who cannot read or write in their home language need more intensive instruction.  This instruction may be more productive if they initially learn to read and write their home language as a bridge to reading, writing and speaking English.
• Adults learn best when instruction is learner centered and based on authentic instruction that can be immediately applied to their daily life.  Tutors need to find ways to develop learner centered lessons for their students.  
• Writing is a necessary skill for many jobs and daily life.  It also is important to reinforce reading and writing English.  Writing is a complex process which can be broken down into planning, text production, evaluation and revision.  Poor writers do not know how to rewrite, and they rarely consider their audience as they write.  Tutors need to work with ELL learners to help them build their vocabulary to speak and read English better.  Tutors and students need to work together so that learners have multiple ways to easily practice writing.  Tutors also need to write stories along with students to model what they teach.