A staggering one in four children grow up never learning how to read (Wild). After researching child and adult illiteracy rates, although many initiatives and reforms have been put into place to try and improve them, they have stayed the same for many years. This is one of the most common yet overlooked problem in the United States. Our education has been reformed many times, most recently by implementing Common Core standards. All that has been done by implementing Common Core, is demonstrate the continuous problem of children falling below the recommended literacy rates as well as some adults never being able to reach them. On top of the education reforms, many programs are actively trying to improve the problem.

 An example of these initiatives is the work previous first lady Barbra Bush's efforts to try and raise awareness and improve the literacy rate. After all of this time and reforms taking place within the last ten years adults have continuously displayed that at least fourteen percent of the population above eighteen years of age displaying below average literacy rates. Only twenty nine percent of adults display the average literacy rate. Another fact of our society is that eighty-five percent of the juveniles who are in the court system have tested functionally illiterate (Crum).  The illiteracy rates in adults have caused economic issues for them and their family. The never ending cycle of illiteracy starts because the parents of children do not realize that they are falling behind because those themselves do not know how to read. The illiteracy rate in our country is staggering, yet many do not realize the problem is, in fact a problem. The average adult who is illiterate uses daily context clues to get by (" Shameful Secret").  They have learned to follow what others are doing, improvise instructions, and generally do what they need to continue with their daily life. This is why many don't realize that the illiteracy rates in the United States are so high (Wild). Based on the statistics given it is clear to see that at least within the last ten years nothing has been implemented to improve the illiteracy rates in any substantial way. Thus bringing about the question, is it possible to implement an initiative, or reform the education system in a way that would benefit the vast amount of students growing up testing at a below average literacy rate? While researching it is apparent that fixing the literacy rate is not as easy as changing the way we teach or handing out more books, therefore it may not be a problem that we can fix.

When looking at the education system in America it is easy to immediately point fingers at the teachers and programs and infer that they are not doing enough to help the children falling behind. However, have you ever thought about what it would take to implement new programs or ways of teaching to help those children falling behind. A study done in the British primary school took a select number of students and tested many of the theories to try and improve the student literacy. They explored options such as bringing an extra teacher in each class, changing what the student's were having to read, and also creating separate classes specifically for those who were having trouble. What they found was that the reasons why each child was illiterate was so vast that although one solution may have effected some it would worsen the problems for others because this was not something that was designed to help them. For example, someone who didn't do well in large classroom settings would benefit from being separated but another student who may be suffer from something more specialized. For example, children who suffer from dyslexia may have benefitted not only from a smaller classroom setting but a teacher who specialized in dealing with children and learning disabilities ("Top 10 Common.."). The other thing that the study mentioned was the issue of changing the child's educational experience altogether. A child not incorporated into a normal classroom setting and being forced to push themselves to keep up with the others may cause more harm than good. The money and opportunity cost of implementing these programs did not create enough of a change to prove worthwhile (Dennis). Relating this study to the American school system, it shows that even on a smaller scale the amount of independent variables involved when dealing with student who test with below average literacy rate are unpredictable. One reform would not be able to cover all of the issues such as learning disabilities or differences. Nothing may be able to create a large enough impact to be worthwhile for the board of education to implement. 

Outside of the education system many initiatives have been put into place to try and help improve illiteracy rates. "Read, Lead, Achieve", recently distributed 30,000 books in five cities including Columbia, South Carolina as a way to make sure that those less fortunate had easy access to books. Other initiatives will go into work places, schools, or have a place that you can come to that will teach you how to read. Although both of these tactics mentioned above make tremendous strides in the communities, it is up to those who are having trouble testing above the average literacy rates to search out these programs. Like aforementioned, adults with below average literacy rates are more subjected to having economic issues ("Consequences of Illiteracy.."). The amount of reading that an adult has to do in a day is staggering and as the job becomes more complicated, usually the more reading it requires. The more reading a job requires the less likely that those who are having difficulty reading are going to be able to use context clues throughout the day (White, Chen, Forsyworth). 

This creates issues with moving up within a job and maintaining a job. The working adults are obligated to take jobs with long hours and little flexibility. Very few of these programs are taking into account the availability of the adults who need them as well as the stereotype that goes along with attending or being seen in one of them. Although many are volunteer based or independent non  -- profit organizations, if the programs are not overwhelmingly positive are they actually doing the job they set out to do. This should also be looked at when dealing with government funded programs. If the overall program is not doing completely what it set out to do and only improving the literacy of a small amount of the people who could benefit from it just because of the way it is set up. 

The opposing argument is that the literacy rates can be improved. It is better to reach one child than none at all, and although the improvement may be small it is still able to improve those lives that they have effected. Another opposition is that all of these children have gone through the education system and although our literacy rates have not shown improvement with the reforms our graduation rate had. Therefore if the student's are able to graduate high school they must possess some degree of literacy (4, Caisco). My rebuttal to the argument that being able to reach one is better than reaching none at all is that, because we know that within the last ten years have not changed are we truly helping one child become more literate or are we simply letting another fall behind. Again, referencing the study done in the British primary schools although some may be positively affected the causes for each child falling below the average literacy rate are different, and some may actually be negatively affected by that changes made (Dennis). For the other opposition that because our graduation rate has improved our literacy rate cannot be as low as it has been shown to be, yet the fact than more than half of adults are able to go through everyday life, as well as maintain jobs by only using context clues it is very possible for student to do the same throughout their education (Wild).  Although on a personal level it is easy to agree that as long as some people are being helped all of the effort put forth is worth it. Through research the question that has been raised it that although yes, many have been helped, not so many have been helped to significantly or at all improve the countries literacy rate. Is it not time to abandon our previous notions on what to do to fix the problem and begin working in a different direction. 

One flaw that I did find during my research of illiteracy rates is the actual set up of the test that is used to test an individual's literacy. The test is formatted in a way that is only in English prose, and is tested at many different points in an individual's life (Sheida).  Due to other factors that may be effecting the individual taking the test, such as being newly immigrated to the United States at the time the test was administered could affect their scores. Yet eventually that person may be able to learn English at a standard level. This would also explain the children testing at a below average literacy rate if their parents were newly immigrated and did not speak English.  Another thing is that the skill gap in the United States versus other countries for in childhood does not persist to adulthood (2, Caisco). Therefore the testing could just be administered at the wrong time or that the education system currently in place does not properly prepare the students in a functional way.  

A solution to this would be to compare our own literacy test to those of other countries, as well as what is being taught along with it to truly get a better read if we are falling behind. This could be something that is skewing the current statistics and creating this problem that may not exist on the level that it appears to. Another solution is to simply raise awareness of the situation and not only have the people who may be dealing with not being able to know how to read know that there are not alone and they are programs in place to help them but also that others who may be working with them know what to look out for. Many could be helped just by increasing the amount of people who agree and know that this is a problem and willing to work toward a solution. Growing up many children are in schools that separate the levels of classes therefore those in the more "advanced classes" may never realize that there are children struggling to learn much more simple concepts than them in the same grade (Cascio, Elizabeth, Clark, Gordon).  Also, because many teachers only teach in certain academic tracks, they may not realize what an important problem this may have become. Children who are falling behind may not be noticed because of their parents who also do not know how to read as well as the school may not be catching them before it's too late. 

All of that being said there are such a variety of causes that cause children to become delayed readers placing the blame on the education system may be the easy way out. Although, reforms are always needed and initiatives are always helpful there is a level of personal accountability. By raising awareness of the issue we can take away some of the negative connotations that may be associated with getting help with learning how to read, especially at a later age (Nahpetyan). By letting people know that they are not alone in this problem, and that they are on average one of four facing this problem, it will make it easier for them to seek help. It will also grow those non-profit and volunteer based organizations that will then be able to offer more services to better accommodate not only the children who need help catching up but also the adults who are working toward a better future. Although there may not be a definite solution, to fixing the problem and raising awareness is a huge step that needs to be taken. To raise awareness that the problem is bigger than what most people know about, that the initiative in place may not be helping in the appropriate ways, and that education reform is not as effective as it needs to be can be a commendable first step. 

Through my research and looking at America's unchanging illiteracy rate, we can see that this has been an issue for quite some time. This is important because it demonstrates a problem that has been and continues to be an issue regardless of the different solutions tested. Adult illiteracy begins when children fall behind in elementary education. We know that if a child is not getting the proper education at school, many of their parents would not be able to help supplement it at home. The problem we face when addressing these illiteracy rates is that there are so many different reason's a child might become a "delayed reader". It is difficult to come up with a solution that would effect a wide enough population of those who are testing to have below average literacy rates that it would be worthwhile to implement. . Dennis Mays spoke about this in his article "Tackling Illiteracy in Year 7 of the Comprehensive School". He spoke about his work done in the British school system where they implemented several techniques to try and address this problem and break the cycle while the kids were still young. The problem they ran into was that the reasons that kids were falling behind was too wide spread and could not be addressed. Another problem we have while addressing this is that many people do not realize that this is even a problem. In both Penni Wilds article "The Shameful secret of illiteracy in America" and the article "Reading-related Literacy Activities of American Adults; Time Spent, Task Types and Cognitive skills used." the articles spoke about the amount of time adults spend doing reading related activities throughout the day and also how they use context clues to get by, which is why most people never realize if someone is unable to read. By raising awareness for this problem we can begin the process of trying to help. This is an issue because 85% of juvenile in the court system test functionally illiterate and 52-57% of these juveniles will grow up to become offenders as adults. This goes to show that even though not everyone has an issue with literacy, by addressing this problem we are moving forward to create a better and more educated society. 

Taking into consideration these facts it is unfortunate, but a conclusion that I have drawn, is that there is not a finite solution to help those struggling with illiteracy in the United States. Therefore in the current situation a major reform in education or billions of tax dollars spent on the issue may not be beneficial to the majority population. That being said the efforts of non-profit and volunteer based organizations are something to be commended and that the first step to improve any situation is to raise awareness and reevaluate the situation before moving forward to possibly create a course of action to finally improve the illiteracy rates after ten years. 

