When you think of learning to read, you may picture a young student working through phonics flashcards or a picture book.
But groups around Milwaukee also help adults strengthen their reading skills — whether they left school early or felt left behind by the reading instruction they had in school.
Literacy Services of Wisconsin is one group doing that work. The free programs pair adult learners with tutors and book programs to help them earn their high school diploma, improve their skills so they can be promoted in the workplace or attend college.
Holly McCoy-Perez is the executive director of Literacy Services of Wisconsin. She says that while the average adult program applicant has completed 10th grade, their reading level may be closer to that of a fifth grader. That realization can bring shame or fear of how much work it can take to catch up.
"For our adult students who come in and do struggle with low literacy, they're wondering if there's something that's wrong with them," she says. "When students walk through the door, they're just very anxious, like, 'Can I do it?' And our job is to show them that they can."
As part of WUWM's series Turning the Page: Teaching Milwaukee to Read, education reporter Katherine Kokal took a special look at how literacy efforts touch the lives of adults. Here's her conversation with McCoy-Perez.
This conversation has been edited for length and clarity.
Katherine Kokal: When I say low literacy in adults, what comes to mind? What are things that people really struggle with if they struggle to read as an adult?
Holly McCoy-Perez: One of four Milwaukee County adults is reading at or below a third grade level.
The language used on a lot of job applications or directions in general can feel overwhelming. Doing tasks that require a lot of of paperwork or multi-step processes can be really overwhelming. A lot of times students will, rather than just saying, 'Hey, I'm struggling to read this,' because there's obviously a stigma attached to that, they might say something like, 'Oh, I forgot my glasses. Can you help me, you know, look at what this says?' But even ordering something off of of a menu. The bus is a little bit easier now, because there's the app and it just tells you how far to walk, but at one time, just navigating a transit schedule [was difficult].
So it's some things that we just kind of do day-to-day that we don't think much about. Those are the things that can become a struggle and can really make people sort of retreat or feel fearful to seek out the appropriate help.
If I'm an adult, and I've realized I really want to get my reading skills straightened out and I walk through your doors, what happens next?
When a student is interested in signing up for classes, they either walk in our front door and we sign them up for an appointment or folks can sign up to enroll online on our website. They're set up with a testing appointment and they also meet one-on-one with one of our staff members just so that we can better understand what their ultimate goal is. It to complete their high school diploma? Is it to improve their math or reading so that they can enroll in college? Again, lots of different goals.
Once we get a feel for where they're at academically and what their goal is, we then talk with them about the multiple classes or programming that we have. So students could get a one-on-one tutor if they were more interested in individualized instruction. We work with MATC, so students might enroll in an MATC class and get support there. They might do both. We also have classes that are [led by] literacy services staff.
For some students, they're in our programming for six months. Some of our students are here for a year and a half. I would say on average, our students are here for about a year and a half. And most of our students, if they're looking to complete their high school diploma, likely left high school during their 10th grade year.
Interesting. Why specifically 10th grade?
I don't know. That's just the data. So when students enroll, we collect data on where they went to school, what school, how many schools they went to, and then also what the last grade completed was. So typically after 10th grade is when we see a lot of our students (left school).
I wonder if that's connected to the teenage working guidelines in the state of Wisconsin. A 14-year-old or 15-year-old can't work certain hours, and they can't work later than a certain time. So I wonder if that has something to do with it, because you're like 15-ish, or 16 years old in 10th grade. Maybe then you're driving to work. I just wonder. It's curious.
Actually though, I'm, yeah, I don't know. Now I kind of want to look into that actually. I love correlating data. Yeah. I think that's probably fair.
This story is part of WUWM education reporter Katherine Kokal's series, Turning the Page: Teaching Milwaukee to Read. Here are the other stories in the series:
- 73% of MPS fourth graders can't read at a basic level. What will it take to fix that?
- These tutors help MPS students jump multiple grade levels in reading. How does it work?
Katherine Kokal is the education reporter at 89.7 WUWM - Milwaukee's NPR. Are you helping your child learn to read or do you have questions about literacy in Milwaukee? You can reach Katherine at kokal@uwm.edu.
