Return-Path: <nifl-ld@literacy.nifl.gov> Received: from literacy (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by literacy.nifl.gov (8.10.2/8.10.2) with SMTP id eAA5XY900664; Fri, 10 Nov 2000 00:33:44 -0500 (EST) Date: Fri, 10 Nov 2000 00:33:44 -0500 (EST) Message-Id: <005101c04ad8$a5b70400$54b18dcf@ncia.net> Errors-To: listowner@literacy.nifl.gov Reply-To: nifl-ld@literacy.nifl.gov Originator: nifl-ld@literacy.nifl.gov Sender: nifl-ld@literacy.nifl.gov Precedence: bulk From: woods@ncia.net To: Multiple recipients of list <nifl-ld@literacy.nifl.gov> Subject: [NIFL-LD:3247] Re: Literacy and Prisons X-Listprocessor-Version: 6.0c -- ListProcessor by Anastasios Kotsikonas X-Mailer: Microsoft Outlook Express 5.00.2919.6600 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Content-Type: text/plain; Status: O Content-Length: 3582 Lines: 63 June Crawford wrote: > Tom Woods mentioned that his program is located in a prison. I am curious, > Tom, about the training of the faculty. Have they been trained in Bridges > to Practice or in any of the reading programs that stress phonemic > awareness? You will find large differences among prison systems, but all faculty of the Community High School of Vermont, which serves people in the care and custody of the Department of Corrections in this state, are licensed educators with a variety of endorsements. Personally, I'm licensed in the fields of K-8 elementary ed, K-12 special ed, and K-12 reading. Faculty members have been trained in a variety of approaches, but there is no one method that is adopted by the school. My training has led me to adopt a diagnostic prescriptive approach, using a variety of methods as needed for each individual. I tend to be skeptical of any one method or reading program that makes blanket efficacy claims such as "works for people with LD" because I don't believe people can be lumped together like that. Each person has a unique set of strengths and weaknesses, that need to be looked at on an individual basis. I have to say that phonemic awareness has not been a big problem for any of my adult students who have trouble reading. Rather, their problems include a diverse mix of automaticity, fluency, memory, comprehension, sight words, structural analysis, use of strategies such as self monitoring, questioning, predicting, re-reading, metacognitive skills -- almost every problem under the sun EXCEPT phonemic awareness. I think the phonics and phonemic awarness parts of reading were well learned in my students' prior school experiences. >The incidence of learning disabilities in prisons is high, Perhaps you'd be interested in a few numbers. Our 18-22 year old population is required to attend school if they do not have a high school diploma. 95% of them are dropouts. 40% of them come to us with histories of prior special education. Our students are mostly people who were once labeled as LD and EBD with a few Learning Impaired. It's probably safe to assume that any other state shows similar trends. Far fewer than 40% of our students are on IEPs because of the way instruction is delivered in our school -- self paced and individualized. We don't have grades, we don't have failure. A person just keeps working and learning until he gets it, and we try to give him what he needs to help him get it. The "need for special education" becomes superfluous. In effect, it's like everyone gets special education so the "special" becomes the norm. > yet the average sentence, nationwide, is only five years, and then people > are back out on the street on probation/parole. Without an education, > and/or an ability to navigate the job market through the use of assistive > technology (and a diagnosis of LD for legal purposes) the chances of > recidivism are greatly increased. Chances of recidivism are high for a great many reasons besides education. Nevertheless this is a BIG BIG problem! Even bigger, I think, is the dropout rate in our public schools. The correlation between dropping out and winding up in jail is shocking, and when you think of the numbers of people involved, it is simply staggering. Right now, 1 in 9 young men under the age of 22 in our state is under the care or supervision of the DOC -- and the number is growing rapidly. The problem is bigger than education, families, law enforcement, corrections, or justice. Many components of society must take a part in the solution. Tom Woods
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b30 : Tue Jan 16 2001 - 14:42:23 EST