Quarter of Nueces(County, Texas) adults can't read

Corpus Christi Caller-Times ^ | January 11, 2004 | Ofelia Garcia Hunter

[SwinneySwitch]

Many can't perform daily tasks; annual cost to state is $20B

Part of an ongoing series

One in four Nueces County residents are like Antonio De Los Santos, 27, who can't fill out a job application, read a brief news article, or take a driver's written exam.

More than 3 million adult Texans likewise are unable to fill out a job application, according to the 2000 Census.

"My wife fills out the applications for me," said De Los Santos, a 1996 Moody High School graduate. "It's hard when you can't read. Sometimes it's frustrating because it's difficult."

De Los Santos said he was promoted to the next grade year after year because he was in special education classes that taught mostly life skills. He functioned as an assistant to the teachers in caring for students with disabilities, he said. Because he was placed in these classes, he was exempt from standardized tests and was automatically moved to the next grade level.

Graduating from high school without achieving functional literacy is common. A U.S. Department of Education survey in 1992, four years before De Los Santos graduated, found that 52 percent of the nation's 59 million high school graduates were functionally illiterate.

Because of the importance of literacy to the well-being of this community, the Caller-Times is starting today a year-long examination of the problem and potential solutions. The "Read to Lead" effort will include news stories, editorials and columns, along with increased community outreach by the Caller-Times as a local company.

In Nueces County, 25.6 percent of the adult population is functionally illiterate, according to Census information. Nueces County has 23,676 residents over the age of 25 who have attained less than a ninth-grade education and another 25,504 people who received some education between ninth and 12th grade, but did not earn a high school diploma. The national average is 21 to 23 percent adult illiteracy, or 44 million people across the nation, according to the National Literacy Council.

Nueces County's illiteracy level is similar to Aransas County, where 25.4 percent are functionally illiterate, and San Patricio County, with a 26.6-percent functional illiteracy rate. Area illiteracy Adults who are functionally illiterate. Nueces County: 25.6% Aransas County: 25.4% San patricio County: 26.6%

U.S. literacy

23% Level 1 Adults who could total a deposit slip, locate a meeting time on a form and identify specific information in a brief news article. Some could not respond.

27% Level 2 Adults who could calculate a purchase, find an intersection on a map and enter information on a simple form.

32% Level 3 Adults who could integrate information from relatively dense text to determine an arithmetic operation and the quantities needed to perform the operation.

18% Levels 4 and 5 Adults who had proficiencies associated with challenging tasks, many involving complex text passages.

- 1992 National Adult Literacy Survey Reading level needed to:

Understand a driver's license manual: 6th Grade

Safety badge exam: 6th Grade

Hold a job as a cook: 7th Grade

Understand directions on an aspirin bottle: 8th Grade

Understand frozen dinner directions: 8th Grade

Work as a mechanic: 8th Grade

Work as a supply clerk: 9th Grade

Understand a guide to Social Security benefits: 9th Grade

Understand a newspaper: 7-10th Grade

Understand a Bible: 7-10th Grade

Understand an insurance policy: 12th Grade

Understand an apartment lease: College

The Corpus Christi Literacy Council assists 600 individuals a year and about 2,500 to 3,000 residents are helped through several literacy programs in the city.

"We are not getting everybody we can," said Agnes Flores, executive director of the Corpus Christi Literacy Council. "There are 101 reasons why they don't come in."

Among potential solutions, Flores said, would be involvement and support from businesses, encouraging employees to volunteer and allowing them to use the workplace for tutoring.

"Employers need to have more of an understanding and the willingness to allow literacy training in the workplace without employees fearing the possibility of losing their jobs because they can't read," Flores said.

Volunteer tutors and donations supplement the other solutions being pursued - government-sponsored literacy surveys such as the detailed Census questions, and tutoring programs for reading skills and high school equivalency, such as those offered through local schools and libraries.

De Los Santos attends reading classes three times a week at the literacy council. And with a 4-year-old daughter, he wants to read and write so he can help her with schoolwork.

Taking the written test to get his driver's license was one of the hardest tasks De Los Santos accomplished, and when he did, it was orally. It took him several tries.

"For about two years I was driving without a license," De Los Santos said. "When I took the test, they would read it to me and I would answer."

De Los Santos has worked with Meals on Wheels as a delivery person for two years. He says reading street names and maps doesn't come easily for him, and he learned his delivery route through his wife, Maria, who had the route before him.

Texas adults with reading deficiencies report median weekly earnings of $204 to $219, reports the Texas Adult Literacy Survey. Seventy-five percent of the 21 million U.S. adults on welfare are illiterate and 34 percent of applicants looking for employment lack the basic skills necessary to perform the jobs they sought in 2000.

Texas ranks 47th in literacy nationwide. Recently Corpus Christi was ranked 63 out of 64 large cities surveyed for availability of resources such as libraries, publications, educational attainment and booksellers.

According to the Census, more than half of the population over the age of 25 in Robstown, Mathis and Edroy is illiterate and the Coastal Bend communities with the least illiteracy are Portland, Ingleside-on-the-Bay and Port Aransas, ranging from 9 percent to 12.5 percent illiteracy.

De Los Santos pushes himself to learn how to read and write so he can set a good example for his 4-year-old daughter.

"I can write my name, but not a sentence," he said. "I want my daughter to learn."

Contact Ofelia Garcia Hunter at 886-3759 or huntero@caller.com

[SwinneySwitch]

"A U.S. Department of Education survey in 1992, four years before De Los Santos graduated, found that 52 percent of the nation's 59 million high school graduates were functionally illiterate."

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[sarasmom]

And what percentage of that percentage are illegal immigrants?

[msdrby]

ping

[VOA]

And what percentage of that percentage are illegal immigrants?

Valid question...and I'll put out another one...
"What percentage attended public schools filled with teachers with 'education' degrees?"

Actually I'm not ragging on teachers per se...most are working hard at a tough job.

What is interesting is there was an article here within the last month about
General Sanchez...the guy who we often see on TV from Baghdad and was on the
stage for Dubya's "Thanksgiving Day Suprise".

He grew up in one of these impoverished South Texas region...and recounted how
a math teacher who'd told him he would never amount to anything was the prod to
get him to excel in math.
IIRC, he got a B.S. in math before starting his military career.

So much for getting kids to perform with that ishonest PC "self-esteem" hog-wash!

[Paleo Conservative]

I've always thought that bilingual signs in South Texas are useless. A large proportion of "Spanish" speakers (people I've met from Mexico City would dispute that) in South Texas are illiterate in Spanish. I'd love to see studies of people who are "bilingual". I wonder what percentage are illiterate in both Spanish and English.

[kittymyrib]

You will find that many of these people are "non-lingual." While they can function by speaking Spanish and broken English, they can read or write in neither. That's why in Texas, California, Arizona and New Mexico, Anglos are being forced by employers to speak Spanish. They know Mexican's will not speak English when they are concentrated in the population.

[Will_Zurmacht]

Re: Education degrees, I thank God for an advisor I had, I seriously considered entering a grad program, M.A., Ed.
A favorite professor took me aside and explained the dirty little secret, Ed. degrees are only respected by other Ed. degrees. He explained that in the real academic world, an M.A., Ed. is equal to a BA. an Ed. PhD. is compared to a solid MA program in a given field.
We talked about careers and life, and he explained that I would probably change careers several times in life, and do I really want to be hindered by taking the easy way out and getting a chump degree?
I only considered going that route because it was so easy, but I thank God today I didn't do that.

We have so dumbed down the teacher training and education programs today that they are second only to Phys. Ed. for degrees sought by offensive lineman.
Not to put down offensive lineman, but honestly, if half of the football team is enrolled in the degree program, it can't be the most academically demanding.
To be fair, many of the young women I have met in the Ed. program are nice and well meaning. However, they view teaching as a form of social work, and "want to help kids" more than they want to educate them. Most are looking for a way to "help the community" until they have kids/do something else.

Given this state of affairs, it is no wonder so many HS graduates are unable to function in society. I think in the next 10-20 years, education in this country will be so dumbed down, the B.A. will replace the HS diploma. This is happening already, as even lowly, entry level jobs today require a college degree. It is assumed by many in business and industry that a HS grad without college or technical school is not worth hiring.

[OldPossum]

You are absolutely right, especially about the dumbing down of the college degree. I have been arguing this point for years now.

The American educational establishment has done a real number on parents, forcing them to think that if they don't pay for a degree for their progeny, they have failed.

[okie01]

"IIRC, he got a B.S. in math before starting his military career."

You recall correctly -- at Texas A&I, in Kingsville.

[VOA]

To be fair, many of the young women I have met in the Ed. program are nice and
well meaning. However, they view teaching as a form of social work, and "want to help kids"
more than they want to educate them. Most are looking for a way to "help the community"
until they have kids/do something else.

I agree with what you say.

From my experience of attending good public schools through high school,
then getting science degrees from both a private (church-affiliated) and a
public university, if I was allowed ONE change to the "education degree"
course of study, it would be this:
A history survey...of the educational systems of the societies that had lasting
positive impact on the planet earth and try to figure out the secrets of those
systems and imitate the best part of each.
This would include:
1. The Ancient/Classical Greeks: how the Athenians gave us democracy, how the Spartans
built discipline that allowed them to win at Thermoplyae (sp?)....how could
an educator get the "higher mental processes" of the Athenians and the
gut-level endurance of the Spartans.
Heck, I'd send force the education majors to read Thomas Rick's "Making The Corps"
and to study today's US Military to try to get the secrets of motivating students
(without killing them!).

2. The Rise of The University: let the education majors learn that without
the rise of education in Christian countries in Europe...most of them would be
out of a job!
Heck, even though my bachelor's degree was earned at a college affiliated with
the mainstream Churches of Christ...I had NO idea of how much the current educational
(especially scientific) enterprise came from people/institutions that were
Christian.
Shoot...Newton wrote more on spiritual/religional matters than he did on
physics/gravitation.

3. Obsessing about the past = Disaster in the present:
How can I say that in a proposed history course? Because the lesson of history
is that people can become slaves TO PARTS of it; e.g., the USSR obsession with
"The Patriotic War" may have contributed somewhat to the lethargy that finally
brought down the Berlin Wall.
Take-home? Take the best of the past, modify and apply, move on, repeat!

4. I've got plenty more ideas (surely good and ill) but couldn't fit it
into 12-16 weeks!

(Thanks to being in a small "oiltown" where the children of the 'power elite'
had to go to the same schools as the proletariat [that would be VOA, et al.]

[VOA]

You recall correctly -- at Texas A&I, in Kingsville.

Thanks for the info...for use in future reference.
That story on Sanchez was just the best.

Just like a lot of our military folks.

[Amerigomag]

My first reaction after reading this short article was a knee jerk defense of the US system but on second thought the unwillingness to regulate immigration for the past 50 years is a national disgrace that belongs to a majority of US citizens.

As the Balkanization of our southwestern states continues and even possibly accelerates under the present administration these statistics will creep into the heartland.

[TASMANIANRED]

When my sister sent her first born to kindergarten, he could read the newspaper. Didn't always comprehend everything but he could sound out the words.

She has a AS in marketing and doesn't know diddly about education. She taught phonics without knowing what phonics was.

All it took was individual attention. Encouraging him to try new words. He moved at his own pace.

There is never a justification for a social promotion. The damage to a childs self esteem at being left behind is nothing compared to the damage to their whole life at being left to fend as an adult as a minimally functioning moron.

[Redbob]

So for certain a quarter of the county votes Dimocrat.

[DFW_Repub]

I spent the 2nd half of 1993 and the 1st half of 1994 in Corpus Christie. I was sent down there along 3 other employees to open a local office for my employer. I have to say, I have never meet a dumber group of people that the locals there.

On most occaision's when I went grocery shopping at the local HEB I would be the only person NOT paying with food stamps. I would watch the fat latino women waddle out to their cars with 3 baskets of food being pushed by a few of their half dozen kids not in jail at the time.

All the latino girls by 19 had at least 2 kids, but none by me. I always used a condom.

[Old Professer]

One of my favorite "tests": Express the value of 1/3 in terms of 1/2.

[SwinneySwitch]

2/3(1/2)?

Old Student

[Old Professer]

Yup; and 1/2 in terms of 1/3 is 3/2(1/3).