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Grammar, Reading, and English

by

Carroll, Kay

Author: Kay Carroll, Treasurer, Literacy Texas Board of Directors

Literacy. What did it mean to me as a student? 

Grammar, reading, and English.

Honestly, it was my most dreaded subject all the way through college (I had to pass my last English class to graduate college, and it was stressful)! Fast forward to now and all my family, friends and colleagues ask me (I’m the old version of ChatGPT) to proof and rephrase their business projects, policies, procedures, programs, trainings, resumes, and emails, due to my love of and skills in communication and writing.

In my eyes today, the definition of literacy has evolved – to reading a good book; reviewing, researching and writing business professional documents; communication and collaboration.

Though my career path has taken twists and turns that were not planned or expected, thankfully it led to the Community Reinvestment Act (CRA) of 1977, and it sparked my passion. I work for a bank in CRA and Community Development serving communities by ensuring all individuals and families have access to financial and essential services.

Volunteering with amazing organizations is my way of making the world a better place and giving back to the communities. During my time as a volunteer, it has brought joy and tears helping others, teaching classes and trainings around financial education from children to adult.

The truth is, making a livable wage today, providing for yourself and family, and sincerely feeling good about your ability to exist in our current daily life is a huge obstacle without the necessary skills of the Oxford Language Dictionary definition of literacy – “the ability to read and write”. That’s why Literacy Texas exists, a vital non-profit to elevate literacy across Texas and provide local non-profits the tools and resources to ensure boots on the ground in all communities whether urban or rural.

My heart breaks for moms, dads, grandparents, family and friends who don’t know what to do or where to turn during difficult times and enormous situations that arise. Having support to overcome obstacles is overlooked and undervalued today!

My grandson had difficulty learning to read, the frustration for him and his parents was crazy, tearful, and stressful. They were ignored, told he would be held back a grade (all the while making Bs on his report card, plus about a month before summer break); the school system he was in failed him and them terribly. You must be the advocate for yourself and your family members, reach out and find the correct path for you or a loved one – knowing there is light at the end of the tunnel if you don’t give up and strive for answers and help. I’m happy to say, he switched school districts (it wasn’t easy to get him accepted but his parents advocated and stood up for him) and he loves school, the teachers, and the kiddos, and his reading has improved beyond our wildest dreams in a short time; he’s exceling all the way around.

If you’re reading this and thinking, “Hey this is me or my situation,” I’m here to tell and assure you that many people care and want to give you a hand up. Lots of people around us are unsure where to go for guidance – be the guiding force, point them to a community organization, a new school, or perhaps just give an encouraging word with a smile.

“Reading is dreaming with open eyes.” ~ Anissa Trisdianty

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Adult Literacy’s Crucial Links to a Thriving Workforce

by

Dr. Jenny McCormack Walker

Author: Dr. Jenny McCormack Walker, Literacy Texas Executive Director

When finding a solution to a complex issue, the Literacy Texas team often looks for what we call the SMIT, which stands for the Single Most Important Thing. This strategy – brought to our team by the brilliant Kathryn Bauchelle – helps us drill down through all of the details of a challenge to get to the main problem we want to tackle.

Like many other organizations in the adult education and literacy world, we have been on a wild roller coaster ride that stems from federal funding instability. As we’ve navigated an ever-changing landscape, our team has considered the SMIT. What we’ve found is that more than anything else, we (and I mean we, collectively as Texas adult literacy providers) have to help people understand that our work is relevant and critical to the state’s future. The way to do that is to help them see the connection between the work we do with adult learners and the development of a strong, educated workforce.

You’ll see this approach in our programming this year. To clarify, we’ll continue to provide the same top-tier professional development you’ve grown to appreciate from Literacy Texas. However, when we talk about different areas of adult literacy (adult basic education, language learning, and computer and digital literacy, for example), you’ll notice that we’ll begin to explore those content areas through the lens of workforce preparation.

We’re not changing what we’re doing, necessarily. We’re just changing how we talk about what we are doing. An example might be that a class at your learning center called “Digital and Computer Literacy,” simply changes its name to become “Technology for the Workforce,” and we encourage our adult learners to consider how they could use those skills to find employment, improve performance in their jobs, or promote into a new position. We hope you’ll teach the same computer and digital skills that you were already sharing with your students but with a slightly new approach.

By centering on workforce development, adult learning programs could potentially have the opportunity to attract new students, and it also opens up more grant opportunities and innovative ways to connect with local corporate partners and employers. Ultimately, I believe this can actually be a really good shift in our work.

Change is hard, but right now, this shift is the SMIT. Without it, Literacy Texas – and other adult education and literacy organizations across our state – will struggle to remain relevant in the eyes of those who hold the power to either keep us going or cancel our future funding. Let’s work together so we can continue to elevate adult learners and support them as they reach their goals. 

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From Reading to Reality: Turning Literacy Into Livelihood

by

This is a guest post by Southern Careers Institute, a 2025 Annual Conference sponsor.

For millions of Texans, mastering basic reading, writing, and numeracy is the first hard-won victory on the road to a better life. Roughly 4.8 million adults in the state still need some form of literacy education.

However, once adults build literacy skills, what comes next? How do newly literate Texans convert foundational skills into specialized expertise that puts food on the table?

Southern Careers Institute, a Texas-born career college with campuses from Brownsville to Austin and a growing roster of online options, exists to answer the question. Literacy opens the door to modern work, but employers hire for competence with specific tools, technologies, and regulations. SCI designs every program with that reality in mind.

Programs in healthcare, skilled trades, technology, and more embed industry vocabulary and document-heavy tasks (such as charting vital signs, interpreting wiring schematics, or troubleshooting cloud networks) into daily lab practice so that reading becomes doing.

Contextualized instruction turns comprehension into competence

Research shows that adults learn best when new information is tethered to immediate goals. SCI’s instructors, many of whom bring years of field experience, translate textbook language into job-site readiness the moment a lesson begins. In an HVAC classroom, for example, a vocabulary that includes “thermodynamics” and “refrigerant cycle” is paired with a lab assignment that requires students to read a pressure-temperature chart and adjust gauges on a live system. The reading comprehension built in earlier literacy classes now drives hands-on troubleshooting, and mistakes become teachable moments instead of barriers.

Healthcare programs follow the same pattern. Students study medical terminology one day and transcribe patient-intake notes the next, reinforcing spelling, abbreviations, and privacy regulations in real time. By weaving technical literacy into performance tasks, SCI helps adult learners internalize the specialized language employers expect without forcing them back into abstract theory alone.

Adult-friendly pacing and supports

Time and cost are chief concerns for adult learners who already juggle work and family. Most SCI programs can be completed in as little as five to fifteen months, depending on full- or part-time enrollment, so momentum from an adult-education milestone is not lost to multi-year detours.

Day and evening schedules, online formats, and career-services coaching reduce friction even further. SCI’s CareerHub job-matching tool lets students see Texas-wide openings mapped against the licenses or certifications each role requires, creating a clear line of sight from coursework to paycheck.

Employer alignment closes the skills gap

Texas businesses routinely cite a shortage of workers with soft skills and technical know-how. SCI maintains advisory boards of regional employers who preview curricula and suggest updates so that lessons stay current. Graduates are trained to sit for industry-recognized certifications and when appropriate train on advanced equipment their future supervisors already use, rather than relearning their skills from scratch on the job.

By the time an SCI student unwraps a diploma or certificate, the distance from literacy to livelihood has been reduced to a single step of applying for a new job.

Walking through the open door

Texas still has work to do before every adult reaches basic literacy, but thousands cross that threshold each year. SCI stands ready for the adults who built foundational skills, transforming the ability to read about opportunity into specialized training. For adults who have already proven they can learn, the next lesson is simple: specialized skills are within reach, and the classroom is designed for the lives they already lead.

Adults ready to take their next step towards a new career should visit scitexas.edu

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Second Chances Start With Compassionate Teachers

by

Dr. Jenny McCormack Walker

Author: Dr. Jenny McCormack Walker, Literacy Texas Executive Director

One of the most impactful professional development workshops I’ve ever attended was led by brain researcher Dr. Marcia Tate. In her presentation, she said,

“If students love you, they’ll do anything for you.”

With this sentiment, Dr. Tate made a strong case for the power of positive relationships in the classroom. If we, as instructors, can earn the trust and respect of the adult learners we serve, we can use that as leverage to motivate, empower, and equip our students for success.  

In the adult education and literacy field, we’re fortunate to have students with a diverse range of backgrounds, and some of those backgrounds include substance use and incarceration.

It’s not our job to decide if they’re worthy of a second chance.

It’s our job to help them begin again when they’re ready for it.  

Our organizations are stretched thin and are charged with doing an unbelievable amount of work. Even so, it’s important that the people on your team are the right fit for the students you serve. You must have people who can build positive relationships with all students.

This is why it’s infinitely important to be selective about the people you invite to join your team. There are often people with good hearts who want to serve as a tutor or volunteer, but sometimes even people with good hearts bring preconceived ideas about those carrying heavy baggage from their past.

This will impact an instructor’s ability to build positive relationships, and ultimately, it will impact the success of the students in their classroom.

When interviewing potential volunteers or staff members, it’s important to be open and honest about the kind of students they could potentially have in their class. It’s not fair to your adult learners – or to the candidate you’re interviewing – to skip those difficult, yet critical, conversations.

You can always teach instructional strategies. You can’t always teach a person how to have an open mind and an open heart.  

On Thursday, June 26, we’ll welcome a special contingent from the Windham School District – which has responsibility for all adult education for incarcerated folks across Texas – to our Best of Texas session. It’s promising to be a fascinating conversation and we’d love to have you there. Find out more and register here.

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Too important to ignore

by

Dr. Jenny McCormack Walker

Author: Dr. Jenny McCormack Walker, Literacy Texas Executive Director

According to 2017 data from the National Center for Education Statistics, a division of the U.S. Department of Education, 17 percent of Texas adults do not have at least a high school education or equivalent – well over 3 million people.

Across Texas, there are hundreds of small non-profits, public libraries, church ministries, and other community-based organizations working with skeleton crews and shoestring budgets to support this slice of our population. These organizations are hosting bake sales and car washes so that they can buy curriculum for their programs.

This matters not only in the lives of the men and women being served by these literacy programs, but it also matters to Texas as a whole. The most recent rankings place Texas near the bottom in the country for adult literacy. Texas is below the national average in both literacy and numeracy.

Those of us working in the adult literacy field are not ok with this. Texas cannot be ok with this. It directly impacts everything in our state from our economic development to our social services.

This issue is too important to ignore.

Our organization’s main mission is to serve as a support system for the organizations working tirelessly to make a positive impact on adult basic education and other areas that fall under the literacy umbrella. Things like computer and digital literacy, financial literacy, and language learning are critically important to individuals and families in Texas.

This is a problem that is too big for any one person or organization to solve. I know there is strength in numbers, and it will take us all working together to support this effort. I welcome any opportunity to talk with individuals, organizations, and corporations about ways we can partner in this incredibly important work.

Together, we can stand strong for adult literacy in Texas.

Our theme throughout March is Focus on ABE, and we’re looking at related topics throughout the month.

Plan to join us at our next Best of Texas online session, highlighting Texas-based Adult Basic Education programs, on March 27.

Amazing things are happening in Texas!

“Best of Texas” brings local experts together to share their wisdom and experience.

find out more about this monthly series

Striking a Balance: Humanity vs Economics

by

Dr. Jenny McCormack Walker

Author: Dr. Jenny McCormack Walker, Literacy Texas Executive Director

I’m a sucker for a good, gut-wrenching success story.

It’s one of the reasons I love to attend when an adult literacy CBO leader presents for a civic, social, or academic audience in their community. Five minutes after learning about Marisol, the single mom who just earned her GED after 6 years of night classes, I’m fully invested. I’m sitting in my car – ugly crying – and I’ve already texted my best friend about it. I’ve signed up for the organization’s newsletter, and I’m checking my schedule to see when I can volunteer. Those presentations speak to the core of my soul.

As a CBO leader who loves people, this is exactly how I designed every one of my community presentations for years: a great success story with a great action photo of the adult learner. Rinse and repeat. My CBO friends thought my presentations were brilliant. However, my business leader friends struggled to understand why they should care about people like Marisol.

To clarify, my business leader friends are not heartless; they just didn’t find her story relevant to their work or life.

I realized that by leaning into my love of student success stories, I was missing the opportunity to connect a large group of people to my organization’s mission. I knew that I had to be intentional in making sure my messages spoke to everyone in the room. Since money impacts us all, I began shifting my presentations toward the connection between adult literacy and economic development.

In recent years, major companies have expanded operations in Texas or relocated their entire corporation here altogether. In fact, so many businesses moved to Texas, Governor Abbott’s office declared our state to be the official “headquarters of headquarters.” And corporations aren’t the only ones settling in the Lone Star state. According to an article from Texas Public Radio, over half a million new residents moved here last year: more than any other state in the country.

Those companies need employees, and those new residents need jobs. Adult literacy organizations’ unique ability to make those connections through academic and workforce development programs is an interesting story worth sharing. We might not be negotiating big deals and tax incentives to attract corporations into our communities, but we’re doing our part to build up an educated workforce. My business leader friends connect well with that sentiment (and, don’t worry, I still toss in a hearty serving of warm and fuzzy stories too!).

Finding the balance between the human and the economic side of adult literacy can make all the difference in how a message resonates when building relationships with leaders in outreach work – and end up garnering crucial support from a wider range of folks across our communities.

Our theme throughout January is Workforce Literacy, and we’re focusing on related topics throughout the month. Find general resources here, and plan to join us at a special extended Best of Texas online session focused on Workforce Literacy, on January 30.

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The Dignity of Knowing What’s Going On

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When you work in adult and family literacy, there are so many reasons to pay more than passing attention to the language you use. By definition, folks participating in our programs and activities are still learning – to speak English; to read and write fluently; maybe both – and how we present information and ideas to them really matters. 

It can be the difference between –
– understanding classroom instructions – or not.
– getting to attend a great event or activity – or missing out.
– finding the right room or person in our building – or going astray.

So language choices matter first of all for basic comprehension.

But close behind is the concept of dignity. And this can be overlooked at first glance, but it’s also crucially important. Even better, it’s a concept we can make natural and largely effortless with a bit of attention and practice.

Why does dignity matter when it comes to understanding?

Because sadly, for people in adult literacy classes, there are already too many places where their dignity has been challenged. For new Americans, there are long lines and Alien Registration numbers and maybe having to have their kid translate for them on parent-teacher evening. The brow-furrowing concentration of a simple shopping visit or the bewilderment of a doctor’s appointment. For English-speakers with low written literacy, there can be the stress and shame of hiding a reading deficit, and the vulnerability of admitting that you can’t complete the form or read the notice or sign the papers – because you can’t read them.

We want our classrooms and our literacy programs to be places of grace – of safety, and relaxation, and yes, of dignity. So taking extra time and making extra effort to make sure our signs, our instructions, our paperwork, our websites, our new student orientation, even what we say on the phone, is as easy to udnerstand as possible – well, all this is a gift. A gift of dignity.

—

The simplest and most straightforward way to make your materials and programs accessible is to make a study of plain language. Literacy Texas has a page on plain language right here on the website, and we’ll be holding an online training session on this topic soon. Stay tuned, and watch our website, newsletter, and socials for more info.

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5 Things You Might Be Missing About Awards

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Let’s face it, there are a lot of awards out there. From Student of the Year to Volunteer of the Month to Community Rockstar to who knows what else, we get offered a lot of places to nominate the folks in our programs for recognition (including the Literacy Texas Annual Awards, which open every spring and are presented every year at the annual conference in the summer).

It can be… a lot.

And it’s just possible that you see these awards go by, and you think something like, “One day we should nominate someone for that… but who has the time?” You wouldn’t be alone.

But it’s also possible that you’re missing some of the reasons you really should be nominating volunteers and students for awards – and not just the Literacy Texas ones! I’m here to make the case for nominating everyone you can for every award possible.

Here’s why:

trophies

5. They might win

OK, this one you’re probably not missing. In fact, it’s likely the first thing most people think of when it comes to awards: What’s the prize? Is it “worth it”? Could the agency win money?

There’s absolutely nothing wrong with any of that. Some awards DO come with money, or books, or another prize, and others come with recognition for your agency.

And winning is nice. Letting someone know they’ve won can be even nicer. And there are people who have lived their whole life and, in their own words, “never won anything”. YOUR nomination could be the first time they get publicly recognized. YOU could make that happen. Just imagine.

All of that is pretty compelling, but there are four more reasons, and I’d argue they just get more important from here.

4. You get to celebrate people you think are amazing

Hopefully you’re doing this sometimes anyway, awards or not. But there’s a saying about “not saving things to say over a coffin lid” and it’s good advice.

We sometimes think people know how we feel about them, and MAYBE they do, but pulling together an award nomination for a volunteer or student at your agency can uncover stories and sayings and other facts about them that you never knew before – and is always an excuse for a celebration (maybe even cupcakes!). Because despite everything going on right now – there is always something to celebrate. 

3. You get to TELL people that you think they're amazing

One of the things I genuinely liked the most, when I was working as a program director at a volunteer-based adult literacy organization in Houston, was telling volunteers and students that we wanted to nominate them for an award. See point #5 above – many of them said that was the first time that had ever happened. And that was always touching. 

But it just got better from there. Because as part of the nomination process, we would spend 10 minutes at the end of a staff meeting, just brainstorming as a team about what we all knew about these wonderful people. We’d gather the best of what we came up with together, complete the nomination, and submit it.

And then we’d go one step further – we’d take a few more minutes and put the nomination content together in a simple document, add our logo and any photos we had of that person in action at our agency, print it off, and give it to the nominee.

Y’all. That was ALWAYS moving. Sometimes there were tears. And usually, the person would say something like, “I never knew y’all thought all of this about me!” They had something to take home and read over again (and again!), words of praise and joy. They KNEW, without a shadow of a doubt, how much we appreciated and admired them. Volunteers knew we saw everything they did for the students, and how priceless that was to us. Students knew that we witnessed their efforts and were there alongside them cheering them on as they took steps toward the next success.

That felt like winning every time, regardless of whether our nominee actually got chosen for that award or not.

2. You model appreciation to others on your team

Remember how I said we used to brainstorm our nomination content at staff meetings, as a group? That wasn’t by accident. Of course it was a practical way to gather a lot of information in a short amount of time, so I recommend it for that reason alone. But it makes celebration, and articulating positive thoughts and compliments, a natural and accepted part of work.

The more we did it, the easier it became. Staff started to keep an eye out for fun stories that could be included in some nomination some day. One even kept a list. And it became more natural for all of us to voice that appreciation to volunteers and students throughout the week, and make positivity a daily element of our working lives.

1. You stop and feel appreciation yourself

Don’t underestimate the power of this. I don’t know you, but you’re reading this, so you probably work in adult literacy in Texas. So I know you’re tired; in fact, you were probably exhausted BEFORE the pandemic, and now – well, there probably aren’t words to describe how overworked and stressed you’ve been. And when you’re constantly exhausted and anxious, it’s very easy to fall into the habit of seeing everything with a deficit mindset: How are we going to pay for? – to manage? – to do? – to finish? – ? That’s very normal.

Being conscious of stopping, thinking, gathering positive thoughts and stories from others, writing them into a short but coherent whole, and then handing the whole beautiful account to the person you appreciate so much is all good for your body, mind, and spirit.

So – start a list of awards you can nominate folks for. You’ll have local opportunities, as well as statewide and even national awards. Take that little extra time to sit with the team and talk about what makes people wonderful. Write it up into a simple nomination. Give it to the person with a smile. So many people will be glad you did.

Nominations for the Literacy Texas Annual Awards are open now, and winners will be recognized in July. You can find out more, and submit your nominations, here.

A version of this blog post originally appeared in March 2022.

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Reading Changes You

by

Every year in September, we celebrate literacy.

So – 

Happy Literacy Month!

As we begin this special month of celebration, there are all kinds of ways for you to get involved:

Complete the Literacy Texas Needs Assessment and help us make sure the upcoming year of training and advocacy gives you what you need. You’ll also be in the running for prizes! Already completed it? Please share with a Texas literacy colleague – we want as many responses as possible!

Celebrate International Literacy Day on September 8, which this year has the theme ‘Promoting literacy for a world in transition: Building the foundation for sustainable and peaceful societies’. 

Dive into Adult Education and Family Literacy Week (September 17 – 23), using quality toolkits and advocacy materials prepared by leading literacy orgs.

Relax with the Texas Great Read book choices for 2023, announced in mid-August by the Texas Center for the Book at the Texas State Library and Archives Commission. And if you’re in Houston or nearby, add the 2023 Gulf Coast Reads book to your pile as well, ready for October.

And – the new Literacy Texas grant year starts on September 1, along with our new calendar of training and events. Because literacy transforms Texas! And YOU help make that happen.

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Hot Summer Days Need a Cool Program Management Solution

by

This is a guest post from CommonTeri Services.

You can visit them at the 2023 Literacy Texas Annual Conference Registration Desk.

Greetings from the CommonTeri team!

Summer may be a time for vacations but it can be a busy time for adult and family literacy programs. Wrapping up the Spring semester and prepping for Fall programs can keep your team busy.

What about your data?

How easily can you get what you need for annual funding reports?

Do you wish your program management process were more streamlined?

How quickly can you get new activities added and the students enrolled?

Summer is a good time to evaluate how well your data system works for you. If keeping up with your data takes time and energy away from your focus on improving adult literacy, consider moving to a new data solution. A robust, flexible system makes it easier to:

  • manage and serve participants,
  • engage and utilize volunteers,
  • plan and organize activities, and
  • track and report on outcomes.

5 key traits for a quality data solution for program management are:

  1. User-friendliness. Can your team get key tasks done easily and quickly, with a manageable amount on onboarding and training?
  2. Capability. Does your team have the necessary tools and options, plus automation to support daily processes?
  3. Adaptability. Will your team be able to customize for organization-specific needs with a minimal amount of cost and time?
  4. Security. Does your team feel confident that the data is stored and accessed securely, with regular updates and maintenance to meet changing best practices?
  5. Long-term relevance. As your team looks to the future, can they be assured that the solution will continue to support them as the organization grows and changes?

The Salesforce app Literacy Nimbus (LitNim) is built on Salesforce technology and is designed specifically for nonprofits and literacy programs. It has all five traits, plus a team of forward-thinking Salesforce and nonprofit management experts who’d love to help you. 

Recently, the LitNim team began work on a new constituent portal to expand secure online data access and provide web-based forms for many common nonprofit uses such as registration, intake, event ticketing, enrollment, and attendance.

When you invest in a data solution, you want to make sure it works well now and for years to come. If you feel overwhelmed and frustrated with your data management, it may be time for a change. Having a quality data solution has real benefits for staff and organizations, including more time to focus on your mission and the students you serve. We encourage you to consider, explore, and ask questions to find the right data solution for you!

For more information:

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