Contact
Donate
Menu

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.

Get Texas literacy updates

Join our mailing list so you don’t miss any news:

  • Local and national literacy news
  • Conference updates
  • Regional symposia
  • Best of Texas
  • Advocacy 
  • …more!
Click here to join the list

The Dignity of Knowing What’s Going On

by

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.

Get Texas literacy updates

Join our mailing list so you don’t miss any news:

  • Local and national literacy news
  • Conference updates
  • Regional symposia
  • Best of Texas
  • Advocacy 
  • …more!
Click here to join the list

5 Things You Might Be Missing About Awards

by

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.

Get Texas literacy updates

Join our mailing list so you don’t miss any news:

  • Local and national literacy news
  • Conference updates
  • Regional symposia
  • Best of Texas
  • Advocacy 
  • …more!
Click here to join the list

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.

Get Texas literacy updates

Join our mailing list so you don’t miss any news:

  • Local and national literacy news
  • Conference updates
  • Regional symposia
  • Best of Texas
  • Advocacy 
  • …more!
Click here to join the list

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:

Get Texas literacy updates

Join our mailing list so you don’t miss any news:

  • Local and national literacy news
  • Conference updates
  • Regional symposia
  • Best of Texas
  • Advocacy 
  • …more!
Click here to join the list

Four Ways to Address Workplace Skills in the Classroom

by

This is a guest post from Rob Jenkins of National Geographic Learning.

You can visit their booth at the 2023 Literacy Texas Annual Conference.

workforce skills

Beginning in 1992, the United States developed standards identifying workplace soft skills for workforce preparation. While these standards changed and new ones were introduced, the same underlying skills were always there: critical thinking, collaboration, communication, and technology skills.

Below we discuss four ways to address workplace skills in the Adult Education classroom.

#1 Teach Academic Skills

In workshops I give regularly, I enjoy presenting participants with several workplace skills and then asking them to address which ones might be good skills for students in the classroom. A few of them are: combine ideas and information, make decisions and solve problems, exercise leadership roles, manage time, and complete tasks as assigned.

Of course, the answer participants give is All of them. We suggest that teachers make the obvious link between workplace skills and academic skills as often as they can. Give students opportunities to lead, to manage tasks, and to solve problems.

You can do this in every class, and you might consider incorporating workplace-like simulations where students create projects. In Stand Out, we call these “team projects”. You can find them in every unit.

#2 Teach "Soft Skills"

We teach in context and incorporate soft skills like critical thinking into every lesson, so learning is relevant. These activities are NOT an afterthought that we do if we have time.

Students should be collaborating in every lesson. They should be solving problems regularly, and they should be applying what they have learned.

Of course, students are asked to fill-in the blanks occasionally and participate in dialogs that require substitutions, but if you stop there, student learning will not be as robust as it could be. As mentioned earlier, these soft skills are the skills they will need in the workplace.

An example of a team project from Stand Out, Fourth Edition

#3 Help Students Make Connections

It is not enough to incorporate these previous ideas. Students should be aware of why they are doing what they are doing.

Help them to see the connection between the activity they are doing in the classroom and activities they will be asked to do in the workplace. Point out that they will likely have to work in a team at work and communicate clearly to be successful.

For those not pursuing a job, no problem; these skills also help them in life and college!

#4 Help Students See Their Potential

In my experience, students who are asked at the beginning of the term what their goals are, regularly reply that they want to learn English. When probing deeper, students look confused because they haven’t thought that far ahead. If we are satisfied with these responses, we are doing a disservice to our students.

Students will be more motivated to learn if they have long-term goals. We suggest that teachers look for ways to introduce their students to opportunities. Help them be aware of career choices.

For example, if they are learning about health, we share information about careers like nursing and provide information about average salaries, education, and the size of the workforce. Then we ask them to reflect on what it might be like for them to pursue such a career.

For over thirty years, workforce preparation has been addressed in standards and through funding in the United States. Adult Education programs look for new ways to meet the needs of their students while addressing the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA).

The simple answer to achieving these goals is through effective instruction. Good teaching, simply stated, is when students are actively participating and developing skills which are relevant to life, college, and career.

sample lesson from Stand Out

To learn more about the fourth edition of Stand Out visit ELTNGL.com/StandOut.

Author: Rob Jenkins

Rob Jenkins is a popular presenter and author of English as a Second Language topics. He is a retired faculty member from Santa Ana College School of Continuing Education where he taught ESL for 27 years and served as faculty development coordinator for 20. He was honored with several faculty awards from his college and the Best Practice of Model Program Award in 2013 from the Association of Community and Continuing Education. Rob and Staci Johnson received the 2013 Heinle Outstanding Achievement Award from National Geographic Learning for their textbook series, Stand Out.

Adults only?

by

“Andragogy” and “pedagogy” can seem like niche academic words – does the difference between them really matter?

At the recent South Plains Literacy Symposium, one of the most popular breakout sessions was A is for Adult: An Introduction to Andragogy. The session was an in-depth exploration of some of the major tenets of teaching adults, and some of the motivators, barriers, and drivers of persistence specific to adults.

And we say, hallelujah!

Too often, our field has taken the approach that “teaching is teaching” – and assumed that someone with experience teaching children must automatically also be able to teach adults effectively. Of course, that’s sometimes true – but it’s far from automatic. 

So what are the key differences?

Malcolm Knowles is one of the foremost experts in this area, and he’s broken his definitions down into five assumptions and four principles. Let’s take a look.

Knowles' 5 Assumptions of Adult Learners

1. Self-Concept
People become more self-directed as they age and mature.

2. Adult Learner Experience
People gain practical and theoretical experience as they age, and bring it to the learning process.

3. Readiness to Learn
Adults have a strong motivation to learn things that help them accomplish relevant tasks and gain practical skills.

4. Orientation to Learning
Adult learners are motivated to solve problems, moving from “knowing about” a topic to “knowing how” to do a specific task.

5. Motivation to Learn
Motivation for adults is usually internal, rather than external – and motivations are individual for each learner.

Knowles' 4 Principles of Andragogy

  1. Adults need to know why they need to learn something.
  2. Adults need to learn experientially – by doing.
  3. Adults approach learning as problem-solving.
  4. Adults learn best when the topic is of immediate value.

 

So much changes for us as we age – in both our bodies and our minds.

Doesn’t it make sense for the way we’re taught to change as well?

Find resources to help you explore andragogy – and build it into your literacy program – in our Resources library.

Get Texas literacy updates

Join our mailing list so you don’t miss any news:

  • Local and national literacy news
  • Conference updates
  • Regional symposia
  • Best of Texas
  • Advocacy 
  • …more!
Click here to join the list

Volunteers filling the gap

by

"In a nation whose education system is among the most unequal in the industrialized world, where race and geography play an outsize role in determining one’s path to success, many Americans are being failed twice: first, by public schools that lack qualified teachers, resources for students with disabilities and adequate reading instruction; and next, by the backup system intended to catch those failed by the first."
ProPublica

In December 2022, ProPublica published an article about the ongoing literacy crisis in the United States. This blog post is the third in a series of reflections on that article.

More than 43 million adults in the United States can’t read, write, or do basic math above a third-grade level, and when you look at the equivalent of a sixth-grade level, that number balloons to a staggering 130 million. 

You’d hope that the majority of those folks could be in classes, catching up – but no. Only around 3% of adults who need literacy classes are actually getting them. 

There are many reasons for that – the ProPublica article that inspired this series of blog posts goes into some of them – but a crucial issue is the availability of classes. Whether a class has a cost; whether the location is convenient; whether a prospective student can fit the times into their already packed schedule – these are all factors, along with the availability of instructors.

"We found that in some states, programs keep adults on waitlists, unable to meet demand. Some students succeed in these programs, but many drop out within weeks or months, before they are able to make progress. Students often find themselves in overstuffed classes led by uncertified part-time or volunteer teachers... And most programs across the country lack the specialized staff to help adults with learning disabilities that public schools failed to have diagnosed."
ProPublica

For decades now, when professional instructors aren’t available (or are unaffordable), adult literacy programs have often turned to volunteers. Millions of American adults can read, write, and speak English because of the efforts and dedication of volunteers.

Volunteer support is a core activity for Literacy Texas. Regional symposia, our online resource library, on-demand training and professional development on our YouTube channel – these are investments in the quality of volunteer-led classes around the state.

Because if an adult student is going to organize their work schedule to get to class, and find childcare and the gas money to make it across town and be in their seat every Tuesday and Thursday evening – shouldn’t we offer them the highest quality lesson?

This blog post is a reflection on the ProPublica article, “A Fifth of American Adults Struggle to Read. Why Are We Failing to Teach Them?” Find previous installments here and here.

Get Texas literacy updates

Join our mailing list so you don’t miss any news:

  • Local and national literacy news
  • Conference updates
  • Regional symposia
  • Best of Texas
  • Advocacy 
  • …more!
Click here to join the list

The tension between learning and earning

by

"In a nation whose education system is among the most unequal in the industrialized world, where race and geography play an outsize role in determining one’s path to success, many Americans are being failed twice: first, by public schools that lack qualified teachers, resources for students with disabilities and adequate reading instruction; and next, by the backup system intended to catch those failed by the first."
ProPublica

In December 2022, ProPublica published an article about the ongoing literacy crisis in the United States. This blog post is one of a series of reflections on that article.

Folks with low literacy usually don’t need someone to point that out to them. They’re usually crucially aware of their lack of skills – and what that lack is stopping them from achieving.

But the devil’s always in the details. Someone might know they need to take a class – but how much will that class cost? How far away is it, and how much will they pay in gas or bus fares to get to and from the class?

Most crucially of all – how does a low-income person fit classes into their week?

ProPublica reporters heard time and again that in communities stricken with low literacy, programs had to close sites because not enough students had enrolled. Meanwhile, more than two dozen adults in these hot spots told us that a lack of transportation or child care or busy work schedules prohibited them from attending classes.
ProPublica

How would you manage that Catch-22? You can’t afford not to work – but all you can get is a minimum-wage position with an inflexible schedule. Maybe you need a second job in order to make rent. Maybe it’s an exhausting job where you’re on your feet all day. And family and home responsibilities like making sure kids do homework, caring for babies or elderly relatives, cooking, cleaning, and laundry don’t take a break.

How do we solve the tension between learning, and earning?

The article highlighted Skills for Life, a Detroit program that provides paid time to learn alongside a city job. It was the turning point for Steve Binion, whose story is outlined in the article. And once someone’s broken the dead-end link of low literacy and low pay, their prospects improve dramatically – along with those of their family and the community.

What can we learn – and emulate – from these programs that work?

This blog post is a reflection on the ProPublica article, “A Fifth of American Adults Struggle to Read. Why Are We Failing to Teach Them?” Find the previous installment here.

Get Texas literacy updates

Join our mailing list so you don’t miss any news:

  • Local and national literacy news
  • Conference updates
  • Regional symposia
  • Best of Texas
  • Advocacy 
  • …more!
Click here to join the list

Sign up for our newsletter and receive adult literacy news and events.

Subscribe Now
mailbox (1)
Mailing Address:
Literacy Texas
P.O. Box 111
Texarkana, TX 75504
903-392-9802
Online Contact

Quick Links

Events Calendar

Copyright 2025 Literacy Texas | All Rights Reserved | Web Design and Marketing by Web International | View our Privacy Policy