ONE IN FIVE WEST VIRGINIAN'S READ AT 4TH GRADE LEVEL

(02/21/2008)

While West Virginia education statistics indicate students are falling behind in reading and math, Pam Bryan with Literacy West Virginia says the problem lingers on. One in five West Virginians cannot read above a fourth grade level, says Bryan. Numbers from the National Institute for Literacy show 20% of West Virginians are considered low level readers. Bryan says, in many cases, those adults have gone through the school system without becoming better readers. "Sometimes, I think, it's just a mistake. It's not caught," she said, "I've had adult students who tell me that the teachers didn't know they couldn't read." Bryan says there are a number of factors in West Virginia that lead to low level readers, including poverty, a cycle of illiteracy in families and undiagnosed learning disabilities which, in some cases, are hereditary. She says not reading well is a problem that manifests itself in many ways, from trouble making out road signs to determining which grocery store aisle to go down, to actually getting a job. "For a person with a learning disability or without a learning disability, one-on-one tutoring is really beneficial. You understand what works with that individual and we train the volunteer on how to work with an adult," she said.

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