TODAY, I TWEETED that “85 percent of juveniles who interface with the juvenile court are functionally illiterate.” and that “Two-thirds of students who cannot read by the end of the fourth grade will end up in jail or on welfare.” (The research article is here: matthewh.ouse.us/reading)
In reply, I received a message from a professional educator who conceded the truth of the statistics but took issue with my question about why schools ought to promote to the fifth grade a student who could not read. The writer of the message astutely pointed out that there are reasons to justify doing so, based in part on the shame of grade retention and the importance of preserving a student’s social group. Here was part of my response:
I understand that’s the other side of the argument. I don’t disagree. However, I would assume that not being able to read also creates shame, as does the stain of juvenile delinquency. In my work with the kids from Washington County (Oregon) last year, all of them carried shame and suffered great indignities, many of which were intentionally inflicted by adults in positions of trust.
Kids enrolled in (or cognitively or behaviorally eligible for) special education are vastly over-represented in the delinquency system. For juvenile delinquents, who are often behind by one grade level or more, if the loss of the social group has not already happened via grade retention, it may happen anyway via confinement and other onerous requirements of the juvenile justice system. Very often, a delinquent teen’s social group becomes other delinquent teens. For one court-related reason or another, delinquent youths are frequently around each other, both in confinement and in community programs. To add insult to injury, 85 percent of them are still illiterate and have even less access to good education in confinement or in alternative schools.
BaseballJustice.net 