Failing Reading Scores = Prison Cells

(Welcome Baltimore City Community College Students! Please comment below if you found the information useful. And for what class. Thanks!)

From
Investing in Literacy

Indiana’s former governor has stated that determining the number of new prisons to build is based, in part, on the number of second graders not reading at second-grade level.

From
Dialects, Teaching Reading and Literacy to Dialect Speakers: Educational CyberPlayGround™

In California they plan how many jail cells they will build in the future by how many children are not reading on grade level by third grade.

From
Democracy and Equity: CES’s Tenth Common Principle

“Based on this year’s fourth-grade reading scores,” observes Paul Schwartz, a Coalition principal in residence at the U. S. Department of Education, “California is already planning the number of new prison cells it will need in the next century.”

From
Evidence Based Education Science and Learning to Read

David Boulton: We were interviewing Lesley Morrow, the Past-President of the International Reading Association, and she made a statement which flabbergasted me. She said this was a fact: that there are some states that determine how many prison cells to build based on reading scores.

Dr. Grover (Russ) Whitehurst: Yes. Again, the predictability of reading for life success is so strong, that if you look at the proportion of middle schoolers who are not at the basic level, who are really behind in reading, it is a very strong predictor of problems with the law and the need for jails down the line.

Literacy for societies, literacy for states, literacy for individuals is a powerful determinate of success. The opposite of success is failure and clearly, being in jail is a sign of failure.

People who don’t read well have trouble earning a living. It becomes attractive to, in some cases the only alternative in terms of gaining funds, to violate the law and steal, to do things that get you in trouble. Few options in some cases other than to pursue that life. Of course reading opens doors.

33 thoughts on “Failing Reading Scores = Prison Cells”

  1. Dear Ariah,
    This was exactly what I was looking for.
    I just spent the weekend in San Francisco for the Reach Out and Read conference (http://www.reachoutandread.org/). Now I’m writing up my report for my preceptorship professor in the BSN program I’m in. I wanted more links for her about the relationship between literacy scores and planning for prison beds. You’ve provided those, some inspiration, some very cool things I’m going to come back an look at in terms of your WordPress blog, and some encouragement that I’m on the right path, pursuing literacy as a public health nursing issue.

    Thank you!
    Jan

  2. Have Education News (ednews.org) publicized this story yet? Am I light years behind?!

    I am the mother of a dyslexic boy, and have spent 7 years telling our school district and school board, that over 80% of the youth population in jail are illiterate (in states where they conducted the study) — but this article takes the biscuit.

    Why on earth don’t our state and federal government spend MORE money on education, so that we can provide children with a scientifically proven method of teaching, and look forward to them becoming socially functioning members of society, rather than sit in a suit, at a desk, somewhere in the capital city, planning how many prison beds they will need in the next century based upon failure with reading scores by children in second, third or fourth grade?

    Huh? The World is Backwards, not Flat.

  3. I want to see real, verifiable evidence that the mantra “reading scores are used to project prison population” is a reflection of actual practice. Quotations from people repeating the gist of such a message does not equal data/hard evidence. Websearches have yielded little. Help appreciated.

    1. If you want conclusive evidence just look at the literacy rates of the incarcerated. It might be that the number of prisons or prison beds are not projected by reading levels, but the fact remains that these statistics are an extremely accurate reflection of the connection between reading and success in society. The great majority of prisoners are in prison because they lack the requisite skills to function in society. They want, just like everyone else, but they can't have because they don't have anything to offer beyond their own ignorance. Not saying it is all their fault, the public education system is broken. Until we realize that not every student can learn at the same speed, in the same classroom, that we NEED differentiated instruction, and that parents and students must be held accountabole for their success, nothing will change. Here's an idea. Tie welfare checks to student success in school. I gaurantee we will see a drastic and instant improvement, not to mention less dependance on welfare in the future.

      1. I agree with what you said, that every child can learn. But how will tying welfare into it change things? Are only children from homes of parents on welfare failing or are children in America’s schools failing overall? You said the system is broken, not the system where poorer people or recipients go to school. The American school system needs to be fixed when we as a Super Power rank 25 out of 30 in test scores. We rand number 25 of 30 countries and we claim to be number 1. America has some work to do.

  4. Google this without quotations, or comma’s:

    prison beds third graders

    and various websites come up. One is The National Center on Education, Disability and Juvenile Justice, and you can email them with your questions.

    About 7 years ago, I read surveys had been done, and over 80% (I forget the exact percentage, but it was just over 80%)of youth in prisons surveyed, were illiterate.

    Based upon that statistic, it would make sense that some states are basing their prison population/beds upon the test results of elementary school aged children.

    The crime of course, is that we don’t teach them to read.

  5. this morning I heard this comment on my way to school. I teach Juvenile Delinquency and gave my class extra credit points if they could find a peer-reviewed journal article that provides this data – not that prisons use this to predict bed, but that it is a valid prediction. I do agree about the illiteracy, just am not sure about the origin of this argument.

  6. I don’t know of an actual study that confirms the asserted correlation between reading rates in elementary school and prison building programs. However a number of leaders in the field of literacy including: Russ Whitehurst, Reid lyon, Lesley Morrow, Rick Lavoie and others make the claim. We’ve also interviewed Peter E. Leone Director, National Center on Education, Disability & Juvenile Justice.

    We do have a video that discusses the correlation: http://www.childrenofthecode.org/Tour/c1/socialdanger.htm

    It’s much easier to understand the underlying reasons for the correlation if you also look at our segments on “Emotional Danger” and “Shame”

    All the best to all of you

    David Boulton

  7. Still looking for the EVIDENCE or STATISTIC to support this quote:

    Based on this year’s fourth-grade reading scores,” observes Paul Schwartz, a Coalition principal in residence at the U. S. Department of Education, “California is already planning the number of new prison cells it will need in the next century.”

    Everyone says it but where is the study that determined this? I REALLY need to see it. Can anyone help? Please send me the link.

  8. Alana,

    Sorry I can’t help you more then what I found online. You could contact that gentleman in the quote, or the author of the paper it’s linked from.
    If I have time later I’ll try and do that myself.

  9. I have been looking for the origins of this statement, too, but even without it, I’d like to organize people in my small town to work with the schools in a reading program such the SMART (so may all read today) program in Oregon. I will look up the Reach Out and Read reference mentioned above. Can anyone suggest others to me. I envision asking retired seniors to connect with one or two first, second or third graders. It would be nice if books could be given to the children. will be grateful for any tips. Thanks for info already provided.

  10. Marilyn

    You can get all your local clubs to support the finances you need to get reading books into your schools. Here in Durango, our Kiwanis Club, Rotary Club, Lions Club, etc, etc, all have programs within their clubs to provide books and club members to read at our elementary schools.

    The Kiwanis Club sends around a roster, for members to sign up and spend an hour reading to Head Start children in our school’s. The Club provides money for the school’s to buy hundreds of books. The children get to keep the books, after the club member has gone in that week to read to them. These children probably would never have a book to read at home, so it’s rather nice that they get to take them home with them to keep after the reading session.

    Hope this helps. Perhaps your local newspaper would be able to help support reading books for children in your school’s too. Our local paper asks the business community to sponsor putting newspapers in schools so that the students can read the paper in class every day. Plus your local library, might have some Pre-K reading books they can give to your organization to put into the schools. Ours has a clean out once a year.

  11. My name is Sylvia Moreno and i am a senior with excitement to learn more about this topic. I am currently trying to do a science behavior project on this topic. It is just so interesting to me. If you have any ideas and information that can help me out that would be great. Thank you.

    1. You might be interested in American Scientist Nov-Dec 2010 article “The 95% Solution.”
      Harry Rollings

  12. Does anyone have any idea how to contact Kathleen Cushman or Paul Schwartz? She is the author of this article:
    Democracy and Equity: CES’s Tenth Common Principle

    “Based on this year’s fourth-grade reading scores,” observes Paul Schwartz, a Coalition principal in residence at the U. S. Department of Education, “California is already planning the number of new prison cells it will need in the next century.”

    I have tried to track down Paul Schwartz, too. I have called his former schools in NY that he was the principal of and people have told me he has retired. I have contacted the Dept. of Ed., ERIC, the Pew Chritable Trust, Lesley Morrow, Walter McMahon, Henry Levin, Lance Lochner, Enrico Moretti and googled the topics with NO luck finding ANYONE that knows of the original study or report.

    PLEASE…If anyone can help, I’d greatly appreciate it! Much thanks!

  13. It’s wonderful that some commenters are doubting this idea. Though I agree that it is dang important to teach students to read, I doubt that the imprisonment rates are not directly related to reading failure. There are very likely other factors operating, too.

    I ran some correlations on percent of state populations imprisoned, reading below basic level, and living in poverty. Those data are, I think, instructive. To be sure, more analyses are needed, but just this preliminary glance is helpful:

    http://TeachEffectively.com/2007/12/12/reading-imprisonment/

  14. Just to let you know that our Reading Friends Program is now 2 weeks old. I did use the business of investing in prisons as part of my message to community members and explained that I could only verify the statements about some states using this as part of the decision.
    Thanks for the help I received from readers. By the first of the year, we will have 30 community members of all ages, interests and backgrounds who are investing time and energy in listening to 60 youngsters read and in forming friendships with them. The plan is spreading to reading readiness for pre schoolers and to encouraging middle school kids to read for fun.

  15. @John:

    Thanks for chiming in and for the link.
    As I posted, I’m trying not to make assumptions, just quoting people where there seemed to be indications that they did in fact use reading scores to predict future imprisonment.
    This isn’t to say that it’s an accurate lone indicator, just that it is actually considered.

    Stay in touch.

    @Marilyn: AWESOME!

  16. The relationship between reading scores and prison cells makes for sensational sound bytes. However, though there is obviously a relationship the conversation about prison cells distracts us from the more important work of understanding the collateral effects of protracted learning read to difficulties. It also provides those that don’t understand what is at stake or involved a reference point for decredibilizing the more important work.

    Personally, I don’t think the issue here is the lack of the utility-skill of reading or even the lack of literacy acquired knowledge, though both are extremely important. Rather, the more damaging effects of literacy difficulties happen deep in children’s sense of themselves and in turn affect their learning in general in ways that go far beyond reading.

    What happens to a child who develops an emotional aversion to the feeling of confusion?

    What happens to the health of their learning in general?

    What happens to how well they are able to learn their way through complex cognitive challenges?

    An automatic subconscious (like reading itself) aversion to the feeling of confusion decapitates learning at the threshold of the confusion.

    Parents, teachers and society as whole unintentionally yet insidiously participate in contextualizing reading in ways which cause children who struggle to read to feel as if there is something wrong with themselves.

    What happens to a young children’s life-paths / learning trajectories once they start self-talking themselves into believing that they aren’t smart – when, in order to protect themselves from the shame, they develop emotional>motivational>attentional habits that disable their learning in order to avoid the painful feelings?

    I think our lack of understanding of what is involved and at stake in learning to read is the real crime.

    David Boulton
    http://www.implicity.org/tour1.htm

  17. Alana and others were asking about sources of info to document the fact that some states estimate how many prison beds/prisons to build based on reading scores in grades 2,3,or 4. Here are some sources from which I learned that it is true and documented fact.

    The Reading Teacher Vol 57 No. 7 April, 2004
    Article: One Size doesn’t Fit all: Slow Learners in the Reading Classroom by K. Cooter and R. Cooter
    The references at the end of the article are great:
    School to Pipeline Part1…Part 2…Part 3
    Also contact Johanna Wald-Policy analysist at Civil Rights Project @ Harvard Univ. i think she has published a book.
    Google School to Prison Pipeline and so much info will be available.
    So far, I have documented these states;
    Indiana…2nd grade Rdg Scores (EDWEEK 12/3/99)
    Ohio……3rd grades Rdg Scores (Rdg. Tchr 4/04
    California…4th and 9th grade(Rdg. Tchr. 4/04
    Iowa…5th & 8th grade NAEP Assesment Scores
    Texas and Florida according to T. Willard Fair

    I agree with David Boulton and add that it is also a crime that NCLB and other govt schemes underresource (cheat) urban schools. That is the biggest crime. HOW DO WE FIX IT????
    Ruth

  18. For Ruth, David and Alana (among others),

    I am a sociologist preparing an article following-up on a recent work published in Societies without Border’s by Smith and Hattery (2007). “If We Build It They Will Come: Human Rights Violations and the Prison Industrial Complex”. My approach is twofold: first, to outline the problem/highlight the issue as a public awareness/education issue and second to suggest teaching approaches as part of a sociological framework (perhaps network theory? social movement theory? Feminist/anti-racist/anti-classist positions?) to create change, In a conversation recently with Judith Blau, we both lamented that the problem is getting students to move from knowing something about the issue to doing something about it. How do we shift from awareness to action?

    I would welcome your comments and thoughts on these ideas. In keeping with the participatory framework of Sociologists without Borders ( http://www.sociologistswithoutborders.org/ ) I would encourage any of you that would like to consider co-authoring this piece with me to contact me directly at adbrown (at) alcor (dot) concordia (dot) ca or via gmail where I am adudleybrown

    Best

    Alan Brown
    Montreal, Quebec

  19. the answer to the question about reading scores and prison beds is here:

    Gerald W. Bracey, The 16th Bracey Report on the Condition of the
    Public Education, Phi Delta Kappan, Vol. 88, No. 02, October 2006,
    pp. 151-166.

  20. Cyber, much thanks for that cite. I have been tracking the trajectory of this, I assume, canard for some time now. The earliest mention of it I can find is a Sept. 13, 1998 LA Times article by Nick Anderson and Duke Helfand (available from http://www.onenation.org/0998/091398.html). Every other variation on this theme I can find either references that article or is not sourced; all appeared after 1998 (I note Sen. Bayh states his conversation took place in 1989, though his memoir of it was not published until 2003). I have yet to find any study, piece of research or sourced statement that would show any state of the nation is actually using elementary school test or literacy information to predict prison populations.

    I’m afraid we’re in the position of trying to prove a negative here, but any further info much appreciated by a certain tub-dweller.

    ***

    “You can stand out of my light.” — Diogenes, to Alexander

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