The Challenges of Achieving Early Literacy

In 2007, The National Council of La Raza (NCLR), a national Lee y serás partner, published a study whose results pointed to early childhood education as a means for closing the Latino achievement gap (http://www.nclr.org/). The authors of that report used the term “trajectory of failure” to describe the compulsory pathway of Latino children whose circumstances all but ensure failure before their lives have truly begun.

Several readers of this blog have wondered “aloud” about the reasons for a gap in Latino achievement, and why this may be so closely associated with Latinos as opposed, in their own experiences, to other minorities. NCLR’s study, and work done by others on this subject, provides much compelling data regarding the reasons behind this phenomenon, including facts such as this: sixty seven percent of Hispanic families with children under the age of three have income that is 200% below the poverty line as compared to 39% of white families with similarly-aged children. This singular fact results in a series failures that inhibit the development of early literacy, including less access to substantive early childhood education, less maternal education, comparatively fewer books in the home, more health uninsurance and less access to adequate healthcare, just to name a few. The sum of these factors results in less reading, less access to reading resources, less literacy modeling and fewer opportunities to develop basic literacy skills. Children sailing quickly down the trajectory of failure do so with these winds blowing strongly at their backs. Information such as this may cause us to want to give up, to wonder if amid such tremendous barriers meaningful progress can actually be made. At Para Los Niños we work daily to ensure that it can. This statement may sound merely aspirational, but our test scores provide a measure of truth that it’s possible (link to PLN website with information). Through our work in schools established in the most poverty stricken areas of Los Angeles, we have identified two key factors in literacy success: parents and teachers. While this is not a revelation and it’s clearly oversimplified, these are the most critical components of achieving literacy.

Although the process of moving parents who are not engaged to engagement is complex and difficult, especially where issues of poverty, mental illness, drug abuse and physical abuse are present, the early building blocks of reading are not difficult to achieve, nor costly to implement. We have found, and experts agree, that literacy learning begins with parents who are responsive to their children and their interests. Parents who speak directly to their children, who carry on conversations (even if in a foreign language), who are responsive, and who are willing to foster their child’s interest to read and to write are helping their children gain literacy, even if reading itself doesn’t initially take place in the home.

These same principles apply to teachers. Our teaching strategies encourage child-led development and learning activities because, among other reasons, we believe this demonstrates our interest in what the child finds interesting. Or, as educator P.D. Pearsons put it, “Our job is to turn each student’s knowledge and diversity of knowledge into a curricular strength, rather than an instructional inconvenience.” To this end, we recognize many activities beyond reading itself that promote reading skills. For example, we believe in the power of engaging, responsive conversations with students as a precursor to language formation, and we place a very high value on giving children time to explore literacy by encouraging off-curriculum activities such as writing letters to friends, drawing pictures and telling stories, none of which revolve around a traditional notion of reading instruction.

Several years ago we recognized that a rote approach to learning was not an effective teaching method for many of the children we serve. Children who live in poverty are victims of circumstance, often feeling isolated and powerless. Wanting to strengthen this love of learning and to close the gap between those who have and those who have not, we adopted the Reggio Emilia pedagogy in all our schools. With roots as a municipal child-care program in Italy, Reggio Emilia is an emergent curriculum which views the child as a competent learner and engages the child through a child-directed curriculum. Interestingly, the Reggio Emilia approach does not provide the kind of traditionally focused instruction in reading and writing that most of us are used to and yet we see our children embrace these skills with passion. We considered this model experimental when we originally adopted it, and while we believed it would be successful and invested in significant training to make it so, it was a huge change for us and was, therefore, a risk.

I believe passionately that it’s this kind of risk-taking, experimentation and exploration that will ultimately empower Latinos to excel … if we are willing to take a chance and commit to change. I am interested in hearing from others who have successfully experimented with new methods of teaching …particularly those in disadvantaged areas. What do you do to close the gap for Latinos, even the playing field and catch our children before they descend into failure? What are the tools and techniques you employ to stimulate both a love of learning and the acquisition of literacy skills? How do you incorporate pretend play as a model for language acquisition? What have you done to motivate parents who are themselves illiterate to engage in literacy activities? I urge you to engage in this dialogue, share your stories, and help us save our children.


Gisselle Acevedo
President and CEO
Para Los Niños