Reading Between the Lines

Alarming numbers of Americans negotiate life with literacy skills that are at or below the 4th grade level in reading, interpreting and/or comprehending written material, which includes basic math functions. Roughly forty-four million adults in the United States, more than twenty percent of the nation’s population, are classified as "functionally illiterate." The problem is particularly acute in the nation’s capital. According to statistics at the time, more than 130,000 residents, roughly forty percent of D.C.’s adult population), are "functionally illiterate."

In response to this glaring social problem, the University of the District of Columbia ("UDC"), under the auspice of the State Education Agency and the Agricultural Experiment Station (AES), commissioned Symphonic Strategies to help it fulfill one of UDC’s primary goals: "to be innovative in carrying out the traditional land-grant functions of teaching, research and public service to solve urban community problems and to improve the overall quality of urban living in the District of Columbia."

In light of the foregoing, Connie Spinner, Acting State Director of the State Education Agency, spearheaded an effort to increase the bank of information documenting the needs and preferences of D.C. residents with low literacy skills. Sensitive to the challenges involved with effectively engaging adults with low literacy skills, in early spring 2005, Ms. Skinner commissioned Symphonic Strategies to help UDC better understand and document the needs and stories of low-income, functionally illiterate residents in two of Washington, D.C.’s most impoverished Wards—Wards 7 and 8.

In this endeavor, Symphonic Strategies engaged target populations of the city’s residents with low literacy skills—high school dropouts, ex-offenders, single mothers, young adults (19-34 year olds) and recipients of Temporary Assistance to Needy Families—to help refine UDC’s understanding of their needs and preferences. Our unique cultural competencies, non-traditional outreach strategies and unconventional information gathering techniques enabled us to engage respondents from the target populations and extract valuable information from them.

Through the personal stories of the respondents and observations and recommendations of Symphonic Strategies, we helped UDC begin to paint a picture of how financial and other resource investments can be bundled and offered in the right order, in the proper amounts, and at the right time, from the standpoint of the often ignored "consumers of social services" – adults with limited literacy skills.

Read an excerpt from the personal stories of adult learners.