Every year around the world, millions of children in well-off, English-speaking countries complete their compulsory education, but still lack the literacy skills that they need to succeed in life. This problem has inflicted incalculable harm and blighted lives with misery. The worst part is that this is unnecessary – we have the knowledge we need to teach all children and young people to read. The solutions are far cheaper than the ongoing costs of illiteracy.
Across four episodes, you will hear from headteachers and principals, teachers, charity leaders, researchers and academics, literacy teaching specialists, and most importantly, young people and adults who have struggled with their reading. We tell the story of their pain and frustration, and the incredible power that learning to read confers when they finally get the help that they need.
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The numbers of people who lack basic literacy skills are of epidemic proportions, but most able readers will never know that friends, colleagues or relatives can’t read properly. In this episode, we explore what ‘functional’ illiteracy means, the multi-faceted impacts on all aspects of their lives, and the costs to us as a society. And all this raises the question: how did we get to this place, when we fund education for every child to the age of at least 16?
The correlation between imprisonment and poor literacy is strong. While correlation is not cause, there is no doubt that poor literacy increases the chances of incarceration, and that it makes it much harder for prison to have a positive impact. In this episode you’ll hear experts describe the links between poor literacy and imprisonment, the challenges of the prison environment for improving literacy skills, and what it will take to make things better.
As a society we have a wide range of explanations for why so many can’t read after eleven years of formal education, including deprivation, lack of intelligence, poor motivation, and presumed disabilities. In this episode, we show how those beliefs don’t hold water, and instead show that teaching is the solution. We look at what can be done in schools to prevent literacy problems at the scale we currently see in our society.
A key theme of this series is that there is hope. Reading problems are solvable, and in this episode we explain what it takes to do that, and that we can achieve far more than is usually thought possible. For people who mastered reading as children, it can be difficult to imagine the life-changing power that learning to read brings. The stories you’ll hear will make clear the radical changes in people’s lives when they finally learn to read after struggling for years.
Vic Goddard is a veteran headteacher at Passmores Learning Community, and star of Educating Essex. In this episode we discussed his school's transformation in its approach to literacy, and what he's learned along the way.
Carole Herman is executive director of the Association of Secondary Heads in Essex, known as ASHE, and has previously been headteacher at two secondary schools. She spoke about her time at Shenfield High School in Essex, where she brought about major changes to the school's approach to literacy and the life chances of her students.
Mike is principal of Antonia Pantoja Preparatory School in South Bronx, New York. We discussed the challenges his students face, the liberating power of reading and what it takes to really have an impact through education.
Tony Giles is principal of Mahurangi College in North Auckland, New Zealand. We discussed the recent changes to New Zealand's curriculum and what is needed to deal with NZ's wide achievement gap in literacy.
Distinguished Professor Pamela Snow is renowned internationally for her advocacy of evidence-based reading instruction, and has a profound grasp of the barriers to implementing educational change to ensure that all children learn to read well. In this wide-ranging interview, she talks about educational fallacies, the instructional provision that students deserve, and where change needs to start.
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