St. Louis NAACP files civil rights complaint over low literacy rates among Black students

St. Louis NAACP Files Federal Civil Rights Complaint Addressing Low Literacy Rates Among Black Students

Sep 18, 2024 Story by: Editor

The St. Louis NAACP is urging the federal government to address what they describe as a " literacy crisis " impacting Black students in local classrooms.

Earlier this month, the organization filed a federal civil rights complaint against 34 public school districts and charter networks, pointing to low literacy rates in Missouri schools. The complaint focuses on schools in St. Louis city and county and highlights data showing a stark gap between Black and white students’ reading scores.

According to the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), 40% of Missouri’s fourth graders tested below a basic reading level in 2022. The report also revealed that white students scored 34 points higher than Black students in reading, a gap that has barely changed in over 20 years, standing at 33 points in 1998.

Adolphus M. Pruitt, president of the St. Louis NAACP chapter, expressed frustration with the data, calling it unacceptable. He hopes the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights will examine this persistent issue, which the NAACP identifies as a civil rights concern.

“We want them to mediate between us and all those school districts to say, ‘Hey, we need to look at how we’re educating children in the St. Louis region, especially Black children,’” Pruitt stated.

While the St. Louis NAACP has yet to make the complaint public as the school districts are still being notified, Pruitt emphasized the seriousness of the situation.

Low literacy can have long-lasting effects. Research links poor literacy rates to poverty, lower earning potential, and adverse health outcomes. A 2020 Gallup study estimated that low adult literacy could cost the U.S. economy up to $2.2 trillion annually .

“We cannot afford to have Black children come out of school and have poor literacy rates,” Pruitt added.

Historical disparities in literacy persist . Between 1740 and 1867, anti-literacy laws in southern states, including Missouri, prohibited enslaved Black people, and sometimes free Black people, from learning to read. It wasn’t until the 1954 Supreme Court decision in Brown v. Board of Education, which the NAACP represented, that racial segregation in schools was outlawed. However, inequities in the quality of education for Black students remain.

Pruitt stressed the importance of ensuring children can read by grade three, as it impacts their future opportunities.

“From my perspective, by the time kids get to grade three, I need to make sure that they’re able to read if I want to provide them with a reasonable opportunity to take advantage of an American dream,” he explained. “For too many, that’s not happening.”

While the low literacy rates are troubling, there are local efforts to improve them. Keyon Watkins, president of Black Men Read in St. Louis, leads a group that started as a book club in 2020 and now provides tutoring for children from kindergarten through fifth grade. Watkins was motivated to act after his older brother, who was illiterate, was tragically murdered on Mother’s Day.

Reflecting on his brother’s missed opportunities, Watkins said, “I’m just thinking about the opportunities that he didn’t take advantage of and missed out on because of him being illiterate.”

Following his brother’s death, Watkins transformed Black Men Read into a 501(c)(3) charitable organization, which now has 17 volunteers offering free tutoring sessions. Despite having a background in computer science, Watkins believes this mission found him. “The mission chose me,” he said.

The St. Louis City and County NAACP chapters have also launched a reading initiative called “Right to Read,” aimed at helping Black children achieve proficient reading skills by 2030. They are collaborating with local school districts to bring this goal to life.

Watkins sees literacy as a national crisis, affecting both children and adults. “We want to break those generational curses,” he said. “If the parents can’t read, the kids can’t read. That becomes a cycle.”

A 2020 Gallup analysis showed that 130 million U.S. adults, or 54% of those aged 16 to 74, have low literacy skills, meaning they read below a sixth-grade level. Despite higher high school graduation rates, 23% of adults continue to struggle with reading, and access to adult literacy programs is limited, ProPublica reported in 2022.

Watkins hopes to one day pay the volunteers who tutor for Black Men Read but noted that securing funding can be a challenge. “Everything that we’re doing is out of pocket,” he said. “This is strictly a labor of love and knowing that there is a problem, we need to figure out the solutions.”

Diana Greene , CEO of the Children’s Literacy Initiative, echoed Watkins’ concerns, calling literacy a national issue. “This is a national issue. This is not just isolated to this one location,” she said.

Greene’s organization, founded in 1988 by a Philadelphia librarian, partners with school districts nationwide to provide high-quality literacy instruction, particularly for Black and brown children.

“We are believers in the science of reading, but there is no silver bullet,” Greene said, adding that a comprehensive approach is needed. This includes culturally relevant pedagogy and ensuring teachers view students for their strengths.

Greene also pointed to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on education. It disrupted learning for more than 888 million children worldwide, exacerbating existing gaps in reading proficiency.

“It reminded us that we were never at a good space, but now it’s even a larger gap than it was pre-pandemic,” she said, emphasizing the need for diverse reading materials that reflect students’ experiences.

“It’s like seeing in a mirror. But they also need to see windows,” she explained, meaning that students should be exposed to other cultures and different types of texts to help them understand their place in the world. Source: PBS News