by Megan Valandingham
May 23 and 24, 2024, two women who have made education their career, sat down and shared their thoughts on literacy and education rates in the Appalachian Region. Specifically, within the Kentucky and Tennessee parts of Central Appalachia.
Of the 26.3 million residents of Appalachia, 65.3% of the Appalachian Region's population, or 17.1 million, is below an eighth-grade reading level. In Claiborne County, Tennessee, that rate is 88.1% of residents, or 28,572 residents.
Why is this? Well, this 2022 article lists various reasons. Lack of programs and resources, lack of certified trained educators, geographical isolation, financial issues, and lack of availability to students, are just to name of few.
"2 out of every 3 adults, and more accurately conveys the severity of the issues we face," says Marcus Hopkins.
Lindsey Robinson, a Preschool Teacher, approaches letter and word comprehension differently for each of her three to five-year-old students as she prepares them to enter kindergarten.
Robinson says:
"I make it a priority in my job to be able to work with each child individually. And in my classroom, we do what is called a Brigance test, where we pull each child out individually. The test is to know if they recognize any letters, if they recognize any numbers, first and last names, can they draw shapes, just the preschool basics to prepare them for kindergarten. The test for three-year-olds looks different from the test for my four years, and my four-year-olds test for my five-year-olds. This test helps me know how to help each child individually."
The National Center for Education Statistics says, " As children enter kindergarten, 67 percent recognize their letters,12 and indeed by the spring of kindergarten this increases to 95 percent. After 2 years of school, nearly all (100 percent) children can recognize their letters."
Of course, there are programs out there that help children and parents in need of better education practices. Beanie Geoghegan, a Content Manager and the Co-Founder of Freedom in Education has dedicated years to the education of children.
Geoghegan says:
"Kind of going hand in hand with literacy, one of the issues we were exposing before starting Freedom in Education was the inappropriate books that were found across the country, and of course, we believe that those books need to be exposed and irradicated. We thought, "Okay, well what's a solution that we can present for that?" So, we raised money, starting in October, launched in September, raised money in October, to support the Good Book Drive."
The drive works with three different publishers to put together over 1,000 bundles of wholesome, well-written books to be sent to schools across the country. In the year 2024, Freedom in Education hopes to double or triple that amount.
"A teacher in Texas responded to my post and described the elementary school as a book desert, which I thought was horrifying in an age where just about every student has a Chromebook or iPad on hand. No school in America should be described as a book desert," says Geoghegan.
What can be done to help? Of course, it is important to remember that it all starts at home. It is up to the parents or legal guardians to continue teaching their children the necessary skills. However, those without children of their own can also help by, donating to programs that offer material, volunteering at said programs or educational events, and so much more.
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