Educators dedicated to literacy

By Marie P. Grady

On a hot summer day, in the middle of school vacation, several students were studying the most significant problem they had ever encountered.

After years of study, most could recognize the problem instantly. What was harder to come by was an answer.

It had eluded them all for so long that many others would have given up years ago. They should have been sitting there, slack jawed and listless, looking up every now and then to check the clock.

Instead they were engaged. They were more than engaged. They were passionate and they were frustrated.

But then again, they were not just students. They were the principals and educators from high schools in Springfield, Holyoke and Chicopee.

The problem they have been assigned seems akin to Einstein's Theory of Relativity. E=mc2. In Einstein's theory "E" stood for "energy," "m" stood for mass and "c" stood for the speed of light, squared.

In this basement room at the headquarters of the United Way on Mill Street in Springfield the formula was translated, at least in my mind, to "Education = More Children (succeeding). Squared.''

For years, perhaps a decade or more, these educators have been dealing with a problem that has profound implications for all of us: half of their students, in many urban districts, fail to graduate.

For at least six months, ever since Gov. Deval Patrick spoke at a conference on high school graduation rates in Worcester, Brad Sperry, senior planner at the Regional Employment Board of Hampden County, has been bringing high school principals, social service providers and others together to discuss the most pressing issue of our time.

I know educators because I count them among relatives and friends. A former journalist, I once thought that journalists were among the most cynical people on Earth. Later, I thought educators held that particular title.

Then I realized if you have stopped caring about a problem, you stop talking about it. Talking is the first step toward ideas and ideas are the first step toward a solution. Cynics are known as cynics because they talk. Because they talk, they are not cynics.

Sperry keeps them talking. Even if it means cutting them off at times so others can talk.

I first met Sperry when I was working on the "City of Hope" summits in Springfield. The summits were launched by The Republican and moderated by Denise A. Jordan, who later joined the Hampden County Literacy Cabinet, to provide solutions to problems rooted in poverty.

There were many dedicated people involved in that effort, but I instantly recognized Sperry as a "doer,'' not a "talker.'' I had no idea I would end up working with him just a short time later on efforts to end the literacy gap in Hampden County.

At this meeting of educators, Sperry seems to me a New-Age Yogi Bear, trying to stoke the fire without letting it get out of control.

What do educators and others think is needed to resolve this looming crisis?

Systemic reform at the middle school level, insuring students are prepared to enter high school, is on the top of the list. They also want to see a resolve from the governor, the Legislature, the courts and every state agency to make sure that every student who enters high school leaves it with a degree. Sperry has already helped them to get a grant to help track students who move in and out of neighboring districts.

This effort is not a pipe dream. I recently wrote about the fact that Cuba has a 99 percent literacy rate, a fact I learned from Dana Mohler Faria, the governor's special education adviser, during a visit he made to Springfield that was arranged by Henry M. Thomas III, another member of the Hampden County Literacy Cabinet.

Some of the school principals in the room on this day talked approvingly about their own experience as youth and the fact that those who skipped school would soon be sent to a county work farm. They seemed open to any and every solution. They are not alone in their concern. The room was filled with representatives from Future Works, a job training agency in Springfield; Holyoke Community College, and that city's ENLACE and public school program; and other school and social service representatives from Springfield, Chicopee and Holyoke.

Also involved in the group is an attorney who has filed lawsuits to force state and public school officials to keep students in school, rather than "unenrolling" them when they decide not to show up.

Already the group has come up with a firm action plan and set of recommendations that we can all only hope will be reviewed by public policy makers. After all, the time has come to stop extending our palms and inviting defeat.

I have heard, and have even heard myself saying, "This is partly a cultural problem. How do you get the community invested in the idea that education is the ticket to a better life?''

The fact that almost every editor and publisher of Latino publications in the Pioneer Valley has agreed to publish news on literacy shows that there is already a recognition in one community of the problem. Mainstream English media, such as The Republican, The Reminder publications and the Palmer Journal Register, also are dedicating valuable space to literacy news.

But what about the larger community? The community of all of us? Why is it OK and acceptable when half of our children fail? As warriors like Sperry have known for years, it isn't. It just isn't.

Marie P. Grady is director of the Literacy Works Project of the Regional Employment Board of Hampden County Inc. She can be reached at mgrady@rebhc.org or at 413-755-1367.