“Fallen through the cracks”: How Boston is helping adult literacy learners reach their goals

Written by Maeve Lawler and Olivia Miller, Emerson College Students

Photo courtesy of Olivia Miller.

Anny Sanchez dreams of being a teacher one day. In her home country of Columbia, this dream was already a reality, where Sanchez got a professional teaching degree.

Three years ago, Sanchez immigrated to Massachusetts, and while living here, has balanced learning English and pursuing a college degree.

“I try my best, and I keep feeling like it’s very, very hard,” Sanchez, 34, said about learning English. “As an immigrant, there are so many challenges.”

Sanchez’s experience with adult literacy is a story familiar to many in Massachusetts and across the rest of the country. One in five adults struggle with reading and writing in English, according to the National Center for Education Statistics.

Adult literacy encompasses reading and writing, in addition to speaking, listening, signing, and applying basic numeracy skills to make informed decisions and feel confident in communicating needs, according to Boston’s Literacy Task Force.

The term typically encompasses three topics: adult basic education, elementary level education for adults; adult secondary education for those who haven’t completed high school; and English language learning, lessons in English proficiency for adults.

Anny Sanchez at the 2023 First Literacy Scholarship Ceremony. Photo courtesy of Anny Sanchez.

For Sanchez, adult literacy means “opportunities, growing, and wisdom to reach professional goals,” she said.

First Literacy, an adult education non-profit in Boston founded in 1988, helps people like Sanchez pursue higher education through its annual scholarship program. Sanchez has received a $1,500 scholarship for the past two years after graduating from an English learning program at El Centro del Cardenal, a nonprofit in Dorchester. The scholarship helps fund her education at Bunker Hill Community College in Boston, where she studies psychology. She hopes to get her PhD in education.

“I think it’s a blessing because I wasn’t looking to continue with my professional goals here,” Sanchez said about the scholarship. “I thought that I should stop. But then I learned about First Literacy and they gave me great orientation and support in everything.”

Terry Witherell. Phot courtesy of Olivia Miller.

Terry Witherell, the executive director of First Literacy, describes literacy as a basic human right. “We are addressing the needs of so many of these adult learners who have fallen through the cracks,” Witherell said.

In addition to its scholarship program, the nonprofit awards grants each year to adult learning programs across Massachusetts and offers free professional development workshops for adult literacy educators.

“What we’re trying to do is award programs that have an innovative idea that is new and different,” Witherell said about the grant program.

For example, First Literacy recently funded a Juvenile Justice Diversion Program at Charlestown Adult Education, a nonprofit in Boston. The program is designed to prevent vulnerable young adults from having a criminal record.

In October, First Literacy hosted one of its professional development workshops, where about 12 participants learned about lesson design and student motivation.

Dellicia Shorter-Soto. Photo courtesy of Dellicia Shorter-Soto.

Dellicia Shorter-Soto attended this workshop in hopes of garnering new teaching skills. She works primarily as an adult education and High School Equivalency Test (HiSET) instructor at ESAC Youth Opportunity Collaborative, Madison Park Development Corporation in Roxbury, Blue Hills Technical College, and Bunker Hill Community College, where she is an adjunct professor.

“Many of [the workshops] help me to enhance my instruction with my adult learners,” Shorter-Soto said, who has attended the workshops for three years. “It gives ideas and new best practices in working with adults, primarily adults whose first language is not English, but also English-speaking students.”

At ESAC, Shorter-Soto works with students ages 16-24, technically considered adult learners, who didn’t complete high school. She tutors them to help them pass the HiSET, which is equivalent to getting a high school diploma.

“Students come for various reasons,” she said. “I have noticed some of my youngest students, there was bullying… some social anxieties. A lot of my students now, they’re taking care of parents who are sick… or they’re taking care of siblings. So a lot of denominators have got us to the point where they stop going to high school.”

For Shorter-Soto, she feels fulfilled working with adult learners.

“I really love seeing that they come in at a very different time in their life, and a lot of times it’s not the most positive, but then they leave feeling achieved, feeling elated.”

The Local Demand for Adult Literacy

In Boston, data on literacy rates has not been published since 2003.

Brooke Machado, the program manager of Boston’s Adult Literacy Initiative, a consortium of adult literacy programs, said this lack of data poses an obstacle to expanding services.

“We have to use data in the campaign to raise awareness and then talk to individuals, like what are the true costs of low literacy,” Machado said, who has worked in adult education for 20 years.

The Literacy Task Force, formed in 2021 under a city ordinance to improve literacy rates, is working to address the gap in data. The group is in the preliminary stages of this process and plans to get both qualitative and quantitative data, Dr. Elizabeth Santiago, lead facilitator of the task force, said in an email.

On a national level, adult literacy is gathered in two ways: by the National Assessment of Adult Literacy and the Program for the International Assessment of Adult Competencies, both conducted by the National Center for Educational Statistics. These tests provide data on national and regional adult literacy, but that data is collected infrequently.

The National Assessment of Adult Literacy was last conducted in 2003. That year, 10% of Massachusetts’ population age 16 or older lacked literacy skills, including those who could not be tested due to language barriers. In Suffolk County, 25% of that same population lacked literacy skills.

The Program for the International Assessment of Adult Competencies’ first-ever cycle was conducted from 2011 to 2017. According to data from the first cycle, Massachusetts ranked 13th in the nation compared to other states, with a score of 273 on a 500 scale.

Just because Massachusetts historically has scored well in adult literacy skills doesn’t mean a demand for these services doesn’t exist.

Witherell said that throughout her five years working at First Literacy, it’s clear many adults are seeking literacy programs.

“We actually know from the long waitlists at each of the programs that the need is still there,” Witherell said referencing the adult education groups First Literacy works with. “We keep our own data with the number of teachers that we are helping and then the number of adult learners that those teachers work with, so clearly the need is still there.”

In 2022 and 2023, over 8,600 adult learners benefitted from First Literacy’s programs. This is almost 1,000 more than the previous year. Impact data for this year will be published in the coming months.

Since the recent influx of migrants coming to Massachusetts, Witherell has seen an increase in the demand for English language services.

But it’s not just immigrants who may need adult literacy services. In fact, almost 70% of low English literacy adults are born in the U.S.

This is caused by circumstantial factors for each person, but according to ProLiteracy, some key factors include family poverty, leaving school at a young age, and lack of reading intervention programs in schools.

Why Adult Literacy Matters And How It Can Be Improved

For Sanchez, getting her degree will make her dream of becoming a teacher a reality.

“I want to help the community, immigrants, kids, homeless,” Sanchez said. “I would like to serve the community.”

Witherell explained that reasons for improving adult literacy aren’t always financially or professionally motivated.

“There are many people who it’s not to get a better job, it’s simply that they want to be able to read to their children or contribute to their community,” she said.

While First Literacy works to fund adult education programs, Witherell thinks that more funding is needed to support adult literacy teachers.

“A lot of teachers used to be full-time and now they’ve cut hours because [organizations] can’t afford to pay them full-time,” she said.

Machado sees this struggle in her work, too. She recognizes that a good funding base does already exist for many organizations, but more would help.

“The system has never been adequately funded to meet the demands, so the result of that is long waitlists to get services.”

Santiago said that it’s also a struggle for some people to know where to find services or services may not be conducive to their schedules and needs.

“The task force is committed to gathering the needs of residents who have yet to seek services to identify barriers and ways to mitigate them,” she said.

But experts in the adult literacy field also say it’s important to recognize the strengths of organizations doing this work.

“Everywhere from the leadership down to support staff to the instructor, [there are] people that are really dedicated to advancing the lives of the learners that they’re working with,” Machado said about adult education workers.

Santiago sees these same strengths.

“Adult literacy service providers in Boston are some of the most committed in the profession,” she said. “If residents need services and seek them at programs in their communities, they will be served and served well.”

Sanchez is an example of this success. While she continues her journey in education, she said she’s able to look back on what she has accomplished since moving to Massachusetts.

“It’s very satisfactory and I feel so proud,” she said.

Want to learn more about adult literacy? Check out this resource list by Massachusetts Libraries.