Top Takeaways
- Low literacy among youth in court schools is a long-standing concern.
- A literacy pilot conducted in a San Diego County court school last year showed promise and is being rolled out to three other counties.
- The program relies on evidence-based literacy strategies that are age-appropriate for older high school readers while still using phonics and decoding texts.
Only a few months into Rosie Leyva’s job as a literacy specialist at Butler Academic Center, Alameda County’s juvenile hall school, she learned that success looks different for each student.
One student could not write his name. Over three sessions, which turned out to be all the time they had together before he left the facility, they practiced reading and writing his first name, last name, date of birth, and address.
“I don’t know what’s to come for him, but at least I know he walked out with those skills,” said Leyva. For her, part of defining success includes “creating the possibility for them to believe that they can learn.”…