Description

The vast majority of students who graduated high school while detained in California's juvenile facilities in a five-year span between 2018 and 2023 did not pass a 12th grade reading assessment. In fact, over a fifth of them were reading at lower elementary-school grade levels.

Now California's finally doing something about it. A new literacy intervention program is now being rolled out in San Diego, Alameda, San Mateo and Riverside counties, to help teenagers in juvenile detention grasp the basics of reading.

Guests:

• Rosie Leyva, Literacy specialist, Alameda County Court Schools
• Betty Márquez Rosales, Reporter, EdSource

Read more from EdSource:

• New multi-county initiative to tackle literacy gaps among detained high school students
• In California's youth justice system, many high schoolers graduate with grade-school reading skills
• An island of reading for youth in the California juvenile justice system

Related episodes:

• How a library inside juvenile hall aims to break the prison pipeline
• Could juvenile detention centers look like college campuses?
• How schools can help formerly incarcerated students succeed

Education Beat is a weekly podcast hosted by EdSource’s Zaidee Stavely and produced by Coby McDonald.

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