What is Literacy? Are our youth really illiterate or is that we are behind times?

As an English teacher, I am very interested in root causes for the high rates of illiteracy in secondary schools, specifically urban schools. One would think that by the time students reached seventh grade they would have a handle on basic literacy skills. This isn't always the case.

Through new literacies we have found that literacy encompasses much more than simply having the ability to read and write. For the purposes of this blog we are examining literacy under a lens of what state assessments will test; which unfortunately continues to be in the traditional form of literacy.
According to Tamara L. Jetton and Janice A. Dole authors of Adolescent Literacy Research and Practice http://www.guilford.com/cgi-bin/cartscript.cgi?page=pr/jetton.htm&sec=contrib&dir=edu/lit, high literacy is defined as the educational goal of teaching all students to think, read, and write critically. Where is the disconnect between urban and rural schools? Yes, there are small exceptions. Not all urban schools have high illiteracy rates just as not all rural school have high literacy rates; but the statistics to the contrary are overwhelming. Many believe poverty to be the culprit to this ongoing problem. Others argue with the proper supports this doesn't have to be the case. This blog seeks to examine research that shows how poverty and illiteracy have a direct correlation.

Others argue that the times have changed and so have our students but the practices of education haven't and this is why are students are being deemed illiterate. This is the age of the new literacies, where reading is more than having the ability to read and understand the words on the page. This is the technological age where students have new ways of expressing themselves and their ideas and these strengths are rarely highlighted in the classroom. Most students participate in literacy activities on an ongoing basis. Blogging, social networking sites, such as facebook, text messaging are all places where students use literacy skills. Are these skills valued? Not entirely but they should be.