Md. Suffers Shortage Of Literacy Volunteers

Immigrants Aren't Only Ones in Need

Maryland communities are seeing a growing need for volunteer tutors to help adults read and write, with an increased demand from immigrants who struggle with English and native-born residents who left school without fully mastering the skills.

In Montgomery County, the local literacy council has about 600 tutors but needs an additional 200 to 300. The county is home to about half of Maryland's foreign-born population and has residents from 86 countries.

In Prince George's County, the literacy council has about 55 tutors and a waiting list of students who want instruction. Demand has also increased in Charles County and other Maryland jurisdictions.

The free services throughout the state rely on volunteers, who are trained by the local councils and usually work one-on-one with students. The tutoring sessions often are held in local libraries.

The programs are aimed not only at those for whom English is not their first language but also at native-born adults who need help in reading and writing to fill out forms or read instructions and other materials at work, said Loreta Jordan, who matches tutors with students in Prince George's. Such adults might want to help their children with homework but cannot, or they might have signed up for a class to help them obtain a high school equivalency diploma and find that they cannot read at the required level.

Montgomery's literacy council served about 900 people last year, among them about 70 U.S.-born adults who needed help with basic reading and writing. As of 2005, the last year data were available, 92,000 county residents, or about 10 percent of the population, were older than 25 and lacked a high school diploma, said Pam Saussy, head of the county's literacy council.

"Even in a county as well educated as Montgomery, and with a top-performing school system, there are native-born individuals, who, for any of many reasons, age out of the school system without having learned to read and write," Saussy said.

"That education doesn't work for them," she said. "They are the outlyers."

Students who attend the literacy council's programs also might have undiagnosed disabilities or might have had to interrupt their education because of illness or family responsibilities.

The need is also acute in Charles, said Marlene Cleaveland, head of that county's literacy council, via e-mail. "The need is growing because of the influx of a more diverse population in Charles County," she said.

Cleaveland also said that increased media attention to literacy has helped some native-born residents realize that they need help. "Individuals who may have been passed on in school are realizing their own need to reach out for help," she said.

Saussy, of Montgomery's literacy council, said potential students are sometimes reluctant to seek help.

"When we say they are largely invisible, we mean it," she said. "I suspect that there are more who need the service than are coming to us."

If you need assistance or want to volunteer, here's how to contact the literacy councils in Maryland: Go tohttp://www.mdhc.org/programs/maryland-center-for-the-book/literary-resources/, scroll down to literacy organizations and Maryland literacy councils and click on the name of your local council.