My experience taking the test is comparable to helping a 2nd grader do their homework. The questions are easy yet confusing to an insulting degree and are not at all suitable to prove if an adult is literate. One of the questions asked to cross out all numbers that are above 20 but less than 30. The set of number is as follows: 31 16 48 29 53 47 22 37 98 26 20 25 The answer is 29, 22, 26, 25 This was the least confusing question out of all. The rest of them are worded in a very weird way which makes the instructions unclear and would confuse even those who possess very good literacy skills. It feels like the test was made to make people feel stupid for not understanding the instructions, but in reality it’s the instructions that are causing the problem.
In order to establish more equality for the Black community in the US we should be more mindful towards those who come from low income communities. Students in schools have to learn to be more accepting of their African American peers and treat them with the respect they deserve. Many African American children have to travel a long way to get to a good school since the ones in low income communities are extremely underfunded. And even in schools with more supplies and qualified teachers they get discriminated against and bullied. The other problem lies within government’s funding. There are helicopters flying over my house almost every day in order to watch the traffic and report on it. It’s not a bad thing in itself since it provides more safety for the roads, but that funding could’ve gone to help low income communities which should be government’s top priority. Yet while the government funds the things we don’t necessarily need to survive, African Americans can’t get access to good education. This goes as far as not having any books to read throughout their childhood, which hinders their development and highly affects future literacy levels.
The article titled “With COVID, the African-American Literacy Crisis will get much worse” presents reasons as to why the pandemic will harm African American students, primarily 3rd-12th graders. It also highlights many steps the schooling system can take to help them out during these harsh times. The article opens up with the argument that way more African American students struggle with illiteracy compared to their white peers. 3 times more, to be exact. The pandemic only made things worse because online schooling doesn’t provide the same opportunities as actual school, and not all kids have a stable internet connection to always stay on top of their classes. Some steps that we can take in order to improve literacy rates for African American children include training teachers on how to help students understand their reading material better, furthering their chances in developing good literacy skills as well as making schools a safer and more accepting place for people of color in general. The article highlights the importance of the psychological environment for more effective learning and states, “The same element is needed to thrive in classroom. Educational institutions aren’t exemot from bias, racism or classism. For many African American kids, schools don’t feel and aren’t secure. Recently, police arrested a six-year old African-American child at school. Would you feel safe learning to read there?”
One thought on “DB 7”
the question numbers are 3 4 and 5