1. Low Literacy in Arkansas What’s Food Got to Do With It? Arkansas Hunger Coalition Conference May 26, 2004 Dr. Peggy Sissel-Phelan for AR Child READs! Well ^

6. Level 1 Literacy Among Adults Age 16 + by County Number of Counties n = 17 n = 27 n = 14 n = 9 n = 4 n = 3 13-19% 20-24% 25-29% 30-34% 35-39% 40-45% Level 1 Level 1 Level 1 Level 1 Level 1 Level 1 Note: Level 1 equates to about 1 st grade reading skills Missing Data

7. Level 2 Literacy or Below Among Adults Age 16 + by County Number of Counties n = 3 n = 8 n = 19 n = 29 n = 12 n = 3 Note: Calhoun County data not available 43-45% 46-51% 52-59% 60-69% 70-79% 80-89% at Level 2 at Level 2 at Level 2 at Level 2 at Level 2 at Level 2 Note: Level 2 equates to about 4th grade reading skills Missing Data

8. Generational Illiteracy Parents/Adult % 8 th Graders % City Low Literacy Low Literacy 78 90 Forrest City 71 92 Pine Bluff 62 83 Texarkana 64 70 Blytheville 63 69 El Dorado 54 77 North Little Rock 58 68 Paragould Note: Parents data derived from National Adult Literacy Survey, 1992 Students data derived from National Assessment of Educational Progress, 2002

9. Generational Illiteracy Parents/Adults % 8 th Graders % City Low Literacy Low Literacy 59 58 Magnolia 46 70 Little Rock 49 61 Arkadelphia 50 58 Benton 46 55 Searcy 42 57 Rogers Note: Parents data derived from National Adult Literacy Survey, 1992 Students data derived from National Assessment of Educational Progress, 2002

10. Generational Illiteracy Parents/Adult% 8 th Graders % City Low Literacy Low Literacy 44 50 Jonesboro 42 46 Conway 48 40 Springdale 44 37 Bentonville 32 34 Fayetteville Note: Parents data derived from National Adult Literacy Survey, 1992 Students data derived from National Assessment of Educational Progress, 2002

11. Generational Illiteracy 8 th Graders Parents/Adults %

12. Child-Well Being Infant mortality rates – 37 th in U.S. Low birth weight - 41 st Child death rates - 46 th Overall child well-being - 47 th

13. Youth Well-Being Teen birth rate - 42nd in U.S. School dropout rate - 41 st in U.S. CDC study on youth behavior in Arkansas: 23% Rarely/never use safety belts 31% Rode with drinking driver in past month 22% Carried a weapon in the past month 30% Report episodic heavy drinking during the past month

14. Community Well-Being Low-literate adults - 56% Less than h.s.diploma -22.8% Bachelor’s degrees or more -18% Person’s Below Poverty – 15.8% Families making less than $25,000 - 28.1%

16. Health Literacy “ The ability to read , understand , and act on health care information”

18. Where are the Roots of Illiteracy?

30. “ Anticipatory guidance for parents about sharing books with young children may be the only concrete activity of a pediatric provider that has been proven to promote child development .” -Barry Zuckerman, MD Founding Director, Reach Out and Read

31. Our Vision – A Healthier and More Literate Arkansas Awareness, Education, & Outreach, Book Distribution Collaboration

32. What You Can Do (1) Spread the news about the concept of early intervention literacy programs (2) Advocate for emergent literacy programming in their communities (3) Invite us to speak: civic, nonprofit, corporate, governmental, professional groups, organizations, and agencies

33. Questions