Wednesday, February 29, 2012

Some Facts to Consider


Question: How many youths in the United States are incarcerated every day?

Answer/Quote: “On any given day, more than 100,000 youths are incarcerated in the United States. Countless more are considered ‘at-risk’ for incarceration, based on factors such as homelessness, poverty, gang membership, substance abuse, grade retention, and more.”

Quote: “Unfortunately, gender and race can be considered risk factors as well. The most recent Department of Justice (DOJ) census showed that 85% of incarcerated teens are male…. Thirty-eight percent of the youths in the juvenile justice system are black, and 19% are Hispanic…. The DOJ predicted that the juvenile correctional population will increase by 36% by the year 2020, mostly because of growth in the Hispanic male population.” P. 385.

Comment: The author suggests finding relevant books in urban fiction to help students light the spark of reading. Maybe so. But I think it’s going to take a lot more than that to help at-risk males for incarceration to change their motivation for succeeding in reading and school. RayS.

Title: “Using Urban Fiction to Engage At-Risk and Incarcerated Youths in Literacy Instruction.” Stephanie F. Guerra. Journal of Adolescent and Adult Literacy (February 2012), 385-394.

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