Literacy Instruction for Adolescent and Adult Beginning Readers

Literacy experts at the Center for Literacy and Disability Studies (CLDS) of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, in partnership with Benetech®, have introduced a subscription version of Route 66 Literacy this winter. Route 66 Literacy is a flexible, dynamic, internet-based instructional program that provides literacy instruction to adolescent and beginning adult readers.

Quick Facts about Low Literacy and Illiteracy

According to the U.S. Department of Education, there are more than 800,000 students from elementary school through college age who have moderate to severe disabilities. The number increases to more than five million when all learning disabilities are included. If this news isn’t bad enough, the problem of low literacy extends far beyond school-aged children. It extends to the more than 20% of American adults who read at or below a fifth grade level. These rates are much higher for non-native English speakers.
The result: In the U.S. the number of adults with low literacy is estimated in the tens of millions. According to the National Adult Literacy Survey, 44 million people, or 21-23% of the U.S. adult population, lack a sufficient foundation of basic literacy skills required to function successfully in our society.

A New Approach: Route 66 Literacy Emphasizes High-Interest Content

While many literacy programs are designed for kindergarteners and first graders; Route 66 Literacy combines all of the essential elements of literacy instruction – reading, writing, and word study – while emphasizing age-appropriate, interest-appropriate, and ability-appropriate content that is targeted at adolescents and beginning adult readers. Route 66 Literacy is built on three core beliefs:

• Literacy learning occurs when learners are emotionally engaged, experience repetition in a variety of ways, and interact with another more knowledgeable person.
• Students bring unique cultural and linguistic backgrounds, interests and experiences to their reading and writing.
• Meaning is at the heart of reading and writing.

Teacher-Tutor – Route 66 Literacy Is Truly Different

Several for-profit players exist with well-established brands and long histories of providing reading tools for disabled students, but none compare strategically to or deliver the proven results of Route 66 Literacy. One major difference, and what sets Route 66 Literacy apart from all competitors, is Teacher-Tutor.

Route 66 Literacy’s Teacher-Tutor is a revolutionary and much needed concept, providing proven instruction to the learner while simultaneously providing necessary and critical support to teachers, tutors, parents and other volunteers. In fact, Route 66 Literacy requires no special training to teach literacy aside from basic web navigation skills.

Route 66 Literacy is currently operated as a partnership between The Center for Literacy and Disability Studies (CLDS) of the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill and Benetech. Leading researchers at CLDS provide the service’s content and instructional information, while Benetech supplies the technical, managerial and marketing expertise, as well as the on-going maintenance of the site.

As with all of Benetech’s initiatives, the goal of the Route 66 Literacy project is to both generate a significant social impact and to create a financially self-sustaining entity. Revenue for Route 66 will be generated through service subscriptions paid for by individual users and instructors, as well as institutional users such as schools and other organizations that serve the disabled community.

Over the long term, marketing partnerships with other providers of educational materials will play a significant role in the promotion and distribution of Route 66 Literacy.

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