Tag Archives: Literacy

Rockin’ for a Cause: Literacy Volunteer Program —Tom Hochschild

Seen 10 August 2012. -jsq

Friends,

On Friday, October 5th I will be hosting a fundraiser called “Rockin’ for a Cause” to help fight illiteracy in South Georgia. Working with Dr. Marty Williams and Charlie Oliver, we hope to raise $6,000 for the Literacy Volunteer Program (LVP) of South Georgia. The LVP provides one-to-one tutoring to improve the reading, writing, and arithmetic skills of functionally illiterate individuals 16 years of age and older in South Central Georgia.

The ticket price for the event is $20 and includes an evening of good-time music from The Backstreet Blazers band, one raffle ticket for a chance to win a variety of great prizes, and an assortment of delicious appetizers. Dr. James LaPlant has graciously agreed to emcee the event.

“Rockin’ for a Cause” will take place on Friday, October 5th at The American Legion Post 13 located at 1301 Williams Street (behind Bazemore-Hyder Stadium) from 7:00-10:30 pm. In addition to an air-conditioned dance hall, the American Legion has a cash bar for beer and wine.

If you are interested in purchasing tickets before the night of the event, you may contact one of the following:

Continue reading →

Steven H. Prigohzy, All-Star and Best-Paid Educator!

We have an all-star athlete class educator advising us, with an all-star athlete salary! Hm, I wonder how much CUEE is paying him?

A Sun Life Financial press release of 26 February 2011, Exceptional Students & Nonprofits, All-Star Team of Pro Athletes, Corporate & Education Leaders Tackle Lagging High School Graduation Rates at Sun Life Rising Star National Summit,

“Steven H. Prigohzy, education advocate and developer of one of the country’s first open magnet schools.”
Well, that sounds like the Steve Prigohzy of CSAS in Chattanooga, whose Public Education Foundation advised the consolidated school system there.

What about this, is this just a coincidence of names? Empire Center for New York State Policy put out a press release of 8 October 2009,

According to the data, the highest paid non-professional school employee (outside New York City) was Steven H. Prigohzy of the New York Institute for Special Education, who was paid $230,000.
It turns out it’s not a coincidence. In a paid death notice in the New York Times, BLOOM, FRANCES R., 18 January 2005, Continue reading →

Literacy and Prisons

There’s a widespread factoid claiming that multiple states (maybe California, Arizona, Indiana, or Virginia) decide how many prison cells to build according to second or third grade reading levels. This is an urban legend, debunked by Washington Post, DailyKos, and numerous other investigators. Lots of people have requoted this factoid, from Colin Powell to Hillary Clinton, but they were misled.

However, there is substantial evidence that low educational performance does increase likelihood of incarceration. Furthermore, parental involvement won’t be enough to deal with this, since low-education prisoners tend to have low-education parents. Hillary was right: it does take a village.

Prison Literacy

In 1994 far more prisoners had reading difficulties than did the general public: Continue reading →