ST. LOUIS – In a major move, the St. Louis NAACP has filed a complaint with the U.S. Department of Education and the Office of Civil Rights over what they describe as a “literary crisis” facing African American children in St. Louis County and City.
The complaint targets not just public schools but private and charter schools as well.
“Black kids in all of those schools are reading behind; they’re reading at levels lower than the state,” St. Louis City NAACP President Adolphus M. Pruitt II said.
The NAACP’s St. Louis president has taken the bold step of also including Missouri’s Department of Elementary and Secondary Education, holding them accountable for the success and failures of students.
“We hope from there that between the U.S. Department of Education, the NAACP, and those individual school districts, we can have some serious conversations about them setting some goals,” Pruitt said.
One local parent pulled his three children out of Saint Louis Public Schools due to concerns over their reading skills, and is grateful to the St. Louis NAACP for taking this initiative.
“They started playing with my child’s grades—her reading scores specifically. I know my child can read college books as well as other books, and they’re telling me that she’s reading below her grade level. That’s ridiculous,” Anthony Dorsey, a concerned parent, said. “I think it’s about time they paid attention to our children and our communities.”
Organizations like Ready Readers are stepping up to combat the literacy crisis.
“Other districts who you think have all the resources do a great job trying to educate kids—trying to make sure kids are reading at grade level,” Executive Director Angela Sears-Spittal said. “But if you look again at children of color, they’re reading about half the rate of all the kids in the grade.”
While multiple schools did not respond to our request for comment, KIPP Schools provided the following statement:
“We share the NAACP’s commitment to improving the literacy skills of Black and Brown students. We have seen our students make impressive learning gains this past year with our new reading curriculum. Our dedicated teachers look forward to building on this positive momentum in the new school year.”
The St. Louis NAACP president stated the organization will continue to monitor statistics to see if change will be made and if not, and they will continue to fight this issue with the U.S. Board of Education and Office of Civil Rights.
