Sent to the Stockton Record, December 14, 2006
Literacy: A State-Wide Problem
Stockton is not the only city in California to rank
low in literacy: Nearly all California cities are in
December 14).
A particularly interesting part of the America's Most
Literate Cities report is the results on library
quality, largely based on public libraries. Of the 12
California cities included, six were in the bottom
ten, with four cities capturing the bottom four
places: Los Angeles at 67, Anaheim at 68, Stockton at
69, and Santa Ana at 70, and ten of the 12 were ranked
49th or lower out of 70.
The study conclusively shows that California has the
worst public libraries in the US. Other research has
shown that California also has the worst school
libraries in the country, and the fewest number of
school librarians per student.
It is no coincidence that California fourth graders
have consistently ranked last or nearly last in the US
in reading comprehension since 1992, the first time
scores for individual states were analyzed. Study
after study has shown better libraries and the
presence of librarians are related to better reading:
Those who have more access to books read more, and
those who read more, read better.
This is not just a Stockton problem, it is a
state-wide problem, and we owe it to the children to
solve it.
Stephen Krashen
Professor Emeritus
University of Southern California