CLEVELAND — Adult literacy rates are declining, according to the U.S. Department of Education.
Data from 2023 shows 28% of adults in the U.S. scored at or below the lowest literacy level, up from 19% in 2017.
Good Morning Cleveland anchor Tiffany Tarpley spoke to a local man and woman who are overcoming literacy challenges later in life.
"My senior year I knew I wasn't going to graduate, so with all the embarrassment I left," said 50-year-old Norman Wilson.
Wilson is now on a mission to finish what he started decades ago.
"I wanted to pursue my GED, but in trying to figure out who I was, I just got involved in kind of the wrong thing and just never got back around to it," said Wilson.
Wilson enrolled in the Aspire program about a year ago. The program offers free education resources for adults in Cuyahoga County. The need for those services is significant.
"In Cuyahoga County, there's about 54% of adults aged 16 to 74 that are not proficient in literacy," said Laureen Atkins-Holliday, Vice President of Strategic Initiatives for The Literacy Cooperative in Cleveland.
Atkins-Holliday works to address literacy gaps across all age groups.
When asked why some adults fall short, Atkins-Holliday said, "It's not always to educational attainment, but what it really comes down to when you're looking at that is the family dynamic, it's what we call the cycle of literacy."
Adults like Wilson and 74-year-old Cathy Rias are being empowered to change the cycle.
Rias said life got in the way of earning her high school diploma.
"I was a mother at 15 so I had to take care of my girls," said Rias.
Today, Rias is proving it's never too late to learn.
"The GED program is is giving an outlook on what I need to do," said Rias.
Both Rias and Wilson are now role models for success.
"Just as I'm in school getting my GED, I've met others who have not obtain their high school diploma or GED equivalence and be able to encourage them to get it as I'm getting mine is really powerful," said Wilson.
The Aspire program serves adults 16 and older who have literacy skills below the 12th-grade level. For more information, click here.
If you're interested in donating to If You Give a Child a Book, click here.
