Long before a child struggles to read in fourth grade, the signs are there for those who know where to look. On October 15, more than 20 people — including families, educators, and community partners from Ouachita and Calhoun counties — spent an evening looking closer.
They gathered at the South Central Service Cooperative in Camden for the latest stop in the Literacy Coalition of South Central Arkansas’s screening series of Sentenced, which also made a stop in Union County earlier this year. The Camden event was co-hosted with the South Central Service Cooperative.
Before hearing other families’ stories on screen, guests looked at their own on a data walk: a gallery of posters about the children, families and conditions in their communities.
The first was the Early Development Instrument (EDI), an early childhood weather radar. Kindergarten teachers complete it with the knowledge they have about their students, and the results are mapped neighborhood by neighborhood across five areas of development. The EDI doesn’t grade individual children. It shows how children are developing at kindergarten. Community EDI scores are also predictive of later academic outcomes.
The second was Excel by Eight’s resource grid, which looks at the conditions around children. It works like a power grid: When family, community, health, and education supports are strong and connected, children thrive. Posters covered family finances (ALICE data, for households that work but still can’t cover basic costs), transportation, and access to health care.
As guests talked through the posters, one barrier stood out: transportation. Without a reliable way to get around, families have a harder time reaching health care and much more.
Side by side, the radar shows where children may need more support, and the grid helps explain why.
Then came the film. Sentenced, narrated by Stephen Curry, follows four families of adults and children who never learned to read. It’s honest about what illiteracy costs across generations and hopeful that reading can be taught at any age.
A panelist summed up the film’s hardest truth afterward: When children reach fourth grade behind, “chances are they will never catch up.” The film shows what happens when we find out too late. The EDI, collected in kindergarten, is how a community can see it coming.
When the credits rolled, the conversation turned local with a discussion moderated by Erica Mack of the Literacy Coalition. Zephonia Avant, early childhood Local Lead with the South Central Service Cooperative, joined Dr. Angela Avery of the Camden Fairview School District’s ABC and HIPPY programs; Faye Dismuke of Ouachita Child Enrichment Center; and Roniesha Flowers, a career coach with Adult Education at SAU Tech, to talk about how programs here are supporting literacy. Their three themes echoed what was on the walls an hour earlier:
- Start early. Reading well by third grade starts long before third grade. Panelists described pre-K classrooms using science-of-reading curricula, and tools like LENA, supported by Excel by Eight, that help teachers make sure they’re talking with every child.
- Bring businesses to the table. Most local children live in homes where every adult works, including many of the ALICE families from the data walk. Panelists called on local industry to become more family-friendly, for example by giving parents paid time to volunteer in their child’s classroom.
- Support the early childhood workforce. Birth to five isn’t publicly funded for every child, so access to affordable, quality care isn’t equal. Local providers say they’ve had to cut teachers’ paid time off and training. The panel asked the community to look at every child “through the eyes of a parent” and to work with the coalition on ways to support local providers.
Near the end, the panel was asked what each of us can do. One answer was to change how we talk about early childhood. It isn’t “daycare.” It’s the foundation for everything that follows. So talk about it, share what you learn, and keep the conversation going.
Want to get involved? The Literacy Coalition offers free tutoring for children and adults, computer classes, and GED support. Visit literacycoalitionsca.org or call 870-902-0880.
