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More than half of Ohio adults aren’t proficient in literacy and numeracy. One organization is trying to help

By: Erin Gottsacker | The Ohio Newsroom
Posted on: Thursday, March 13, 2025

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CLEVELAND (The Ohio Newsroom) — When Delores Landers was 16 years old, she dropped out of high school. She was failing math classes and unable to find the academic support she needed.

Now 64, Landers has built a life for herself with only the most rudimentary math skills.

“Here’s my story,” she said. “I didn’t know how to subtract. I didn’t know how to divide. I didn’t know how to do multiplications.”

She’s not alone. According to one study, two-thirds of adults in Cleveland have low literacy levels, struggling to comprehend basic English and math.

Conor Morris, Ideastream Public Media’s education reporter, joined the Ohio Newsroom to explain how one organization is working to help people like Landers to change that statistic.

This conversation has been lightly edited for clarity and brevity.

On illiteracy rates in Ohio

“So these studies, including the one out of Cleveland, often break things down into five levels of literacy, with the first two levels as the main levels of concern. Somebody at that first level, they could struggle reading a bus schedule, or more complex information on a job application could throw them for a loop. In Cleveland, almost one in three folks are at that first level. Statewide and countrywide, it’s about one in five.

“At that next level, folks are still struggling to operate and they’re still locked out of some higher level jobs. Then, folks at the third, fourth and fifth levels are okay and can generally access most jobs and navigate life pretty well. Still though, these statistics show that there are a lot of people struggling across the country — and in Cleveland — just like the basics of English and math.”

On why so many people fall behind

“It’s complicated. In some cases, for folks who are living in poverty, there are a lot of barriers to education. There are studies that suggest if your parents don’t have a high school degree, then you are more likely to experience challenges in the classroom. A lot of folks with learning disabilities go undiagnosed or they don’t get the support they need in the classroom. Plus, the country in general has struggled to figure out the best way to teach kids how to read. For a long time, folks weren’t necessarily taught in the best way, based on the science. So there’s a lot of things that kind of go into this.”

On how Seeds of Literacy is helping

“Seeds of Literacy is a nonprofit in Cleveland that provides one-on-one tutoring. They allow people to come whenever they want. The classroom is open morning, day and night, so that folks can come after work if they need to. People I talked to, many are in their fifties and sixties. They’re parents and grandparents and they face a lot of barriers. But the good thing about Seeds of Literacy is there’s no requirement to show up. People can come as long as they like, whenever they like. And it’s proven successful. It may take a long time, but eventually folks do get their GEDs and some even head on over to college as well.”

On lessons for the rest of Ohio

“In Ohio, all of the school districts have to adopt these curricula backed by the science of reading, so we might see some improvement in students’ test scores on reading at least down the road. Of course, literacy goes hand in hand with numeracy and that’s a whole other conversation about math curriculum.

“But there’s also a broader conversation here about poverty. There’s a reason why urban school districts often have lower test scores than suburban school districts, and that’s because of resources. Kids are dealing with a lot at home. And again, parents who don’t have a high school diploma or college degree, their students are going to be struggling more academically. They need more support than a student whose parents read to them every night.

“Finally, early childhood education is the key to student success. There are so many studies that show if a kid has a really strong preschool experience, they are much more likely to succeed in school once they hit the K-12 environment. And a lot of cities struggle on that front. There’s not a lot of affordable early childhood care. There are limited spots. And to make things worse, there’s an issue with wages for preschool teachers as well. There’s not enough of those teachers and folks can’t pay them what they think that they deserve.”