What Does PIAAC Tell Us About Incarcerated Adults’ Skills and Participation in Education?

Colleagues, 

We are presenting the PIAAC Prison results about incarcerated adults's skills and participation in education at COABE.  Specifically, we will explore the following issues: the relationship between incarcerated adults’ PIAAC reading component skills and literacy and passage comprehension performance, characteristics and skill levels of incarcerated adults with less than a high school education, the role of learning in the lives of incarcerated adults with low skills, and the degree to which demographic factors and learning-related cognitive skills are associated with educational-programming desire among the U.S. prison population.  While our session at the conference is Tuesday, April 2nd 8:00am-9:00am, in Galerie 3, we do welcome any questions you may have on this forum. 

Comments

Will you be exploring anything about health literacy in prisoners? Do you have a copy of your abstract that you would be willing to share?

Thanks in advance,

Dave

Hi, Dave,

Thanks for your question about health literacy! I am one of the authors who will be presenting in the PIAAC session at COABE. The topic is Incarcerated Adults with Low Skills. Specifically, I looked at incarcerated adults with less than a high school education (LHS). Below are a few health-related findings from the paper.

Margaret

About half endorse excellent or very good health and one fourth good health. More than a fourth (27.7%) reports having fair or poor health. Two fifths of women report fair or poor health (39.2%), , significantly higher than the 26.8% of men doing so. Aggregate rates for vision difficulties are 20.4% and 15.2% for hearing difficulties. These rates are nearly twice the rates, 11.4% for vision and 8.7% for hearing, of the general population, respectively (Patterson & Paulson, 2016). More than a third of LHS incarcerated adults report diagnoses of LD (37.1%), which is four times the general population LD rate of 8% (Patterson & Paulson, 2016).... The nearly doubled rates of vision or hearing difficulties and quadrupled rates of LD (37.1%) among LHS incarcerated adults compared with the general population (Patterson & Paulson, 2016; Rampey et al., 2016) point to adults with critical health concerns and challenges from disabilities that can affect their learning as well as re-entry after release (Brazzell et al., 2009; Hatzenbuehler et al., 2015; Lattimore et al., 2012; OECD, 2013). 

This is valuable information. If I've interpreted your response correctly, we have a quarter of respondents to the study indicate poor (or fair) health, with more women indicating poor health than their male counterparts. So, let me ask our community members to chime in with how they address these concerns: 

  • 20.4% of incarcerated individuals indicate vision problems: Do any programs have partnerships that provide eye exams and glasses as a part of reentry? 
  • 15.2% of incarcerated individuals indicate hearing problems: Do any programs have partnerships that provide hearing exams and hearing aids as a part of reentry?
  • More than 1/3 of incarcerated adults report diagnoses of learning disorders: How do you address the multitude of learning disabilities in your classroom? 

I'm looking forward to learning about your best-practices. 

Sincerely, 
Kathy Tracey
@Kathy_Tracey

 

Hi, Kathy,

Yes, that's right! Your list of questions is right on target. I would also add a question: how are adults, whether in correctional or in re-entry programs, screened for health issues that can impact learning? Adult may not always be aware of the issues, so staff may need to be on the lookout for challenges with vision or hearing that can affect learning. I'll be curious to learn what others are doing. And for those who are coming to COABE, please bring ideas to share in the PIAAC session. Thanks!

Margaret

Katie, 
I am excited about your presentation at COABE and am looking forward to learning more about what you've discovered as you explored the data. For those who may want to peruse some of the information, here's a link to the PIACC information  The primary goal of the PIAAC is to assess adults over a broad range of abilities, from simple reading to complex-problem solving skills, and to college information on individual's skill use and background (p. 2.).

I hope those of you attending COABE have a chance to join this session and Katie, we'd love to learn more from your group about what you've discovered.

Kathy

 

Hi Kathy and all, My name is Lionel Smith, and I will also be presenting research from the PIAAC Prison Study on this panel at the COABE conference in New Orleans. A little bit of info on me: I am currently a a Research Associate within the Center on Sentencing and Corrections at the Vera Institute of Justice, and I have over a decade of experience conducting research on a variety of issues related to criminal justice, education, and policy reform. I received my BA in Urban Services Administration from Cleveland State University, MA in Social Sciences (concentration in Demographic & Social Analysis) from the University of California, Irvine, and PhD in Criminology from the University of Delaware. About my COABE presentation: Title: Understanding Educational Aspiration among People in Prison Authors: Ruth Delaney and Lionel Smith, PhD Summary of the Research: This paper aims to assess the role that cognitive skills, as well as demographic and socio‐economic factors play in shaping educational aspirations among people in U.S. prisons. This paper pursues this objective through two research questions using two different analytic strategies. • Research Question 1: What demographic and skill‐level factors predict the aspiration to enroll in any education class or program among people in prison in the U.S.? o Findings: Having stronger literacy or numeracy skills may increase a person’s interest in educational programs – these skills are dynamic and can change with skill‐building programs • Research Question 2: What demographic and skill‐level factors predict the aspiration to enroll in a postsecondary education class or program among people in prison in the U.S.? o Findings: Those interested in postsecondary education had higher average literacy and numeracy skill scores than those interested in other types of educational programs; a large majority of all but one category (those without high school credentials) were interested in postsecondary programs (75‐99 percent). Policy/Practice Implications: One of the most important findings is actually within the summary statistics: the fact that 70 percent of people in prison would like to enroll in an education program. • Aspirations in prison outstrip opportunities: High school is the highest level of educational programming that is consistently available in prison. • Among incarcerated people, educational attainment may not be as strong a predictor of interest in education as assessed cognitive skill. This suggests skill‐building may spur more interest for more schooling. • Skill‐building could be accomplished through offering challenging adult basic education courses and college preparatory work even where college programs do not yet exist. • The opportunity this interest presents to engage incarcerated people in adult learning programs should not be ignored. About 95 percent of incarcerated people will eventually leave prison and return home. Conclusion: 2.2 million people may further their educations while incarcerated in the United States. Educators, researchers, policymakers, and funding agencies should begin to look at prisons as a legitimate and important site of learning in American society. Thanks, and I look forward to seeing everyone in NOLA in a few weeks! LS

Colleagues, 

I came across this blog, The Relationship Between Incarceration and Low Literacy, and I wonder if the PIAAC Data supports the same findings? 

From the blog, 

So, if we have young adults in our adult education programs, what interventions do we need to incorporate into our programs to help keep them out of the criminal justice system? 

Sincerely, 
Kathy Tracey
@Kathy_Tracey