Appalachia News- Mississippi State Module Final Report

• FINAL REPORT MISSISSIPPI STATE MODULE Submitted to Appalachian Adult Basic Education Demonstration Center Morehead State University Morehead, Kentucky June 1970... num-The problems

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APPALACHIAN ADULT BASIC EDUCATION

STATE MODULE

AUGUST 31, 1970

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FINAL REPORT MISSISSIPPI STATE MODULE

Submitted to Appalachian Adult Basic Education Demonstration Center

Morehead State University Morehead, Kentucky

June 1970

FINAL REPORT SERIES

Grant No.: OEG-2-7-005077-5077 (324)

DEMONSTRATION, DEVELOPMENTAL AND RESEARCH PROJECT FOR PROGRAMS, MATERIALS, FACILITIES

AND EDUCATIONAL TECHNOLOGY FOR UNDERFDUCATED ADULTS

Subcontract 1-<o.: AABEDC No 444 APPALACHIA NEWS

MISSISSIPPI ST A TE MODULE

ProJect Directors Larry Otis Wylie Wood Date: September 30, 1970

The research reported herem was performed pursuant to a grant with

the Office of Education, V S Department of Health, Education and Welfare Contractors undertaking such proJ ects under Govern-ment sponsorship are encouraged to express treely their professional Judgment in the conduct of the proJect Points of view or opinions stated do not, therefore, necessarily represent official Office of Ed-ucation position or policy

U S, DEPARTMENT

OF HEAL TH, FDUC A TION, AND WELFARE

Office of Education BUREAU OF ADULT, VOCATIONAL, AND TECHNICAL EDUCATION

Funded under the authority of Public Law: 89-?S0, Title Ill Section 309 (b) Adult Basic Education "Special ProJects" of THE ADULT EDUCATION ACT OF 1966, AS AMENDED,

num-The problems of non-communication, low education level, and tion of the Mississippi Appalachian people are a concern o f the Itawamba Junior College ( IJC ) adult education department The Itawamba Junior College Adult Education Department received a g rant frcm the AABEDC, Morehead, Kentucky, to implement a low reading l evel newspaper t o be distribu ted t o the twenty (2 0) c o unty Appalachian region of Mississippi The first edition of 5 00 copies was printed on February 16, 1970 A training session to orient teachers to the uses of a low reading - level newspaper was held in Tupelo, Mississippi, March 2 8, 1970, with eight - five (85) teachers and supervisors in attendance A mailing list was established at this meeting and number o f c o pies had t o be increased to

isola:-2 , 000 s o that each ABE student in the Mississippi Appalachian region

c o uld receive a n e wspa pe r

Pr o fess o r Ga l e Den l y, Department o f Jo urna l ism, Univers i ty of Mis sissippi, aided in estab l ishing initial reading l evels and format and

-The Appalachian News has been wide ly accepted by students and adults educators with numerous requ ests for the paper from teachers

and organization located out of the Mississippi Appalachian region

As a r esult of this increased interest 5,500 copies o f the Ap pa lachia News are being mailed to adult educators and students in the Missis - sippi Appalachian regi on ,th i rty-f our states, the District of Columbia, the Virgin Islands , and Puerto Rico

The primary o bjectiv e o f the Appalachia Ne ws is t o p r ovide lemental readin g material for a dult basic education students Af'ter in- stituting and supervising ABE classes of the IJC Vocational and Techn i~al Education Ce nter, we found that each teacher was using th e Appalac hia News as an integral part of their curriculum The teachers reported that students looked forward to receiving each edition of the paper It is believed that the Appalachia News has and will provide a news media that can be used in Mississippi Appalachia

Statistics sh ow that in 1966 approximately sixty percent of the population of Mississippi Appalachia l iv ed in rura l areas According

to surveys conducted during this period of time two large poverty groups

seco n d la r ge st gro up was made up o f families with a large number of

chil dren;

Families in the old - age gro up have a very low annua l income a nd almost n o gainful employment The reas on for pov erty in the second group w as becuase of the high cost of supporting a large family

It was established throug h stat i stics that the lack o f educa tion is a major factor in low annual income of those groups

-The Mississippi Adult Basic Ed u cation Department is offering to the Mississippi Appalachian poor a chance t o upgrade their educatio na l

l e vel through an adult basic education class administered on the local

level Through these adult edu catio n classes a curriculum is taught

with the maj o r aim of raising the functi onal educational level , there

-by increasing opport unities for gainful employment

The Appalachia News is an integral part of the curriculum used

by the local ABE teac her

III Ob jectives:

1 To demonst r ate that a low reading - level newspaper ca n be effect i ve

as educationa l device in ABE clas ses:

A Techniques used by teachers

An in-service training session was held t o orien t the teachers of adult education with various ways that

an adult oriented newspaper could b e used

A teacher's guide was given to eac h teacher show ing the different methods and techniques that could be

-used in teaching of various articles in the newspaper

A teacher's guide is included with this report

B Utilization by students

Interviews were conducted with a random sample of

ABE students The results showed the majority of the

students first liked the crossword puzzle and looked

forward to each editio n of the paper so that the chal

-lenge ofa puzzle could be met The interview showed the

next most popular reading area was the articles concern

-ing home and family life , such as the recipes, health in

-f ormation, personal grooming, etc The lo cal interest

articles proved to be the first choice of reading for the particular area which the articles c o cer ns National and

state news ranke d as the least important news items

2 To demonstrate that a low reading level newspaper can be used

period o f time T he Appalachia News was responsible f or a certain

percentage of this incr ease because of the publicity received from

other sources concerni n g the Appalachia News and because of new

enrolle es r eadi n g t h e Appalachia N e ws recei ved by st u den t s prese n t

-ly enrolled Comments fran new enrollees indicate that they en r oll

-ed in adult basic education classes because o f the presence of the Appalachia News in the cla ssr oom

3 To demo n strate that an Adult Basic Education Newspaper can provide informati o n o n emp lo yment oppo rtunities, public assi stan ce agencies, and other educational oppo rtuniti es to the rural ABE student

Teachers were asked to surve y their class and determi n e the

am o unt of knowledge o f employment opportunities, public assistance agencies, and other educational opportunities that their students

asc e rtai n ed The survey showe d that the student had little o r no

in f orma t ion on social security, f oo d stamps, we lfare programs , com mun ity action agencies, emp lo ym e nt agencies, and further educational opportunities With this data plans were made to include articles of this na t ure which would be relevant to the students educational ben - efit with the idea o f incre as in g the student's eco nomic welfare

-Af'ter checking with sev eral of the public agencies that o ffer op por tun i ties t o low - income or disadvan t aged adult educa ti o n students, it

-is reported that the students' knowledge o f these agencies was received from the A ppalachia News

4 To determine the feasability of co mmuni c atin g readability levels of individua l arti cles in a low -r eading l ev el newspaper on a co ntinui n g basis to ABE te achers

Using a r eading ease formula closely following t he FOG I ndex de

-veloped by R obert G unni ng each article was rated according to i ts

r e ding level A copy containing the reading level of each article

within t he newspaper along with the answer to the c ross -word puzzle

and othe r suggested teaching ideas using the paper was m ailed to ea ch

t eacher receiving multiple copies of the A ppa lachia News

There wa s n o written or prepared evaluation of this object ive with the teachers According to communications with the teachers, the read- ability s cale of each article was used effectively in the classroom The t eachers rep o rted that they would us e the r eada bility scale and

mark o n her copy o f the paper the reading level o f each a rti cle s o that

in assigning o ra l readin g in class , a student w o uld n ot b e embarrassed

by being called o n in class to read a n article that th e y could n ot read

IV COMPONENTS :

O utreach:

The A ppalachia News has a g reat i nfluen ce o n adult education i n

Mississippi Appalachia a s w ell as in the ot her states where it is being mailed Present ly 5 , 500 copies a re b e ing mai led to adult educatio n

students and ot her intereste d people in thirty- four states and t he V irgin

Islands , Puert o R ic o , a nd the Dis trict of Colwnbia

O ther agencies co ncern ed with ad u lt educatio n, i e , Manpower Tr ain ing Programs, TVA o rientati on programs, U.S Department o f Agr iculture programs delaing with the under p rivi leged adult have expressed inter est

-in this pr o ject inasmuch a s th ey are inc l u ded o n the mailing l ist and

articles are being received from these agencies to be included in the

ne wspaper

R etenti on :

Retention does n o pertain to this p r ogram although it is f el t the

p resence of the Appalachia News in the cla ssr oom might have an influence

o n the adult education studen t 's desire to stay in the cla ssr oom

Manpower:

Itawamba Junior College adult education depa rtment has the responsi

-bility of administering t his p r og r am The staff includes the director

o f the Vocational Center, Larry Oti s a n d Wy li e Wood , supervisor o f adu lt

educati o n, wh o are res ponsible for th e administration of t he p r ojec t The newspaper staff inc l u des an edi t or, Miss Donna H o bson, printer,

Rayfo rd F o ster, and staff memb e rs, Miss Sue Anest who is responsible for

art w ork , Bobby Davis, who is responsible for wrapping, routing , a nd mai l ing of th e paper, photography, and the students includ ed in t h e voca ti on -

-al prin tin g class

Materials:

Material for the Appalachia New s co mes fran several agencies The

T upel o o ffi ce of the Social Securi ty Administatio n, Mr Hugh Tigrett , Director, writes a weekly colt.mm o f q estions and a nsw e rs co n c erning

Soc ia l Sec urity problems He enco ura ges students to send questions which

wi ll be answered in the n e ws pape r

The Health Depa rtment supplies information for the he al th info rma tion column This information is re -wr i ten by the edit o r o n a l ower

-reading level

Wire copy and pictures from Un ited Press Interna tional are dona t

-ed by the Tupelo Daily Journa l , local daily newspaper

The United States Department of Agriculture through the Food and Nutritio n Service provides news releases and pic t o rial recipes The Extension Services, County Agent's off ice and Employment Service are

The crossword puzzle is used with emphasis o n spelling and word meaning

Students read articles o ra lly and they are taught to read for prehension

com-Health le ss o ns develop for the health information column

Pe rsona l grooming discussions in the class fo ll ow the reading of articles of this type in the Appalachia News

articles, such as accident rates, that appear from time to time, are used by counselors in the adult education program

Stude nts are shown the advantage of using resources that they have

in the a r ticles that tell them h ow to build items r ather than buy them

For example, issues have contained pictorial directio ns for building shelves and closets which will conserve the student's monetary resources

The State Department of Adult Educa ti on provides funds for the sal

-aries of administrators of the projec t It is believed that af'ter this demonst r ation project has proven itself, the Sta te of Mississippi, Adult Education Department, w ill assume the funding and operation of this

project

VI RecOOlille ndat ions:

The Appalachia News was widely received by agencies co n cerned with raising the standards of the under - educated adult

Due to the limited size of the pa.per there was not enough space for

a proper balan ce of articles for male and female readers Therefore,

the paper seemed to be female oriented Coverage of all phases o f

current news was limited by size factor A large amount of space had

to be used for the crossword puzzle and answers which could be provided

for in regular teacher's guide compiled by an adult education curriculum specialist, if one were availab l e

Due to the fact that the Appalachia News has a wide circulation a rea,

local news has to be limited because of th e decrease in interest o f other

students in the local news o f this area

It is reconnnen ded strongly that the Appalachia News be expanded to eight pages if not weekly, at least once o r twice a month in order to in- clude more information needed by the adult educatio n students

The addition of four pages could be designed around a core curriculum

of materials for adult basic education It could be retained and used individually or collectively for instructiona l purposes

It should be measured in a cost analysis- -th e number of people

serv-ed and the cost per publication

A column o r series of articles should be designed to provide testing o r self- analysis with a compariso n of required ski lls for dif- ferent areas of work An example would be a self- test in math for auto mechanics

self-A study of the involvement o f ot her agencies shoul d be conducted This would gauge what is succeeding in the News

A safety column is planned for i nclusi on in the Appalachia News Information for this column will be provided by the Mississippi State

Highway Patrol

Also planned is a series concerning various occupation so that

students can be aware of the many jobs w h ich await them

More articles will illustrations are planned f o r the months ahead

As far as content is concerned, a continuing effort will be made to hold the interest of both male and female readers Commen t s from male students indicate that they are c o nveying househ o ld information to their wives

We feel that these recommendations wi l l make the Appalachia News even more successful by aiding the teachers with their l esson plans Since we want the teachers to use the newspaper in their classrocms, we feel that

if we give them a plan, they will m o re likely use the newspaper Thus, the Appalachia News will reach the reader for whcm it is intended

APPENDIX

APPENDIX

MISSISSIPPI STATE MODULE : THE APPALACHIA NEWS

The letters and coreespondence attached to the Mississippi

State Module: 'fhe Appalachia News Final Report as "appendix" represent

a small sample of the many inquiries, comments, and expressions of preciation received by the editor and director of the Project

ap-The materials are presented here to illustrate the impact of the publication, THE APPALACHIA NEW'S, upon federal, state, and local agencies in terms of service, adaption, and adoption in the best inter- est of the disadvantaged adult

The letters included are only representative of responses from

34 states including the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, and the Virgin Islands, congressional personalities, state legislative bodies and many other~ An important "spin-off" has been the recognition a nd utiliza- tion of the publication in many elementary and secondary schools

UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE

FOOD AND NUTRlilON SERViCE

1795 Peachtree Road, N.E., Room 302

Atlanta, Georgia 30309

October 6, 19 70

Mr Larry Otis, Director

Itawamba Junior College V &T Center

P O Box 302

Tupelo, Mississippi 38801

Dear Mr Otis:

~he offic er-in-charge of our Food and Nutrition S.:;rvice field office

in your city has told us, and we have seen samples, of your

colle ge's cont nued effective usage of nutrition ectuca~ion and

food stamp program information in THE APPALACHIA NEWS

Th e efforts put forth by Miss Donna Hobson and her editorial

staf f have contributed much toward the effectiveness of food

In behalf of FNS Administrator Edward J Hekman and the Food and

our programs

THE APPALACHIA NEWS is performing a vctluable public service, of

whic h you may be justly proud

Miss Donna Hobson, Editor

Vocational & Technica l E ducat io n Ce nte r

Itawamba Junior Co llege

Dear Miss Hobson:

I have been receiving the Appalac h ia News regularly, and each week I

enjoy it Having a little experience myself in writing nL~ sletters, I

realize what a job this is for yOL T he pur;Jose of this letter is to thank

you for sending me the paper and LO corrmend vou for doing an excellent

job week in and week out You should be 1 try i ·oud of your efforts

USCA

~

{;lf._~\J) ~- UNITED STATES CONSUMER AND MARKETING SERVICE DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE

SOU T HEAST ER.\ REGION A L INF ORMA TI O N OF F ICE Room 203, 1795 Peachtr e e Ro ad , N ortheast

Atl a n ta , Georgi a 303 0 9

Miss Donna Ho bs on, Edi tor

APPALACHIA N E W S

Itawamba Juni o r Coll ege

Vocational an d Technic a l Edu c a ti o n Cen t er

Post Office Box 302

Tupelo, Mississippi 38 801

Dear Miss Hobson:

July 9, 197 0

We're adding your n ame t o the mai ;.ing lists for our 1-.·cc'!s.ly news packe t s ,

which include "Food Rev iew" «11d "FooJ and \utntlon \c s," at the

request of Ralph Dean, officer - in - charge of the Food and Nutri t on

Service field offic e a t ':'upelo

I'd like to add that w e ' v c been pleased wi :h your use of our ma ter ia l, and especially the way you often r cwri tc it In fact , v.'e 1

ve had a

request from our Wash ington Information Office for a copy of the is sue

in which you simplif i ed o ur "l:-iow to Buy C anne d and Frozen Veget abl e s" copy Would you hav e an e xt ra issue t hat carried the a r ticle y ou could send to me? It was ab out mid - Apri l and the t itle of the artic le w a s

"Mary wanted to buy v e g et abl e s."