In the Ontario community I was raise in, there was a lot of help for families and access to education. When I was in high school, there was a mother of 40 something and a father of 30 something in some of my classes. Lots of options to access education from everything to A to Z that included learning to read at the night classes at the high school. When the Jamaican workers arrived on the farm across the road from the family farm, they too took advantage of the education options offered by the schools to the churches to service organizations offering some type of education of useful knowledge. All done at very low cost to the students. I remember the time the Jamaican foreman flagged me down at the beginning of spring, all excited to tell me he can now write in English. He then handed me his note, that was his grocery list.

Today, not at all like when I was growing up in the 1960s and 1970s. I suspect the K to 12 establishment would want no part of it, and perhaps that is the reason why night schools disappeared out of the communities and high schools. The comments are of interest - 1. “The fact that parents are learning to read along side their kids points to a critical problem in school districts across the USA—-adults can’t read.
And this happens not just in cities like DC with a lot of foreign born adults but in major urban areas like Detroit, Chicago and New York. ” and 2 is the response that I suspect is part of the K to 12 crowd- “The only way K-12 education in the U.S. will survive is if all adults of child-bearing years perform mandatory service in schools….Too many parents do not understand the difficulties inherent in teaching children, and the only way they will learn is to have them participate in the educational process. ” 

Number 2 sounds so like the K to 12 of the socialist ilk where the parents are blamed for the failures of the K to 12.

I guess the DC charters are so terrible that they have finally decided outside conditions are the reason. Just sayin’