December 4, 2025
The vast majority of students who graduated high school while detained in California’s juvenile facilities in a five-year span between 2018 and 2023 did not pass a 12th grade reading assessment. In fact, over a fifth of them were reading at lower elementary-school grade levels.
Now California’s finally doing something about it. A new literacy intervention program is now being rolled out in San Diego, Alameda, San Mateo and Riverside counties, to help teenagers in juvenile detention grasp the basics of reading.
Guests:
- Rosie Leyva, Literacy specialist, Alameda County Court Schools
- Betty Márquez Rosales, Reporter, EdSource
Read more from EdSource:
- New multi-county initiative to tackle literacy gaps among detained high school students
- In California’s youth justice system, many high schoolers graduate with grade-school reading skills
- An island of reading for youth in the California juvenile justice system
Related episodes:
- How a library inside juvenile hall aims to break the prison pipeline
- Could juvenile detention centers look like college campuses?
- How schools can help formerly incarcerated students succeed
Education Beat is a weekly podcast hosted by EdSource’s Zaidee Stavely and produced by Coby McDonald.
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