On a recent afternoon, a group of seven students sat around desks inside East Heights Early Childhood Family Center, reading Lois Lowry’s “Number the Stars” out loud.

In this classroom, student Helen Simpson said, there are “no smart alecks and class clowns,” only some who are tired from working the late shift or staying up with their kids. All of them are parents who are there either to work toward a high school equivalency or develop basic literacy skills.

Simpson and about 25 other parents come to East Heights four days per week with their young children, who are between newborn and preschool age. They spend some time together, then go off into separate classrooms.

“I can’t expect my kids to go to school if I don’t,” said Simpson, 20, who dropped out of high school in Eudora as a sophomore and now has two young sons who come to the program with her. She eventually wants to become a doctor.

Keion Brown, 4, reads with his mother, Natalie Churchill, Lawrence, during a literacy class at East Heights Early Childhood Family Center. Churchill and her son were reading The

The program, part of the federally funded “Even Start” program, is one example of the local efforts underway to improve literacy for children and adults. The issue will be in the spotlight next week as Kansas encourages adults to read to children during “National Children’s Book Week.”

It’s hard to say exactly how many adults in the Lawrence area have problems with literacy. In some ways, it remains a hidden problem because those with the most severe difficulties rarely seek help. Of the families who attend the program at East Heights, none of the adults is below a seventh-grade education level, said Cris Anderson, the site principal.

“Those who are at a lower level, it takes a lot for them to come to this program,” she said.

Anderson said many people come to the program to better their skills for the job market. Others are trying to set an example for their children.

• 6News video: Local program tackling illiteracy
• KU Division of Adult Studies Adult Literacy Programs
• Children’s Book Week — Children’s Book Council site
• National Right to Read Foundation info on illiteracy

Illiteracy, once thought of simply as not being able to read, now has a broader definition. A 1998 federal law defined literacy as “an individual’s ability to read, write, speak in English, compute and solve problems at levels of proficiency necessary to function on the job, in the family of the individual and in society.”

An estimated 1,200 people over age 25 in Douglas County have less than a ninth-grade education, and almost 3,000 people attended school beyond than ninth grade but didn’t graduate, said Linda McGuire, facilitator for the school district’s adult learning center.

Anderson said the program at East Heights emphasizes reading aloud to children, in hopes that it will carry over to the home. Teachers tell parents to encourage their kids to use “rare, rich words” whenever possible; telling children they can use the word “ribbon,” “yarn,” or “string” to describe roughly the same thing, for example.

“Hi, Pizza Man!” was the featured book on this day at the school. Simpson and her adult classmates gathered in the library with their children and listened to a librarian read the book out loud. The parents then read for a few minutes with the children in their laps, and then the adults returned to their classroom to read “Number the Stars.”

Natalie Churchill, 30, was on her second day at the program and is attending with her 4-year-old son, Keion. After dropping out of school at age 16 to take care of a son, she’s coming back to try to get her G.E.D. for the third time.

Her oldest son is now 13. She’s going back to school partly because she wants to be able to get a good job when her children are all in school, and partly because she needs to brush up on algebra if she wants to help her oldest son with his schoolwork.

“He’s at that age where I’m really on him about school,” she said. “I don’t want him to be like, ‘You’re a hypocrite because you didn’t go to school.'”