By Leo Adam Biga

IMG-5545.JPG.jpg — Latecia Fox, Daughter of Clarice Jackson

Photo credit: Clarice Jackson

Intersections animate the life of Omaha native Clarice Jackson, a warrior in the fight to raise awareness about a leading cause of illiteracy – dyslexia. Inspired by her late father, Alonzo “Lonnie” Littlejohn, a career Omaha Public Schools teacher, she grew up wanting to be an educator.

In 2000, while only 19, she worked as an orthopedically handicapped paraprofessional at Hartman Elementary School. The experience gave her intimate knowledge of the challenges special needs kids face in obtaining an equitable education. That same year she became a Title I reading and math paraprofessional at Mount View Elementary. It’s then that Latecia Fox, a sweet young girl struggling to read and write, came into her life. Upon learning Latecia’s mother was incarcerated and her strapped grandma was raising her, Jackson realized the girl lacked the help she needed at home.

Jackson’s concern turned to frustration when she found that despite Latecia’s learning struggles being well-documented at school, no remedies were forthcoming. At one point, Latecia was misplaced in special education. That’s when Jackson assumed an advocacy role beyond her position and years, spending extra time with Latecia while trying to hold the system accountable for passing her from grade to grade minus successful intervention. Such a bond formed that Latecia’s mother asked Jackson to legally adopt her daughter. As “a woman of faith,” Jackson prayed hard about it. Single and 21, she became full-time mother to Latecia, then age 9. After enrolling her in a private school (Phoenix Academy), Latecia’s learning disability finally got diagnosed as dyslexia. She flourished there.

A Love of Learning

An ordained minister, Jackson educated herself about dyslexia with the same fervor she studied scripture, until she transformed into a recognized expert. In 2012 she opened Voice Advocacy Center to help children (adults now, too), become successful readers and learners. She founded Nebraska’s chapter of the national Decoding Dyslexia movement, She’s presented to elected officials, from congressmen in Washington DC to Nebraska state legislators in Lincoln, as well as educators and other professionals. She addresses the subject for an annual week-long intensive training convened by William and Mary Law School in Virginia. She was Nebraska’s ambassador at the first global dyslexia summit in London, England.

Years after Latecia changed her life, the journey this mother and daughter made growing up together was profiled in a 2014 KETV piece. On camera Latecia spoke eloquently about learning tools to mitigate dyslexia. Listening to her daughter was “revelatory” for Jackson. “I was very impressed with how mature she had become as she described the process we went through together. She told it very powerfully. It struck me that I no longer had to be her voice – she became her own. It was a proud moment as her mom. She said she wished all students would get the help they need and that she wouldn’t be the woman she became without me. She told kids to never give up, never stop reading, never stop learning.”

“Never give up, never stop reading, never stop learning.”

— Clarice Jackson

Two months after that valedictory television segment aired, Jackson lost her beloved daughter to gun violence in January 2015. She and two others were killed when gunshots rang out at a party. The crime remains unsolved. Latecia was 24. The tragedy nearly derailed Jackson. “It almost gave me a reason not to live because I grieved so heavily her passing.” But it’s since only solidified her mission of helping others. “The passion was there and after her passing I felt more compelled to not quit. In honor of her, I vowed to continue to help kids until this system is changed.”

That mission extends to serving on the Learning Community, leading the Black Literacy Matters movement, sitting on the City of Omaha’s Human Rights and Relations Board and being appointed to the new Nebraska Commission on African American Affairs.

Jackson’s journey to find her daughter the help she needed only affirmed what she long took to be her life’s work.

“I’ve always felt education was something I was supposed to be doing. When I was young, I would gather all the kids from the neighborhood to our porch and play teacher. I literally educated them. I did not realize the impact I was having until years later when I ran into one of the moms and she started crying, saying, ‘I just want to thank you – you really helped my daughter be prepared for school. When we moved and we had my second daughter we didn’t have you. She was not prepared. I wish she would have had you.’ Hearing that made me really reflect on my journey. So it started there.”

Jackson couldn’t imagine where it would all lead. “I didn’t know I was going to have a daughter who struggled with dyslexia. Her story just stoked the fire, but the fire was already there.”

Voice Advocacy Center

Latecia Fox, Daughter of Clarice Jackson. Photo credit: Clarice Jackson

Voice Advocacy Center, 6655 Sorenson Parkway, is the screening and tutoring resource Jackson operates. Referrals come from K-12 schools. colleges and universities, judges, probation officers and youth serving institutions such as Boys Town. The center, supported by grants and donations, has evolved from a roster of volunteer tutors to paid tutors. A scholarship in Latecia’s name recognizes outstanding achievers,

The pandemic, Jackson said, “pushed Voice into the remote tutoring world,” which remains a good option for some students who live long distances away. “There are lots of students and families that reach out from places like Cozad and Norfolk, Neb., and remote tutoring allows us to serve them and thus be a statewide organization. We’re excited about that. Coming out of COVID we’re definitely going to be a hybrid model by doing direct (in-person) servicing – because remote learning doesn’t work for everyone. One size does not fit all. We keep that mindset ever present in everything we do.”

“Remote learning doesn’t work for everyone. One size does not fit all. We keep that mindset ever present in everything we do.” ”

— Clarice Jackson

In its advocacy role, Voice participates in IEP (Individual Education Plan) meetings between parents and educators. “We are considered lay advocates with specialized knowledge who can assist the family to ensure the child is getting an appropriate education in any of the recognized disability categories.” Advocacy is essential in the education labyrinth families must navigate. “It can be quite challenging watching your child struggle going through a school system that does not have the understanding you have,” she said. “You have your frustrating moments where you feel like you’re trying to tell people, ‘Hey, this is what’s happening with my child – help me,’ and they don’t seem to understand or care. That frustration and emotion is real. Have it, don’t negate it, just don’t get stuck there. Move past it so you can effectively advocate to get your child the help needed.”

She said public schools are often entrenched in the idea that experts and professionals know more than parents when it comes to the welfare of a child. It takes some parents a while to accept the notion, she said, “you really are your child’s best advocate.”

Facebook post by Clarice Jackson about four things she wishes other parents knew about dyslexia

Black families in the state disproportionately feel frustration when it comes to their children’s reading, she said, as only 15 percent of fourth grade Black students are reading proficient. “That means 85 percent of them are non-proficient or functionally illiterate. Then it gets worse when you look at the scores for eighth grade Black students. It goes from 15 percent to 12 percent.”

It hasn’t helped matters any, she said, that dyslexia has for so long been misunderstood. In a Facebook post she made, she shared:

Dyslexia is not:

•rare

•associated with low intelligence or cognitive ability

•a vision problem

•a development lag which can be outgrown

•the result of laziness

•reading or writing backwards

“We’ve done a lot of work over the years to try to dispel those myths. We still have some people who don’t understand it. Getting people to understand it is part of the barrier to people self-identifying and disclosing they have an issue.”

Many adults, she said. fear revealing they have dyslexia traits will label them stupid. “That is not what it is. Specifically when it comes to minority families, who have to deal with labels as is, that’s hard for a lot of people. They’re like, ‘Why would I now say I have this, when it gives me another label I have to deal with and puts me in another category I have to try to break through?’ So making sure people understand what dyslexia is and is not is huge.

“A lot of adults come out of the school system functionally illiterate. They struggle with reading. Some parents of the children we work with see how this is helping their kid and self-disclose they, too, struggle to read. Dyslexia runs in families. It’s a generational thing.”

“A lot of adults come out of the school system functionally illiterate. They struggle with reading. Some parents of the children we work with see how this is helping their kid and self-disclose they, too, struggle to read. Dyslexia runs in families. It’s a generational thing.”

— Clarice Jackson

Wading the Waters

Jackson said solving the disconnect when it comes to dyslexia once “seemed a very simple fix to me.” But having fought this fight a long time now, she said it turns out to be complex due to the turf wars, politics and policies of different school systems, boards of education, et cetera. She said real action requires law but even legislation is an imperfect response when the law can be interpreted to placate certain interests.

“One of the key things is accurate education – how to teach reading, the science of reading. The way it’s been taught has not been accurate,” she said.

Until dyslexia legislation (LB 1052) got passed in 2018 mandating Neb. colleges provide dyslexia training, she said, teacher education majors were not even taught about it in college. That knowledge gap was mirrored in the field, where few if any educators she dealt with two decades ago had heard of it, much less knew what it was.

“They had no idea, no clue. It was only when I started investigating and looking outside the public school system I heard that word that explained what was going on with my daughter. But the short and sweet of it is they did not have the right curriculum to help her. Regardless of how fiercely I advocated, regardless of who I talked to, including the superintendent and the assistant superintendent, my daughter still made it to the fourth grade illiterate.”

Little did she or many educators know then that dyslexia affects 15 to 20 percent of the population. “It’s more prevalent in Black and Brown communities, primarily due to access, information and resources,” she said.

Once the problem was identified and addressed, Jackson saw her daughter blossom. “When we first started out on this journey she was very insecure about herself academically. That spilled over into what she thought about herself socially and emotionally. The older she got the more her peers noticed that she couldn’t read. She developed some avoidance behaviors like trying to get out of class or saying she was sick or acting the class clown.

“She had ADHD on top of that so she developed a lot of anxiety. She would have to leave class regularly because she was stressed out worrying she would be called on to read in class. Once we got her the help she desperately needed to address dyslexia she went from being very introverted to raising her hand in class and asking to read. It definitely helped her self-esteem. She felt more competent. She went from saying she was stupid to she was smart. It changed her mental state and level of confidence. She still had struggles because dyslexia is not something that goes away, but it can be remediated or improved greatly. She’d have moments where she’d get frustrated taking a test or filling out an application. She’d share that and we’d talk about it. But it definitely changed her life.”

“We also have a hallway at Voice with pictures of successful dyslexic people of all ages on both walls.”

— Clarice Jackson

Jackson makes a point of sharing dyslexia success stories via social media. “We also have a hallway at Voice with pictures of successful dyslexic people of all ages on both walls.”

“Compared to when my daughter started out till now, yes, some progress has been made,” she said. “Has it been enough? We’re not there yet. With the legislation passed in 2018 it was my hope it would propel things forward in a greater capacity. But when there’s no monetary appropriation with the law then that becomes a justification why things aren’t moving or happening in terms of dyslexia screening, for example. It’s very slow.”

Even though Nebraska has dyslexia legislation, it does not require or standardize dyslexia screening.

“I still have many families that come to me who say, ‘I tell them my child needs to be screened and they tell me they can’t do it.’ So it’s still very convoluted.”

Voice can fill the void for some families, but systemic change is needed to improve literacy rates. “As a state we have just been winging it, using different curriculums. There are issues with who’s choosing the curriculums that are put into classrooms.” Jackson poses hard questions to education officials. “Are these evidence and research based? All of those things contribute to why children are not successful in reading.

“There are state standards. But local school boards are given local control. It’s not mandated you use this particular program or method or approach. School boards usually create curriculum committees. They get what’s popular or out there currently. Who’s making the decision on what curriculum is being used and what lens do they use? Do they understand there is a scientific, structured way of learning to read? Are they looking for those particular curriculums? [sic] If they’re not and no one is challenging it, then they pick curriculums [sic] lobbyists are paid to push. Teachers have no control or autonomy over it. All that’s decided for them. They have to use whatever reading curriculum is given to them. If it doesn’t address universally the structure of reading and literacy, then you have kids falling through the cracks.”

Literacy, School Choice and Legacy

The way Jackson sees it, “Literacy is a civil and a human right,” but far too many people come out of school illiterate. Illiteracy, she said, is a known pathway in the school to prison pipeline. “We find most kids in the Douglas County Youth Detention Center and in youth detention centers all over the United States struggle to read. In the prison system, 75 percent of inmates are functionally illiterate.” She said the federal First Step Act (2018) addresses dyslexia in the prison system” by mandating screening for learning disabilities and support for prisoners to earn their GED.

Wherever Jackson looks, she said, “The intersectionality of what I do and what I’m passionate about keeps coming because there are so many entry and exit points literacy crosses – it taps into everything,”

Literacy is a civil and a human right.

-Clarice Jackson

School choice is yet another intersection point. Her school choice support, she said, comes from “dealing with families for 20-plus years, advocating for them, and seeing how you can get to a place in a school where it’s just not working for your child.”

She’s aware of the “polarized politics” around school choice but, she said, “At the end of the day it’s about what’s the best educational setting for the child. Choice is huge, especially when your child does not fit in that educational area. Take my personal story. If I would (have) left my daughter in the traditional public school setting, she would have graduated without being able to read. I couldn’t count on her growing out of it, which is what they were telling me back then, or that somebody would do something. It wouldn’t have happened.”

“People create narratives. They say because you believe in school choice you hate traditional public schools. That’s absolutely not true for me. I do not subscribe to the false narrative that to be in support of one is to hate the other. A lot of times school choice opponents want to make it an if-or, and it is not that. I have another child, my son Mekhi Mitchell. who thrived in the traditional public school and had a wonderful experience there. So it’s just about what’s best for that individual child.”

Much like Latecia found her voice after specialized tutoring, her son Mekhi, a 19-year-old recent high school graduate, found his voice in the wake of the George Floyd murder.

“It ignited a passion within him for policy change, for advocacy,” said Jackson. He came out with his voice in the George Floyd incident. He wanted to speak what’s on his mind. He entered the public arena at an Omaha City Council hearing on the local hate crime ordinance. He had a very powerful message. It was recorded and went semi-viral. I feel like I’ve raised a very stellar young man. I’m encouraged and excited to see where his journey will go.”

Meanwhile, the loss each suffered when Latecia was taken away so suddenly hasn’t diminished.. “She was a fantastic sister and daughter. We miss her terribly. Some days it’s a little overwhelming.” Latecia’s legacy drives the mission that Jackson has made her life’s work. “Her story encompasses everything I do, every intersection I cross.”

As Jackson’s journey of public service expands, she derives satisfaction in knowing the help she found for Latecia is extended to others. “I really get the most enjoyment out of seeing someone’s life change. That’s the greatest reward for me.”

Follow the work of Jackson and her center on Facebook and at http://www.voiceadvocacycenter.org.