I know that 6th-9th century English history can be a little spotty, but I'm trying to figure out what level of education could be expected of a person. Were there educational outlets besides the church and family? How common was literacy, and did it become more common for the higher levels of citizenry? My albeit sophomoric findings have lead me to believe literacy was kinda on a need-to-know basis, but and agricultural society with as much bureaucracy as Anglo-Saxon England seems to have a lot of need to know.
If it's a regional thing, I'm looking a bit more at outer Mercia.
Also, please, feel free to embellish answers as you wish. Any extra tidbits are welcome.
The best work on literacy and it's "function" in England is probably Michael Clanchy's From Memory to Written Record. Technically it's a bit late for your question but I think it should provide some answers.
Literacy was severely restricted, especially in the Early Middle Ages, to a pretty small group made up largely of clerics and occasionally aristocrats who were not in orders. Anglo-Saxon England is notable because it had a vernacular written language in addition to Latin (which is very unusual) but even then the ability to read and write (two different skills it should be noted) would still have been limited to those with the time/money/status/vocation which allowed for education.