Contents
@@Literacy Asian.Literacy
Goto Literacy
bookmark: http://www.arthurhu.com/literacy.htm
Some say that "almost half of adult Americans are barely literate and
literacy rates among younger adults are falling."(Literacy in
America, 1993, cited in Who Got It Right? What Proponents and
Opponents of the Creation of the Department of Education Promised &
Predicted John E. Berthoud, Ph.D. http://schoolreport.com/AdTI
/education/files/whogot.htm Alexis de Tocqueville Institution)
Reality is that, by global standards, literacy in the US among blacks
and whites has been basically wiped out among US youth since the
70's. Worldwide, Asians have a low rate of literacy except in
developed nations.
More sophisticated measures of social literacy show big differences
in minorities, and Asians score as poorly as blacks when education is
taken into account, at least on the National Literacy Test.
Summary
Asian Week Mar 22, 1996 - "Vital Signs"
These figures are the latest available from national and multilateral
sources Though standards may differ, literacy generally means the
ability to read and write a short, simple statement about everyday
life. Literacy rates refer to population over 15 years of age.
Literacy Spectrum
--------------------
Britain 100.00%
Germany 100.00%
Japan 100.00%
Switzerland 100.00%
New Zealand 99.80%
Australia 99.50%
Canada 99.00%
Russia 99.00%
France 99.00%
South Korea 97.40% 87.6%
Italy 97.40%
U.S. 95.50% 99.5% (UN) 97% (Newsweek 4/16/01)
Mongolia 95.00%
Philippines 94.00% 83.3
Thailand 93.80% 88.0
Taiwan 93.20%
Maldives 92.60%
Vietnam 91.90%
Singapore 91.60% 82.9
Hong Kong 91.20% 77.3
Mexico 90.30% 83.0
Fiji 90.10%
Malaysia 89.30%
Sri Lanka 89.30%
Brunei 89.20%
Indonesia 84.40%
Laos 83.90%
Brazil 82.10%
Myanmar 82.00%
Turkey 81.90%
South Africa 80.60%
China 80.00% 81.5% (Newsweek 4/16/01)
Macau 74.80%
Kenya 74.50%
P.N. Guinea 69.70%
Iran 64.90%
Saudi Arabia 64.10%
Nigeria 52.50%
India 52.10% 39.1
Egypt 50.00%
Black SAf 50.00% CG95
Bhutan 40.90%
Cambodia 37.80%
Bangladesh 36.60%
Pakistan 35.70% 25.2
Afghanistan 31.60%
Nepal 27.00%
Niger 13.00% CG95
(UN figures from United Nations Statistical Yearbook 37th ed)
What is the Rate of Literacy in America?
----------------------------------------
99.8% 1969 White US 14-24 (census)
99.5% 1969 Black US 14-24
99.5% United Nations report
97% Black literacy 1969
96% some level of literacy (National Survey)
95.5% AsianWeek USA
87% Dept Ed test 1986
84% Not marginal or functional illiterate 1985
80% Not functionally illiterate Newsweek 1990
80% can draft letter (National Survey)
75% Workforce (Regna Lee Wood)
52% simple analysis (National Survey)
3% Highest level of Prose literacy (National Survey)
Illiteracy by Age And Race: 1947 to 1969
In thousands except percent
Civilian noninstitutional population 14 yrs and over
Nov 1969 14 ovr 14-24 25-44 45-64 65+
Total 1.0 0.3 0.5 1.1 3.5
White 0.7 0.2 0.4 0.7 2.3
Negro 3.6 0.5 1.6 5.5 16.7
Mar 1959
Total 2.2 0.6 1.2 2.6 6.5
White 1.6 0.5 0.8 1.8 5.1
Negro 7.5 1.2 5.1 11.3 25.5
Oct 1952
Total 2.5 1.2 1.3 3.5 6.9
White 1.8 0.8 5.0
Negro 10.2 3.9 33.3
Oct 1947
Total 2.7 1.0 1.7 4.0 6.7
White 1.8 0.6 4.9
Negro 11.0 4.4 32.4
Note that among those 14-24, illiteracy was all but
completely eradicated in both blacks and whites by
1969 at 0.5 and 0.2 percent, respectively, and it
goes up with age. Blacks in 1969 were about as
literate as whites 10 years older, or whites in
1930, 40 years before, and less illiterate than
foreign- born whites in 1940
Percent Illiterate in the Population
by Race and Nativity: 1870 to 1969
(1870 to 1940 is 10 and over, else over 14)
White
Tot Total Native Foreign Negro/Other
1969 1.0 0.7 3.6 30 yr gap
1959 2.2 1.6 7.5 50 yr
1952 2.5 1.8 10.2
1947 2.7 1.8 11.0
1940 2.9 2.0 1.1 9.0 11.5
1930 4.3 3.0 1.6 10.8 16.4
1920 6.0 4.0 2.0 13.1 23.0
1910 7.7 5.0 3.0 12.7 30.5
1900 10.7 6.2 4.6 12.9 44.5
1890 13.3 7.7 6.2 13.1 56.8
1880 17.0 9.4 8.7 12.0 70.0
1870 20.0 11.5 79.9
1900 20.0 British Recruits
1858 95.0 British Recruits
1969 includes Alaska and Hawaii
1969 based on Negro only
Index White=1.00
White
Tot Total Native Foreign Negro/Other
1969 1.43 1.00 5.14
1959 1.38 1.00 4.69
1952 1.39 1.00 5.67
1947 1.50 1.00 6.11
1940 1.45 1.00 -1.82 4.50 5.75
1930 1.43 1.00 -1.88 3.60 5.47
1920 1.50 1.00 -2.00 3.28 5.75
1910 1.54 1.00 -1.67 2.54 6.10
1900 1.73 1.00 -1.35 2.08 7.18
1890 1.73 1.00 -1.24 1.70 7.38
1880 1.81 1.00 -1.08 1.28 7.45
1870 1.74 1.00 6.95
In 1958, only 1 on 20 british recruits could read
By 1900, 85% literate
Waiting for Linguistic Viagra Michael Hwley Technology Review Jine 2001 p. 25
from http://www.thuban.com/census/tables/edu25__2.html
urban institute
Only 1% of whites but 3% of blacks have no education beyond grade 4,
which likely means they are functionally illiterate. Most of these
are likely very old.
Educational Attainment of Persons 25 Years Old and Over, by Sex and Race:
March 1994
Black White, not Hispanic
Educational Attainment Both Both
sexes Male Female sexes Male Female
....Total, 25 years old and over 18,103 8,051 10,053 127,288 61,07466,214
........Percent 100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0
Elementary: Total 10.3 11.9 8.9 6.2 6.3 6.1
....................None to 4th
grade 2.8 3.9 1.9 0.8 0.8 0.7
....................5th to 8th
grade 7.5 8.1 7.0 5.4 5.5 5.4
High school: Total 53.0 53.2 52.9 44.3 41.4 46.9
....................9th to 12th
grade (no diploma) 16.8 16.3 17.3 8.9 8.6 9.3
....................High school
graduate 36.2 36.9 35.6 35.4 32.9 37.7
College: Total 36.7 34.8 38.2 49.5 52.3 47.0
....................Some college
or associate degree 23.8 22.1 25.2 25.2 24.5 25.9
....................Bachelor's
degree or more 12.9 12.8 13.0 24.3 27.8 21.1
Percent high school graduate or
more 72.9 71.7 73.8 84.9 85.1 84.7
DEPT OF ED CLAIMS 13% ILLITERACY
Insight May 12, 1986 Guaging Illiteracy p. 39
z63\clipim\2003\02\09\illit.efx .jpg
Between 17-21M US adults illiterate, 26 times 0.5% estimate of
US Census. Old - begun 6th grade or said they could read or write.
1982 study requires 20 right out of 26 question test. Majority of
native born English spkrs are hs drop out
US SAYS HALF OF US DEFICIENT IN READING, BUT ONLY 7% OF AMERICANS
FEEL THEIR SKILLS ARE DEFICIENT
http://www.educationnews.org/howwellcanu.htm
z75\doc\web\2004\02\adullit.txt
How Well Can U. S. Adults Read? Government-Centered vs.
Learner-Centered Estimates Monday, February 23, 2004 Tom Sticht
The 1992 National Assessment of Adult Literacy (NALS) ...
"this statement about adults’ insights into the adequacy of their
skills simply dismissed the adults’ judgements about their skills in
favour of the results of the standardized tests made by the government
sponsored testing experts."
NATIONAL ADULT LITERACY SURVEY
http://www.nifl.gov/reders/!intro.htm
The NALS found a total of 21-23 percent - or 40-44 million - of the
191 million American adults (defined as age 16 or older) at Level 1,
the lowest literacy level. Although many Level 1 adults could
perform many tasks involving simple texts and documents, all adults
scoring at Level 1 displayed difficulty using certain reading,
writing, and computational skills considered necessary for
functioning in everyday life.
prose document quantitative
1 21 23 22
2 23 28 25
3 32 31 31
4 17 17 17
5 3 3 4
43% of level1 at poverty vs 4% at level 5
$240/wk at lev 1 ($12,480) vs $681 at level 5 ($35,000)
@@City
%%Rank
http://www.uww.edu/cities/index.html
'Top' 5:
Minneapolis
Seattle
Denver
Atlanta
San Francisco
Pittsburgh
Washington DC
Louisville KY
Portland OR
Cincinnati OH
'Bottom' 5:
San Antonio
Detroit
Long Beach, CA
Corpus Christi
El Paso
%%Detroit
z51\clip\2001\08\detlit.txt
Detroit Free Press
http://www.freep.com/news/metro/riley29_20010729.htm
Rochelle Riley: How illiteracy devastates city
July 29, 2001
Sometimes you can't grasp how big a problem is until you say it out loud.
Nearly half of the adult residents of Detroit are
functionally illiterate. That's right -- 47 percent cannot use reading as a
tool in everyday life. They cannot fill out employment applications or read
the newspaper or understand signs that warn of danger in workplaces -- if
they work. 1998 Michigan
Department of Career Development study, about half of Detroit's working-age
men and women were employed or looking for work, meaning the other half
between the ages of 16 and 60 did not have a job and were not looking for
one.
At least 200,000 people in Detroit are at Level 1, which means they can
barely read at all, according to 1997 reports
%%Washington DC
cjlartigue says:
D.C. didn't crack the top five literate cities, but it was ranked #7
among the cities.
http://www.uww.edu/cities/allrnk.html
That's despite 37 percent of the city's adults reading
at the 3rd grade level or below.
http://www.easternlincs.org/DCsite/factsstats.htm
State Education Agency Adult Education
19 percent of D.C. residents have an advanced degree.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/metro/graphics/census_rankings_060402.html
1. Wash DC 19%
2. Boston 17%
3. Ann Arbor Mich 16%
4. San Jose 16%
5. San Francisco 16%
Census 2000 ranking
That number, incredibly, almost tops the percent of
Americans across the country that have college
degrees.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A35550-2003Jul9.html
Here's a nice breakdown by race of education levels in
the D.C. area and the country.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/metro/daily/graphics/collegecensus_071003.html
Here's a breakdown by ward of educational levels in
D.C. Note that a resident living in "Ward 3" (probably
the most affluent part of town) is about 10 times as
likely to hold a college diploma as someone living in
Ward 8 (the poorest section of the city).
http://planning.dc.gov/documents/educational_level/el_ward.shtm
@@general
CLAIMS LITERACY HAS FALLEN FROM 98% IN 1940 TO 75% IN 1994
\doc\web\97\08\readtest.txt
From: OCPATHINK@aol.com Date sent: Thu, 30 Oct 1997 11:00:53 -0500
(EST) Subject: National Tests? Kids Can't Even Read Them
Source: WWII military tests, NAEP, Regna Lee Wood
Literacy
98% 1940
80% 1988
76% 1992
75% 1994
Of the 40 nations in the Western Hemisphere, only seven — including
the United States — have work force literacy rates below 80 percent.
Leery Of National Tests? Not To Worry — The Kids Can't Read Them
by Regna Lee Wood
\doc\96\01\literacy.txt "Learn to Read, Stay Out of Jail: Failed
Teaching Methods Help Breed Criminals" Investor's Business Daily Jan
12, 1996 p. 1 Matthew Robinson. 8% to 20% of Americans are
illiterate? Majority of unwed, arrested or on welfare are illiterate.
\priv\95\20\chinelem.txt 15% of students in some areas of China do
not attend elementary school becuase of extremem poverty, they must
help with their parents to survive.
http://www.asahi.com/paper/gallery/eedu2.html 1/4/95 Asahi News
"Statistical History of the United States." Library Reference: R
317.3, Series H, 407-411 1870-1952 page 211. (percent illiterate in
the population). Attachment contains full data. Here is a summary:
1952 = 2.5 million illiterates (total)
1950 = 3.2 " " "
1947 = 2.7
1940 = 2.9
1930 = 4.3
1920 = 6.0
1910 = 7.7
1900 = 10.7
1890 = 13.3
1870 = 20 millions
\doc\95\15\uslitr.wk1 Literacy By Race and Age
1969, all ages, White 0.7% Black 3.6%
1969, age 14-24 White 0.2%, Black 0.5%
1880, White 9.4% Black 70%
Source: Historical Statistics of the United States,
Colonial Times to 1970. US Dept of Commerce, Bureau
of the Census Part I p. H664-699
Additional index analysis by Arthur Hu 12/95
Illiteracy by Age And Race: 1947 to 1969
In thousands except percent
Civilian noninstitutional population 14 yrs and over
Nov 1969 14 ovr 14-24 25-44 45-64 65+
Total 1.0 0.3 0.5 1.1 3.5
White 0.7 0.2 0.4 0.7 2.3
Negro 3.6 0.5 1.6 5.5 16.7
Mar 1959
Total 2.2 0.6 1.2 2.6 6.5
White 1.6 0.5 0.8 1.8 5.1
Negro 7.5 1.2 5.1 11.3 25.5
Oct 1952
Total 2.5 1.2 1.3 3.5 6.9
White 1.8 0.8 5.0
Negro 10.2 3.9 33.3
Oct 1947
Total 2.7 1.0 1.7 4.0 6.7
White 1.8 0.6 4.9
Negro 11.0 4.4 32.4
Note that among those 14-24, illiteracy was all but
completely eradicated in both blacks and whites by
1969 at 0.5 and 0.2 percent, respectively, and it
goes up with age. Blacks in 1969 were about as
literate as whites 10 years older, or whites in
1930, 40 years before, and less illiterate than
foreign- born whites in 1940
Percent Illiterate in the Population
by Race and Nativity: 1870 to 1969
(1870 to 1940 is 10 and over, else over 14)
White
Tot Total Native Foreign Negro/Other
1969 1.0 0.7 3.6
1959 2.2 1.6 7.5
1952 2.5 1.8 10.2
1947 2.7 1.8 11.0
1940 2.9 2.0 1.1 9.0 11.5
1930 4.3 3.0 1.6 10.8 16.4
1920 6.0 4.0 2.0 13.1 23.0
1910 7.7 5.0 3.0 12.7 30.5
1900 10.7 6.2 4.6 12.9 44.5
1890 13.3 7.7 6.2 13.1 56.8
1880 17.0 9.4 8.7 12.0 70.0
1870 20.0 11.5 79.9
1969 includes Alaska and Hawaii
1969 based on Negro only
Index White=1.00
White
Tot Total Native Foreign Negro/Other
1969 1.43 1.00 5.14
1959 1.38 1.00 4.69
1952 1.39 1.00 5.67
1947 1.50 1.00 6.11
1940 1.45 1.00 -1.82 4.50 5.75
1930 1.43 1.00 -1.88 3.60 5.47
1920 1.50 1.00 -2.00 3.28 5.75
1910 1.54 1.00 -1.67 2.54 6.10
1900 1.73 1.00 -1.35 2.08 7.18
1890 1.73 1.00 -1.24 1.70 7.38
1880 1.81 1.00 -1.08 1.28 7.45
1870 1.74 1.00 6.95
The ratio of Black to White illiteracy has decreased
from 7.5 times in 1870 to 5 times in 1969
>>\priv\95\20\chined.txt Accoring to Reuters, 1995, Bankok, UNICEF
estimates that 75% of two million Chinese who drop out of elementary
school are girls. One-third of Chinese children in poor and remote
areas did not complete grade 5 schooling. Most drop outs were in poor
areas without pre-school or day-care services. There are an estimated
100 million illiterates in Asia. In Cambodia, Laos and Burma students
aren't even being retained up to grade 5.
--------------------------------------------------------------------
\priv\95\19\ussmart.txt Tests put U.S. students among best - and
worst Tacoma News Tribune Story Number: 56007 12/10/95 Shankar
Vedantam
Lowest level of literacy US:24, Sweden:6
Highest level of literacy US:19 Sweden:36
---------------------------------------------------------------------
\priv\95\19\blaklit.txt - iimhotep@aol.com (IIMHOTEP) notes that in
the 50's, black literacy in the US was higher than for some european
nations In 70 years, Negro illiteracy fell from 82% in 1870 to 16.3%
in 1930. (less than 3% in 1969)
---------------------------------------------------------------------
\doc\95\01\wholit.txt - 17% men, 20% of women are illiterate
"Who is illiterate in the USA?"
USA Today Life 1D July 7, 1992
doc937:adultlit.xlw,ppt
Asians lag by 4 years, just like Blacks except for youth
doc937:racelit.xlw
even on quantitative (math) items
---------------------------------------------------------------------
d:\priv\95\01\welf1.txt USN&WR Jan 16, 1995 p. 32 Long-Term
Recipients of AFDC
68% did not graduate from high school USN&WR / US Dept Health and
Human Services - one third of welfare recipients cannot read a street
map or fill out a social security application. Manpower Demonstration
Research Corp (MDRC) 1994 paper found 35-40% tested at lowest
literacy level, could not find an intersection of streets or figure
total from an order form.
---------------------------------------------------------------
Illiteracy of people 15 yrs and older as percent of population
4.4% developed countries
35.1% nondeveloped countries
26.9% global total
20% of the American population is functionally illiterate
Newsweek Oct 8, 1990 p. 48
------------------------------------------------------------------
W16% B44% H56% Functional or marginal illiterate adults in the United
States. Final Report of Adult Performance Level Project, cited in
Illiterate America, by Jonathan Kozol Doubleday 1985 p. 4
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
\priv\95\01\hisplit.txt 56% of hispanic adults functionally illiterate
LIFE Page 1D - July 17, 1990 Hispanics lose ground in school By
Gretchen Cook, USA TODAY
------------------------------------------------------------------------
d:\doc\94\19\illit.txt Summary - In WWII, blacks 16 times whites to
be unable to write names, 11 times to be rejected because of 4th
grade illiteracy. also see intelligence, Asians rejected at higher
rate than blacks
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
@@History
George Sheridan It's clear that
students today are better, on the whole, than Americans were 80 years
ago at the things those tests can measure. In the four score and seven
years between the Declaration of Independence and Lincoln's Gettysburg
Address most Americans were capable of little more than signing their
name. By the time of the First World War, the Army needed recruits
able to read basic directions. Many could not even read signs and
labels, so schools embarked on a program of teaching reading as
decoding.
@@level
Literacy level by
state. Level 1 can barely read, but not do any useful tasks
@@low rate
asian.literacy
\doc\96\04\badread.txt Seattle Times March 19, 1996 Michelle Malkin
- According to the NAEP national test, only 3% of students could
perform reading above "minimal or adequate" levels.
- According to the US Department of Education, 90 million
Americans demonstrate low rates of literacy
@@National Adult Literacy Survey
National Center for Education Statistics
Literacy rates
96% some level of literacy (National Survey)
80% can draft letter (National Survey)
52% simple analysis (National Survey)
LITERACY UP FOR BLACKS, ASIAN, DOWN FOR COLLEGE, HISPANIC 2003
z92\clip\2005\12\aslitup.txt
Literacy Falls for Graduates From College, Testing Finds
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/12/16/education/16literacy.html
By SAM DILLON
The National Assessment of Adult Literacy, given in 2003 by the
Department of Education, is the nation's most important test of how
well adult Americans can read. .. found steep declines in the English
literacy of Hispanics in the United States, and significant increases
among blacks and Asians.
About 29 percent of blacks scored at either the intermediate or
proficient levels in 1992, but in 2003, those rose to 33 percent. The
percentage of blacks demonstrating "below basic" literacy declined to
24 percent from 30 percent. Asians scoring at either the intermediate
or proficient levels rose to 54 percent from 45 percent in 1992. ..In
1992, 35 percent of Hispanics demonstrated "below basic" English
literacy, but by 2003 .. to 44 percent. .. intermediate or proficient
English skills dropped to 27 percent from 33 percent in 1992.
A 1992 survey by the U.S. Department of Education's National Center
for Education Statistics estimated that about 21 percent of the adult
population — more than 40 million Americans over the age of 16 — had
only rudimentary reading and writing skills. Most adults in this
"level one" category could pick out key facts in a brief newspaper
article, for example, but could not draft a letter explaining an
error on their credit card bill. A subgroup in this category —
representing roughly 4 percent of the total adult population, or
about 8 million people — was unable to perform even the simplest
literacy tasks.
http://nces.ed.gov/nadlits/overview.html
\clip\2000\04\litwaste.txt
http://www2.southwind.net/~educate/bob237.html Waste in Education A
Report of the Milton and Rose D. Friedman Foundation Public Schools
Produce Low Literacy Return for the Dollars Spent By Robert Holland
And Don Soifer The U.S. Department of Education's seminal study
issued in 1993, Adult Literacy in America, categorized literacy as
three types - prose, document, and quantitative - and measured it at
five levels (Level I being the lowest).
@@New Literacy Standards
z48\doc\web\2001\03\newlit.txt
http://www.npr.org/programs/morning/features/2001/mar/010319.literacy.html
Exploring Literacy Today, literacy means more than being able to read
a newspaper, a menu at a diner, or the latest mystery novel. Many
teachers -- and students -- believe it also means being
intellectually, culturally, and electronically nimble: navigating the
Internet with intelligence, making complicated decisions about an
HMO, understanding the veiled messages in an advertisement, being
familiar with the different cultures represented in your child's
grade school class.
@@Poverty
Illiteracy causes Poverty
"Illiterate adults account for 75 percent of the unemployed, one
third of the mothers receiving AFDC, 85 percent of the juveniles who
appear in court, 60 percent of prison inmates, nearly 40 percent of
minority youth, and over 70 percent of the high school dropouts. "
@@Prison
NO ILLITERATE CHINESE PRISONERS IN 1883
Referring to an educational program for prisoners, a report of the
Kansas State Prison in 1883 noted that "The Chinese are the most
enthusiastic students". My source did not indicate why the Chinese
were prisoners, nor did it indicate how many Chinese there were. It
did indicate that 0 Chinese could not read or write. Compare: whites,
513 could, 15 couldn't [literacy rate seems too high, doesn't it?];
blacks, 83 could, 47 couldn't; Mexicans, 2 could, 8 couldn't.
-Albert Himoe
@@Rates
%%Britain
20% IN BRITAIN NOT FUNCTIONALLY LITERATE \clip\99\10\edclip04.txt
3/27/99 Daily Telegraph SEVEN million adults in this country are
innumerate and the same number can barely read, according to a report
which puts Britain third from bottom in an international league
table. One in five cannot look up a plumber in Yellow Pages and one
in four are unable to work out the change from £2 when buying goods
costing £1.58. "Something like one adult in five in this country is
not functionally literate and far more people have problems with
numeracy. 13 per cent were judged to have "low" literacy skills,
meaning they could read short articles from tabloid newspapers or
pick out favourite programmes from a television guide but were unable
to use a Yellow Pages index and read slowly with little understanding
- standards below those normally expected of an 11-year-old. [By the
time the constructivists complete the transformation to higher order
thinking, 0% will be able to make change without a calculator! The
rate of literacy in industrialized countries is more like 95+
percent, only by specifying more complex tasks can they bring the
literacy rate down to 80%, US literacy test similar puts only 5% of
US pop at highest literacy level]
NOW THE BRITISH WANT A LITERACY TEST THAT FLUNKS EVERYONE
\clip\99\10\britlit.txt Thursday, March 25, 1999 Education England's
'staggering' adult illiteracy The report, by the Basic Skills Agency,
urges the government to introduce new national tests to assess
adults' basic reading, writing and arithmetic skills. one in three
adults cannot work out the area of a room, while one in five would be
unable to find a plumber in the Yellow Pages telephone directory.
[The US national literacy test gave similarly low rates for skills
that don't strike most of us as basic literacy area = width x height
is assessed in middle school math, which is the average math level of
most adults]
%%Grade Level
BOTTOM QUARTER AT 5TH GRADE, 2ND QUARTER AT 8TH GRADE LEVEL
Safety-seat instructions too difficult, study says Lindsey Tanner
Associated Press / Seattle Times March 3, 2003 Pediatics study by Dr.
Mark Wegner Deborah Girasek at Uniformed Services University of the
Health Sciences in Bethesda Md says car seat instructions written at
10th grade level. One quarter of adults read at or below fifth grade,
one fourth read at about 8th grade.
AVERAGE ADULT READS AT 8TH GRADE LEVEL
Newsweek June 25, 2001 p. 54
The New Patient Power by Russell Watson
Nearly half of all Americans read at 8th grade level or below. RAND says
most health websites are at or above high school level.
TRUE LITERACY RATES 81-83%
The Reading Problem: Why We
Have It? How To Solve It?
Through 1930, Census takers counted readers - by giving reading tests
if necessary. But starting in 1940, Census no longer counted readers.
Instead, it counted as literate any adults with a certain number of
years of school attendance. Correctly interpreted, then, the
official 1980 and 1990 literacy rate of 95 percent and 95.5 percent
indicate that 95 to 96 out of every 100 U.S. residents have attended
American schools for at least five years. In 1930, only three
million Americans couldn't read. Most of the one million white
illiterates and the two million black illiterates were people over
age 50 who had never been to school. By 1990, 30 to 35 million U.S.
citizens could not read. Most are people under 50 who have been to
school for at least eight years. True U.S. literacy figures for
adults over 25 have dropped from a high of 98 percent to a 1990 low
of 81 to 83 percent. Seventy nations have higher literacy percentages.
T. Glenn Haws, Ph.D. (Purdue University, 1959)
Illiteracy causes Poverty
"Illiterate adults account for 75 percent of the unemployed, one
third of the mothers receiving AFDC, 85 percent of the juveniles who
appear in court, 60 percent of prison inmates, nearly 40 percent of
minority youth, and over 70 percent of the high school dropouts. "
@@test: NALS NATIONAL ADULT LITERACY SURVEY
SUMMARY: 1/4 OF ADULTS ARE BARELY LITERATE
(but they didn't count how many people had no literacy skills)
ABSTRACT, ORDERING INFORMATION
http://www.nald.ca/fulltext/Report2/rep15-01.htm
Adult Literacy in America
Organization: U.S. Department of Education, Office of Educational Research and Improvement
National Center for Education Statistics
Publication information: December 1993
z48\clipim\2001\03\02\nals\nals.htm
NATIONAL ADULT LITERACY SURVEY
http://www.nifl.gov/reders/!intro.htm
The NALS found a total of 21-23 percent - or 40-44 million - of the
191 million American adults (defined as age 16 or older) at Level 1,
the lowest literacy level. Although many Level 1 adults could
perform many tasks involving simple texts and documents, all adults
scoring at Level 1 displayed difficulty using certain reading,
writing, and computational skills considered necessary for
functioning in everyday life.
prose document quantitative
1 21 23 22
2 23 28 25
3 32 31 31
4 17 17 17
5 3 3 4
43% of level1 at poverty vs 4% at level 5
$240/wk at lev 1 ($12,480) vs $681 at level 5 ($35,000)
BRACEY - LITERACY TEST IS NOT PROOF OF MASSIVE ILLITERACY IN THE US
The Seventh Bracey Report on the Condition of Public Education
\clip\98\08\bracey\bracey.htm Phi Delta Kappan
Magazine (high proportion of low readers but..) The U.S. also has
a higher proportion of adults at level 5 (3.8%) than any other
country except Sweden (6.4%). Most countries do not have even 1% of
their readers at this highest level. The American proportion at
level 4 (17.3%) is exceeded only by Canada (20.0%) and Sweden (26.3%)
AMERICANS AREN'T THAT LITERATE DESPITE WORLD LEADERSHIP
\priv\96\02\worlit.htm - Americans are richest and most productive,
but don’t do that well on world literacy tests. "Baffled" Economist
Dec 9, 1995 p. 27
HALF OF AMERICANS (AND OTHER ADVANCED NATIONS) HAVE LITERACY PROBLEMS
http://www.seattletimes.com/extra/browse/html97/read_121097. html
\clip\97\29\lowlit.txt Seattle Times Dec 10, 1997 Low literacy a
problem in industrial countries by Robert Greene Associated Press
Bergen Record Mental chores baffle many Americans Thursday, December
11, 1997 Statistics Canada and the U.S. Educational Testing Service,
a private firm, did the research in 1994 and 1995, measuring people
on three scales that comprise literacy: reading prose, reading
documents, and doing mathematics. Depending on the country, between
one-quarter and three-quarters of the adults 16 to 65 surveyed failed
to attain "Level 3."
--------------------------
50% of US Failing Literacy Test, or is
the test too hard? "Only 52% scored at Level 3 or higher. While
adults who score below Level 3 do have some limited literacy skills,
they are not likely to be able to perform the range of complex
literacy tasks that the National Education Goals Panel considers
important for competing successfully in a global economy or
exercising the rights and responsibility of citizenship."
Does that sound like Mark Tucker to you folks?
ASIANS FLUNK OUT ON US LITERACY TEST
Adult Literacy in America
National Center for Education Statistics
US Department of Education Sept 1993
National Adult Literacy Survey
So-called literacy test is one of the few tests where Asians test as
poorly as Blacks and Hispanics. Involves tasks like reading maps,
graphs, charts, bus schedules and recipies which are highly
culturally loaded, in comparison to math and even language where
Asians do as well or better than whites.
TEXTBOOKS INCORPORATE "EVERYDAY" DOCUMENT LITERACY
\doc\web\98\09\worktest.txt
\doc\web\97\06\RACELIT.wk1
Gap in years of education overall
W0.0 b-5 H -5 A-4
B=A=poor Hisp slightly better than retarded in prose
Gap in years of education relative to white with equal education
Black = 4 years
Asian = 3 to 4 years
\neaplit.doc,.txt -
Hu on 1st neap and literacy
@@UK Standards
UK LITERACY STANDARDS LEVEL 1 INCLUDE WEB SURFING AND EMAIL
zip38\clip\99\20\uklit.txt UK BBC NEWS Friday, November 5, 1999 Published
at 03:05 GMT What adults are supposed to know Booking tickets should
hold no fears Can you take part in an online chat session? Write an
e-mail to a colleague? Tackle a pushy doorstep trader?
Congratulations - you have at least reached Level 1 in the proposed
basic skills standards for adults in England.
@@waste
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http://www2.southwind.net/~educate/bob237.html
Waste in Education
A Report of the Milton and Rose D. Friedman Foundation
Public Schools Produce Low Literacy Return for the Dollars Spent
By Robert Holland And Don Soifer
D.C. schools are the least efficient, with 23 percent of funds wasted
($165.8 million) when measured against indicators of basic literacy.
Alaska, Utah, and Wyoming each waste 13 percent -- the lowest rate
@@world ranking
International Adult Literacy Survey
z42\clipim\2000\06\19\HighE.pdf
http://www.nald.ca/nls/ials/ialsreps/ialsrpt2/ials2/HighE.pdf
Highlights from the Second Report of the International Adult Literacy
Survey: Literacy Skills for the Knowledge Society
1994-1995
Sweden
Netherlands
Canada
Australia
New Zealand
United States
Economist June 17, 2000 The uses of literacy UK The Basic Skills
Agency looked at 1997/98 data, calculates 24% of England are to
varying degrees functionally illiterate, 24% functionally innumerate.
z49\clipim\2001\04\25\lit1.gif, lit2.gif
1994-1998 data on chart:
Top:
Sweden
Denmark
Norway
Middle:
Canada (best english)
Australia
United States
New Zealand
Britain
Bottom:
Poland
Portugal
Chile
AsianWeek Mar 22, 1996 - "Vital Signs"
These figures are the latest available from national and multilateral
sources Though standards may differ, literacy generally means the
ability to read and write a short, simple statement about everyday
life. Literacy rates refer to population over 15 years of age.
Literacy Ranking
Britain 100.00%
Germany 100.00%
Japan 100.00%
Switzerland 100.00%
New Zealand 99.80%
Australia 99.50%
Canada 99.00%
Russia 99.00%
France 99.00%
South Korea 97.40% 87.6%
Italy 97.40%
U.S. 95.50% 99.5% (UN)
Mongolia 95.00%
Philippines 94.00% 83.3
Thailand 93.80% 88.0
Taiwan 93.20%
Maldives 92.60%
Vietnam 91.90%
Singapore 91.60% 82.9
Hong Kong 91.20% 77.3
Mexico 90.30% 83.0
Fiji 90.10%
Malaysia 89.30%
Sri Lanka 89.30%
Brunei 89.20%
Indonesia 84.40%
Laos 83.90%
World 83% UNICEF
Brazil 82.10%
Myanmar 82.00%
Turkey 81.90%
South Africa 80.60%
China 80.00%
Macau 74.80%
Kenya 74.50%
P.N. Guinea 69.70%
Iran 64.90%
Saudi Arabia 64.10%
Nigeria 52.50%
India 52.10% 39.1
Egypt 50.00%
Bhutan 40.90%
Cambodia 37.80%
Bangladesh 36.60%
Pakistan 35.70% 25.2
Afghanistan 31.60%
Nepal 27.00%
(UN figures from United Nations Statistical Yearbook 37th ed)
50% BLACK S AFRICANS
Culturegram '95 1994 Brogham Young University
Free/complsory from 7-16 for whites
colored/indian usually 7-14
blacks compulsory for 4 years
Literacy
99% white
85% Indian
60% Coloured
50% Blacks
SLOVAKIA 99%
Culturegram '95
starts 6, compulsory for 10 yrs
NIGERIA 51%
Culturegram 95
Adult Literacy was 25% in 1970
Only 70% primary age children enrolled, 85% complete,
20% in secondary school. 250 native languages
NIGER 13%
Culturegram 95. Modeled after france with exam to pass
on to next level. 1/4 go to primary school though
officially mandatory
JAMAICA 75%
Culturegram 95 Ed free to 12. Secondary by examination only 93%
finish primary. 60% in secondary
GREECE
5: 2 yr Kindergarten
6 yr elem
3 yr gymnasia
3-4 yr lyceum available for college prep
FRANCE
Culturegram 95
F/C 6-16
99% lit
11-18 Lyce'Ees and colle'ges
Lycees like jr college
MEXICO
culturegram 95 F/C 6-14. After 1st 6 yrs, 3 of secondary, 5 college
prep, 6yr teacher prep. Vocational after secondary
POLAND
Culturegram 95
F/C 10 yrs starting in K
98%,literacy
4-5 yr tech and prof high schools. University 5-6 yrs
ITALY
Culturegram 95
F/C 6-14, classes Mon-Sat 97% lit
Japan
F/C 6-15
GERMANY
Culturegram 95
99% literacy F/C 6-15, tracked until age 18. Free at all levels, but
university requires Arbitur exm after college prep gymnasium. Every
occupation has a school - 4 yrs to be certified waiter.
3 OF 4 CHILDREN IN POOR NATIONS ARE NOT IN SCHOOL
Nearly one-sixth of the 5.9 billion people in the world cannot read or
write according to a Unicef study. The study, "The State of the World's
Children 1999," predicts that illiteracy rates will steadily grow into the
next century because only one of every four children in the poorest
nations is now in school. More than half of those denied educations are
girls.
\clip\98\18\edclip07.txt Illiteracy Dooms One Billion People to
Poverty, UNICEF Study Says By John M. Goshko Washington Post Staff
Writer Wednesday, December 9, 1998; Page A31 UNITED NATIONS, Dec.
8One billion people, nearly a sixth of humanity, will enter the 21st
century doomed to poverty because they are unable to read a book,
write their names or master other skills necessary to hold a job, the
United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) reported today.
In underdeveloped countries, an estimated 130 million children, about 40
percent of the elementary school-age population, either never enter school
or drop out before receiving a basic education, the report says. Of that
total, 73 million are girls.