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1 in 7 Americans is Illiterate
February 16, 2009
Do things for people not because of who they are or what they do in return, but because of who you are.
-Harold S. Kushner
-Harold S. Kushner
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- Connecting: Friendship in the Lives of Young Children
- More Than Numbers: Mathematical Thinking in the Early Years
- Exchange Articles Collection #3 - Children with Differing Abilities
- Out of the Box Training Kit (printed version): Recognizing the Essentials of Developmentally Appropriate Curriculum
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Comments (5)
Displaying All 5 CommentsUnited States
Unfortunately, this is a prime example of a factoid extracted from its proper context and used, however well-intentioned, to mislead public opinion and public policy. The statement “1 in 7 Americans is illiterate” is not supported by the data source on which it is ostensibly based.
The USDOE Institute of Education Sciences National Center for Education Statistics has released a study based on two National Assessment of Adult Literacy surveys conducted in 1992 and 2003. State and county estimates of “Low Literacy” based on those surveys are available at http://nces.ed.gov/naal/estimates/StateEstimates.aspx.
However, it is important to understand that these surveys do not gauge illiteracy, as such. The following text taken from the summary description of survey methodology on the above website makes that clear.
“The literacy of adults who lack BPLS ranges from being unable to read and understand any written information in English to being able to locate easily identifiable information in short, commonplace prose text, but nothing more advanced. However, adults who were not able to take the assessment because of a language barrier are included in the indirect estimates and are classified as lacking BPLS on the grounds that they can be considered to be at the lowest level of English literacy.”
“BPLS” in this quote stands for “basic prose literary skills”. The estimates of those who do not demonstrate BPLS include not only adults who can read and understand “easily identifiable information in short, commonplace prose text” but also all adults who may be very literate in a non-English language but who do not perform well on an assessment like this because of a language barrier.
At the national level, the inclusion of the latter non-English group with English-speakers who lack “basic prose literary skills” only raises the rate from 13.6% to 14.5%, a seemingly unremarkable amount. However, there is wide variation between counties across the country that parallels the distribution of non-English speaking groups. Populations whose primary language is non-English with limited English skills are likely to be the single most important causal factor behind the variation in these estimates.
This is not a measure of illiteracy; rather it is an estimate of “basic prose literary skills” that relies on national survey ratios applied to county-level populations using a multi-factor methodology that adjusts for such as race, educational level, income, etc. It’s not bad information but it should be more accurately presented than it is in this article.
United States
This article is very interesting, because I just talked to a parent who informed me that both she, and her husband are illiterate. Her son is in my classroom, and I had suggested that she read to him at night to settle him down before going to sleep. Since then I have begant to think about starting am adult literacy program at the center. I do not know how to get started in this process. I have began to do some research, but I can use all the help I can get.
Thank You
A.W.
Australia
1 American in 7 is illiterate.
1 in 7 American's are illiterate.
Time for a grammar check!!
United States
It occurred to me that many of those who were declared to have such low literacy skills might be speakers of languages other than English. We all know that children are often judged on their ability to speak and understand English no matter how smart they are in their home language (or languages). Also, if the person is literate in a language that uses other than the Roman alphabet they may be fluent speakers of English, but might have difficulty reading it. I just think we ought to be aware that sometimes research has a narrow focus and doesn't look at the whole picture. Definitely illiteracy is a problem in this country, I'm not denying that. I'm not sure though that the way we are addressing the problem by the kinds of inappropriate activities people are doing with infants, toddlers, and preschoolers is really a solution to what in reality is a complex problem related to economics, lack of health care and multiple other issues.
Janet Gonzalez-Mena
MUMBAI, India
The results are amazing, I had no idea as I thought the ratio was higher in India than America.
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