[AAACE-NLA] Are high literacy and numeracy skills the key to a strong economy?

[David Rosen]

Hi Andrea,

Germany's education system, like ours, is state (not federally)  
controlled.

David

David J. Rosen
DJRosen at theworld.com




On Nov 12, 2010, at 5:33 PM, andreawilder at comcast.net wrote:

> David,
>
> That's really a hard one.
>
> We are a (still) REGIONAL country where within those regions some  
> states are more forward looking than others.  I just heard on npr  
> that the reps of Illinois, Wisconsin and Florida (I hope I am right  
> on this) want to DECLINE federal funds for high speed rail.  This is  
> just an example.
>
> Yours is a good question, and it implies, I think, some centralized  
> coherent thinking.
>
> Andrea
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "David Rosen" <DJRosen at theworld.com>
> To: "National Literacy Advocacy List sponsored by AAACE" <aaace-nla at lists.literacytent.org 
> >
> Sent: Thursday, November 11, 2010 7:48:05 PM
> Subject: [AAACE-NLA] Are high literacy and numeracy skills the key  
> to a        strong economy?
>
> Colleagues,
>
> As is often the case, Tom Sticht has got me thinking.
>
> It looks like the U.S. economy, regardless of which economic  
> analysis I read, is going to be in trouble for some time. Some  
> economists believe we will crawl back to a strong economy and again  
> achieve high employment. Some believe that, given world competition,  
> we may not. Economists and others observe that not only  
> manufacturing jobs have been disappearing (shipped overseas to low- 
> wage economies, and also automated in the U.S.) but that now many  
> college-educated professional jobs are being outsourced, too. One of  
> our economic strengths, according to our President today, is that  
> our country is _the_ consumer nation to be reckoned with. Being a  
> strong consumer nation does not reassure me that we have a strong  
> economic future. We need to make some changes.
>
> Here's something to think about:
>
> The world's (no longer first, now second -- after China) exporting  
> country is a modern, industrialized nation known for its high rate  
> of employment and good labor benefits. It has a social market  
> economy. The country has developed a very high standard of living  
> and a comprehensive system of social security. Most of the country's  
> export products are in engineering, especially in machinery,  
> automobiles, chemical goods and metals. It is the world's leading  
> producer of wind turbines and solar power technology. Education at  
> all levels, including vocational education, is a high priority.
>
> That country is Germany.
>
> A couple of  key questions that occur to me:
> 1. What can we learn from the German economic model that we can use  
> to put more Americans to work, and in better jobs? What can we learn  
> to make our country more competitive in the world market?
> 2. As adult educators we might wonder how Germany did on the  
> International Adult Literacy Survey (IALS)? Was having a highly  
> literate workforce an essential part of the model?
>
> Apparently the answer to the second question is that the IALS  
> results do not clearly show that having higher literacy and numeracy  
> rates is essential, although it may be noteworthy that Germany  
> outperformed the U.S. on document and quantitative scales, if these  
> measure more work-contextualized basic skills. (See results below.  
> Emphasis mine.)
>
> IALS Results
> Results from the International Adult Literacy Survey (IALS), which  
> measured proficiency on 3 scales (prose literacy, document literacy,  
> and quantitative literacy), showed:
> 	• Between 19 and 23 percent of U.S. adults performed at levels 4  
> and 5, the highest levels, on the three literacy scales. On all  
> three scales, only Sweden had higher percentages of their adults at  
> these levels.
>
> 	• Nearly one-third of adults in the United States demonstrate level  
> 3 skills across all three scales, while approximately one-fourth of  
> American adults possess level 2 skills across the three scales.
>
> 	• Between 21 and 24 percent of U.S. adults performed at level 1,  
> the lowest level, on the three literacy scales.
>
> 	• On average, the United States outperformed 2 nations (German- 
> speaking Switzerland and Poland) on the prose scale, performed  
> similarly to 7 nations (Canada, Germany, Australia, Belgium, United  
> Kingdom, Ireland and French-speaking Switzerland), and was  
> outperformed by 3 nations (Sweden, Netherlands and New Zealand).
>
> 	• On both the document and quantitative scales, the United States  
> outperformed one nation (Poland), performed similarly to 8 nations  
> (Canada, Belgium, French-speaking Switzerland, Australia, German- 
> speaking Switzerland, New Zealand, United Kingdom and Ireland), and  
> was outperformed by 3 nations (Sweden, Netherlands and Germany).
>
> 	• The United States is similar to Canada, New Zealand, and the  
> United Kingdom with regard to the distribution of literacy skills  
> across levels 1, 2 and 3. At level 4/5, however, Canada has a  
> greater percentage of people than the United States on the prose  
> scale; New Zealand has a higher percentage than the United States on  
> the document scale; and the United Kingdom has a higher percentage  
> of its adults than the United States on the quantitative scale.
>
> 	• In terms of literacy skills and employment status, 59 percent of  
> U.S. adults at level 1 on the document literacy scale were employed  
> at the time of the study. This percentage was not significantly  
> different from the percentage at level 2 (71 percent), but  
> significantly lower than those at levels 3 (77 percent) and 4/5 (82  
> percent).
> SOURCE: U.S. Department of Education. National Center for Education  
> Statistics. Adult Literacy: An International Perspective, Working  
> Paper No. 97-33 , by Marilyn Binkley, Nancy Matheson, and Trevor  
> Williams. Washington, DC: 1997.
> Reference for the above information on the IALS:  http://nces.ed.gov/surveys/all/results.asp
> David J. Rosen
> Adult Literacy Advocate
> DJRosen at theworld.com
>
>
>
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