[NLA] Evidence-Based Literacy Misinformation

[Thomas Sticht]

Research Note        1 November 2002

  Tom Sticht
  International Consultant in Adult Education

  Evidence-Based Literacy Misinformation From the U.S. Government Part 1:
    U. S. Department of Education.

  With the strong desire to promote scientific, evidence-based education for
  literacy development across the life span, the U. S. Government is
  providing extensive information about reading and literacy in sources on
  the internet. However, a recent visit to two federal government web sites
  revealed that instead of providing valid information about adult literacy
  and reading,  both the U. S. Department of Education, Office of Vocational
  and Adult Education (OVAE), Division of Adult Education and Literacy
  (DAEL) and the National Institute for Literacy (NIFL) are presenting
  information based on the 1993 National Adult Literacy Survey (NALS) that
  another U. S. Department of Education agency, the National Center for
  Education Statistics (NCES), which conducted the NALS, has indicated is
  invalid. This message presents the misinformation from USED/OVAE/DAEL. A
  second message will present the misinformation from NIFL.

  NALS-Based Misinformation at USED/OVAE/DAEL: The USED web site for
  OVAE/DAEL states that:

  Quote: "The National Adult Literacy Survey estimates that about 90 million
  adults in the United States may lack the literacy skills needed to succeed
  in the economy of the future." End Quote

  But this is not correct on two counts. First, in the original 1993 report
  on the NALS, on page xviii the NALS researchers rhetorically asked whether
  the findings answered the critical question, "Are the literacy skills of
  America’s adults adequate 
 to ensure individual opportunities for all
  adults, to increase worker productivity or to strengthen America’s
  competitiveness around the world?" End Quote. The answer: Quote:"Because
  it is impossible to say precisely what literacy skills are essential for
  individuals to succeed in this or any other society, the results of the
  National Adult Literacy Survey provide no firm answers to such questions."
  End Quote. Hence there is no way that the NALS could estimate that about
  90 million adults in the U. S. may lack the literacy skills needed to
  succeed in the economy of the future. It could not even say whether the
  literacy skills met the needs of the present (that is, 1993).

  Second, and even more troubling with the OVAE/DAEL misinformation, is that
  it occurs even though it has been known to ED officials for some time that
  the final NALS Technical Report of January 2001 includes chapters by Dr.
  Andrew Kolstad, the former director of the NALS project at the NCES, which
  show that the NALS used arbitrary statistical methods which greatly
  overstated the numbers of adults with poorly developed literacy skills. In
  fact, using the new statistical methods he recommends, because they
  produce the most valid estimates of skills, the percentages of adults in
  the lowest two levels of literacy that the NALS uses fall by more than
  half! Thus the OVAE/DAEL statement of adults with "at risk" literacy
  skills would drop from 90 to less than 45 million adults. But even if
  there are some 45 million adults "at risk" because of low literacy skills,
  it must be recalled that the original NALS report says that there are no
  data to "say precisely what literacy skills are essential for individuals
  to succeed in this or any other society." So the information given by
  OVAE/DAEL must be considered as unfounded and unsubstantiated.

  Finally, even the Bush administration’s own actions cast doubt on the
  believability  of the data the OVAE/DAEL cites. If the administration does
  believe that there are 90 million adults "at risk" because of poor
  literacy, why hasn’t it asked for more funding for the State Grant
  program, what I call the Adult Education and Literacy System (AELS) of the
  United States, in the Workforce Investment Act, Title 2: Adult Education
  and Family Literacy Act in the last two years? Surely a serious literacy
  problem that afflicts half the adult population of the United States
  demands a very high level of action from the U. S. Department of Education
  to help these adults today!

  My unscientific, but evidence-based inference is that no one in the USED
  (or anywhere else for that matter) really believes there is a serious
  literacy problem afflicting 90 million adults. If they did, wouldn’t
  somebody, somewhere in government, business, or private foundations want
  do something about it in a big way?





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