[NLA] America*s Reading Crisis: Real or Imagined?

[Andres Muro]

 Tom (stich, et al):

  Not only what you point, but, in addition, the number of literate people in the USA has  increased progressively during the century. However, over the century, the requirements  to enter the workforce have increased to the point that nowadays, a high school  diploma is mandatory to get a minimum wage job, while in the 1940s this wasn't so.  The stigma of not having a HS diploma is also much greater today. This gives the  appearence that we are experiencing more of a literacy crisis than before when in fact,  more Americans are literate today than early in the century. Even if the job does not  require much literacy skills, most employers would use the high school diploma as a  minimum guideline for hiring someone. 

  Regarding the comments from the other Tom (with the greek last name), the research  points that kids may fail to learn in school for reasons associated with poverty, and  barrriers related to poverty, and not for reasons associated with instructional approach. 

  Andres  


  In a message dated 9/20/2002 4:33:17 AM Mountain Daylight Time, tsticht at znet.com
  writes:


    Research note September 19, 2002

    America?s Reading Crisis: Real or Imagined?

    Thomas G. Sticht
    International Consultant in Adult Education

    It is often thought that reading skills of students coming out of the K-12
    public school system have declined in the last two or three decades. Some
    have claimed that the schools have dropped the teaching of phonics and
    adopted instead the whole language approach and that that has had a
    deleterious effect on the reading skills of students and hence of adults
    once the students leave school.

    The 1992 National Adult Literacy Survey (NALS) provides some data bearing
    on this issue. The NALS assessed adult literacy using three scales: Prose,
    Document and Quantitative. A report on the Literacy of Older Adults in
    America, from the National Center for Education Statistics in Washington,
    DC, November 1996 (p. 35) reported data on the age and literacy
    proficiency for adults with varying amounts of education. Using just the
    data for adults with high school diplomas or GEDs, and just the Prose
    scale, because all three scales have similar findings, the average
    literacy proficiencies for three age groups were:

    Age        Proficiency
    16-24        274
    25-59        273
    60-69        262

    Adults in the 16 to 24 age range got their diplomas or GEDs in 1992 to 1984.
    Adults in the 25 to 59 age range got their diplomas or GEDs in 1983 to 1949.
    Adults in the 60 to 69 age range got their diplomas or GEDs in 1948 to 1939.

    Similar findings held across age groups for adults with 0-12 or some
    postsecondary education, though with differences in the proficiency scores
    due to lessor or more education relative to the high school diploma/GED.

    From these NALS data, it appears that for adults graduating from high
    school  across this 62 year period, their literacy skills do not vary much
    on the average, with all three age groups scoring in the upper half of
    Level 2 of the NALS. This would seem to indicate that regardless of
    whether the schools emphasized a code (phonics) or meaning (whole
    language) emphasis during this time, or had the benefits of feedback from
    the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP)  from the 1970s up
    to the time of the NALS assessment,  once adults get out of high school
    and spend some time in other activities other than postsecondary
    education, their literacy skills don?t differ very much, at least for the
    adults sampled in 1992 and assessed using the functional literacy tasks of
    the NALS.

    The NALS also asked adults to rate their own reading skills as they
    perceived them. In the same report on the Literacy of Older Adults in
    America, the authors reported (p. 43) that adults aged 16 to 59 rated
    themselves as reading Very Well-72%, Well-22% and Not Well/Not At All-7%.
    Overall, then, some 93% of adults in this age range rated themselves as
    reading Well or Very Well.

    These self perception ratings of their reading skills suggest that adults
    do not perceive themselves to be reading poorly, though critics of the
    public schools are wont to decry the "fact" that our high schools are
    graduating "functional illiterates" and they don?t teach the kids to read
    as well as they did in the good old days. Possibly, this may reflect the
    tendency that has been known since Socrates? day for the older generation
    to complain about the newer generation. On the other hand, perhaps adults
    of today are not as literate as those of an earlier generation. But the
    data from the NALS do not support this conclusion across the six decades
    from 1939 to 1992.

    On the other hand, the NALS indicated that some 10 million adults were
    such poor readers that they could not even take the exam. While this might
    not be a crisis for a nation with some 200 million adults, it is a
    national disgrace that so little is being done to help these adults help
    themselves and their families through access to a well funded, high
    quality, public Adult Education and Literacy System (AELs). With state and
    federal funding for the
    AELS below a woeful $600 per enrollee, this is poverty level funding for
    the education of our most difficult to reach and educate citizens.

    Its a national shame to spend billions of dollars to leave no children
    behind, while largely ignoring the desparate need of the children's
    parents and leaving them behind. How can this be an inspiration to
    children to pursue their own education?




  > 

>>> tsticht at znet.com 09/19/02 09:18PM >>>
Research note September 19, 2002

America's Reading Crisis: Real or Imagined?

Thomas G. Sticht
International Consultant in Adult Education

It is often thought that reading skills of students coming out of the K-12
public school system have declined in the last two or three decades. Some
have claimed that the schools have dropped the teaching of phonics and
adopted instead the whole language approach and that that has had a
deleterious effect on the reading skills of students and hence of adults
once the students leave school.

The 1992 National Adult Literacy Survey (NALS) provides some data bearing
on this issue. The NALS assessed adult literacy using three scales: Prose,
Document and Quantitative. A report on the Literacy of Older Adults in
America, from the National Center for Education Statistics in Washington,
DC, November 1996 (p. 35) reported data on the age and literacy
proficiency for adults with varying amounts of education. Using just the
data for adults with high school diplomas or GEDs, and just the Prose
scale, because all three scales have similar findings, the average
literacy proficiencies for three age groups were:

Age		Proficiency
16-24		274
25-59		273
60-69		262

Adults in the 16 to 24 age range got their diplomas or GEDs in 1992 to 1984.
Adults in the 25 to 59 age range got their diplomas or GEDs in 1983 to 1949.
Adults in the 60 to 69 age range got their diplomas or GEDs in 1948 to 1939.

Similar findings held across age groups for adults with 0-12 or some
postsecondary education, though with differences in the proficiency scores
due to lessor or more education relative to the high school diploma/GED.

>From these NALS data, it appears that for adults graduating from high
school  across this 62 year period, their literacy skills do not vary much
on the average, with all three age groups scoring in the upper half of
Level 2 of the NALS. This would seem to indicate that regardless of
whether the schools emphasized a code (phonics) or meaning (whole
language) emphasis during this time, or had the benefits of feedback from
the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP)  from the 1970s up
to the time of the NALS assessment,  once adults get out of high school
and spend some time in other activities other than postsecondary
education, their literacy skills don't differ very much, at least for the
adults sampled in 1992 and assessed using the functional literacy tasks of
the NALS.

The NALS also asked adults to rate their own reading skills as they
perceived them. In the same report on the Literacy of Older Adults in
America, the authors reported (p. 43) that adults aged 16 to 59 rated
themselves as reading Very Well-72%, Well-22% and Not Well/Not At All-7%.
Overall, then, some 93% of adults in this age range rated themselves as
reading Well or Very Well.

These self perception ratings of their reading skills suggest that adults
do not perceive themselves to be reading poorly, though critics of the
public schools are wont to decry the "fact" that our high schools are
graduating "functional illiterates" and they don't teach the kids to read
as well as they did in the good old days. Possibly, this may reflect the
tendency that has been known since Socrates' day for the older generation
to complain about the newer generation. On the other hand, perhaps adults
of today are not as literate as those of an earlier generation. But the
data from the NALS do not support this conclusion across the six decades
from 1939 to 1992.

On the other hand, the NALS indicated that some 10 million adults were
such poor readers that they could not even take the exam. While this might
not be a crisis for a nation with some 200 million adults, it is a
national disgrace that so little is being done to help these adults help
themselves and their families through access to a well funded, high
quality, public Adult Education and Literacy System (AELs). With state and
federal funding for the
AELS below a woeful $600 per enrollee, this is poverty level funding for
the education of our most difficult to reach and educate citizens.

Its a national shame to spend billions of dollars to leave no children
behind, while largely ignoring the desparate need of the children's
parents and leaving them behind. How can this be an inspiration to
children to pursue their own education?





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