1 in 20 U.S. adults not literate in English

Thursday, December 15, 2005; Posted: 9:05 p.m. EST (02:05 GMT)

WASHINGTON (AP) -- About one in 20 adults in the U.S. is not literate in English, meaning 11 million people lack the skills to handle many everyday tasks, a federal study shows.

From 1992 to 2003, adults made no progress in their ability to read sentences and paragraphs or understand other printed material such as bus schedules or prescription labels.

Perhaps most sobering was that adult literacy dropped or was flat across every level of education, from people with graduate degrees to those who dropped out of high school.

So even as more people get a formal education, the literacy rate is not rising. Federal officials say this trend is puzzling and worthy of research.

"Eleven million people is an awful large number of folks who are not literate in English, and therefore are prevented access to what America offers," said Russ Whitehurst, director of the Institute of Education Sciences at the Education Department.

Some 30 million adults have "below basic" skills in prose. Their ability is so limited that they may not be able to make sense of a simple pamphlet, for example. This total includes 7 million adults considered not to be literate in English but with enough knowledge of the language at least to be tested. The remaining 4 million deemed illiterate did not have enough English skills to be tested.

By comparison, 95 million adults, or 44 percent of the population, have intermediate prose skills, meaning they can do moderately challenging activities. An example would be consulting a reference book to determine which foods contain a certain vitamin.

The National Assessment of Adult Literacy is considered the best measure of how adults handle everything from completing job applications to computing tips. - CNN.com
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I am sure that those who have been repeatedly stating the mantra that the US education system is the best in the world will blame these numbers on non-English speaking immigrants, and it is true that "Hispanics showed sharp declines in their ability to handle prose and documents." But the fact remains that all of us have read from time to time about some college or professional athlete who admits to being illiterate. Almost all the pro basketball players and pro football players have attended college, and an even higher percentage have graduated from high school. How can someone graduate from high school and be admitted to a university without being able to read? How can this possibly be excused?
Those who still boast about the wonderful school system in the US need to face reality. While our best students rank with any nation's best students, our average students are woefully behind in the core areas, and, when students are admitted to a university without the tools to pass any core subject, any college-level core subject, something is very wrong with the system.
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12-16-05, 01:20 PM
frankvan
I think the people who boast that the American education system is the best in the world, are the same people who honestly think that everything American is the best in the world. We see it on these boards every other day: we have the best health care, the best economy, the best army, the best war, the best president, etc. etc. More often than not it turns out that the person with that opinion is woefully lacking in any knowledge of other countries or alternative systems. It's hard to see how anyone so firmly convinced that things are as rosy as possible can contribute to making progress. Isn't that what is meant by conservative ? Opposed to change ?
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12-16-05, 01:53 PM
Sherasi
I don't think we have the best system of education or health, etc. I know we Americans often have monocular vision about our country and its attributes.

However, I don't think that the United States needs to be vilified as much as is done either. I think part of the problem is the "Feel Good" Educational system in place we have.. that we want to "validate" our students and not make them feel bad about themselves as people.

While that is laudable, there needs to be SOME repercussions when students produce work that is below par for functioning in the Real World. Parents, teachers... everyone needs to take more responsibility and have more involvement in the education of our students and quite simply make it clear that coasting along is not going to cut it.

Clearly some students need more assistance meeting basic skills, better screening and intervention needs to be in place to find these students before they are lost between the cracks.
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12-16-05, 02:16 PM
juanruiz

quote:
But the fact remains that all of us have read from time to time about some college or professional athlete who admits to being illiterate. Almost all the pro basketball players and pro football players have attended college, and an even higher percentage have graduated from high school. How can someone graduate from high school and be admitted to a university without being able to read? How can this possibly be excused?

In regard to your question specifically, it is because people continue to buy into the myth of the "student-athlete." At Division IA this is a rare commodity. The NCAA's own tracking shows about a 50% graduation rate on average in the so called "revenue sports" (another myth). These kids are recruited for their sports skills to be entertainers, not students. The best of them go pro as soon as possible.

As for HS, Sher is right, in re the self-esteem nonsense. Also, K-12 is an assembly line operation. Move them through and get them out.
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12-17-05, 11:54 AM
DorianGreyed
"However, I don't think that the United States needs to be vilified as much as is done either."

Sher, I have a friend who had to have a leg amputated. He developed a sore, it didn't heal, it became infected, he did nothing about it. When he finally went to the doctor, it was too late to save his leg. You can't fix a problem that you don't acknowledge needs fixing.
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12-17-05, 01:11 PM
juanruiz
I don't think the criticism of public education may be termed "vilification," simply recognition that there is a major problem. From my own experience I can say that of students who have had four years of foreign language instruction at the HS level, over 50% do not qualify on exams to pass out of the first semester university course. What on earth were they doing? They were playing games, learning how to cook, watching videos in English; everything but learning the language. Why? Because HS has become predominantly a place of entertainment, not instruction: sports, parties, dances, the Prom. And since almost no one fails to graduate anymore, the diploma means next to nothing.
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12-17-05, 02:12 PM
DorianGreyed
JR has hit one of the big nails right on the head. In the quest to have "smarter" students and have a nation in which everyone has graduated from high school, we have, instead of increasing the learning that should take place, taken the easy way out. We have simply lowered the bar. (Even so, some still fail to graduate from high school.) As anyone over about 50 or so can attest to, not everyone is smart enough to graduate from high school, not under the standards that used to apply. Today, however, high school diplomas are expected to be given to any student who shows up often enough to be counted for federal funding purposes. For at least a decade, universities have been forced to offer "00 level" classes. (Freshman courses are called the 100 level.) What that means is that colleges are now teaching what students need to enter college. Shouldn't that have been learned in high school?
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12-17-05, 03:49 PM
Dwight
The saddest part in "lowering-the-bar" instead of maintaining a higher standard of excellence is that it is unnecessary. Students will most often do whatever is asked of them. If they're not asked for very much, they won't give very much. But if the school system requires more, they will give more.

Yes, some students cannot do better and there does need to be some provisions made for them. But not at the expense of those more capable students.

Dwight
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12-17-05, 10:49 PM
DorianGreyed
It's not just high school, either.

Literacy Falls for Graduates From College, Testing Finds

By SAM DILLON
Published: December 16, 2005
The average American college graduate's literacy in English declined significantly over the past decade, according to results of a nationwide test released yesterday.

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.

The test also found steep declines in the English literacy of Hispanics in the United States, and significant increases among blacks and Asians.

When the test was last administered, in 1992, 40 percent of the nation's college graduates scored at the proficient level, meaning that they were able to read lengthy, complex English texts and draw complicated inferences. But on the 2003 test, only 31 percent of the graduates demonstrated those high-level skills. There were 26.4 million college graduates. - NYTimes.com
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12-17-05, 11:26 PM
DorianGreyed
U.S. students behind the curve in math

On international test, American 15-year-olds in lower third

Updated: 6:02 p.m. ET Dec. 6, 2004
WASHINGTON - Fifteen-year-olds in the United States do not have the mathematical skills to match up to peers in many other industrialized nations, test scores released Monday show.

The latest international comparison also underscores an achievement gap in America: White U.S. students scored above average, while blacks and Hispanics scored below.

Overall, U.S. students scored below the international average in total math literacy and in every specific area tested, from geometry and algebra to statistics and computation.

U.S. on par with Poland, Hungary, Spain, Latvia
The test, known as the Program for International Student Assessment, measures math, reading and science literacy among 15-year-olds every three years. This time, the focus was math.

Among 29 industrialized countries, the United States scored below 20 nations and above five in math. The U.S. performance was about the same as Poland’s, Hungary’s and Spain’s.

When compared with all 39 nations that produced scores, the United States was below 23 countries, above 11 and about the same as four others, with Latvia joining the middle group. - MSNBC.com
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A Washington, D.C., grade-school teacher reports that many of the fifth- and sixth-grade students in her geography class were unable to locate Washington, D.C., on a map of the United States, even though they lived in the nation's capital themselves. A survey by the Gallup Organization found that one in seven adults can't find the United States on a blank map of the world. This shouldn't be surprising. In one college geography class 25 percent of the students could not locate the Soviet Union on a world map, while on a map of the forty-eight contiguous states, only 22 percent of the class could identify forty or more states correctly. - Losing The (Education) Race (This is from 1995.)
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The following statistics were compiled in 1998 by The Center for Education Reform

# Nationally, 17 year-olds score lower today on science tests than students did in 1964.

# Nationally, only 25% of high school graduates passed geography and only 16% passed calculus.

# Internationally, American 12th graders rank 19th out of 21 industrialized nations in math; and 16th out of 21 in science.

# Internationally, U.S. physics and math students ranked last among 16 countries tested.

Nearly 30% of college freshmen need to enroll in remedial reading, writing and math classes, despite their high school diplomas. (Bold mine - DG) - The Internet Party
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Nationwide tests in the late 1980s indicated that U.S. students were far behind their counterparts in almost every other industrialized country in the world. - Historians
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The Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) is a system of international assessments that measures 15-year-olds’ capabilities in reading, mathematics, and science every 3 years. PISA was first implemented in 2000 and is carried out by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), an intergovernmental organization of industrialized countries.

The U.S. average score in reading literacy was not measurably different from the OECD average in 2000 or 2003, nor was there any measurable change in the U.S. reading literacy score from 2000 to 2003.

The U.S. average score was below the OECD average science literacy score in 2003. There was no measurable change in the U.S. science literacy score from 2000 to 2003.

In 2003, U.S. performance in mathematics literacy and problem solving was lower than the average performance for most OECD countries. - US Dept. of Education
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12-18-05, 10:37 AM
aminator2002
Problems with the statistics:

1. The US sends a far greater percentage of students to college.

2. The US has a greater number of foreign language students in colleges.

Do the other countries have mandatory education for 15 year olds?

We definitely pass far too many students through the system.
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12-18-05, 11:14 AM
juanruiz

quote:
1. The US sends a far greater percentage of students to college.

2. The US has a greater number of foreign language students in colleges.

1. This due to 2 central factors: A. In the US, going to college after HS is simply considered the norm, whether a student belongs there or not. B. Also, as the percentage of legislative appropriation to a public university's budget has dropped, it is made up for by a rise in student tuition. So students tend to become dollar amounts, and entrance requirements are waived.

2. This is ambiguous. Do you mean students studying foreign languages or speaking them?
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12-18-05, 11:32 AM
DorianGreyed
The statistics regarding just US students, with no comparison to international students, certainly indicates that a major problem exists.

Something to think about when you can't sleep - Those students who can't find anything on a map will be eligible to vote some day. The 60% of college grads who were not "able to read lengthy, complex English texts and draw complicated inferences" are already eligible to vote, as are the "one in seven adults (who) can't find the United States on a blank map of the world." Pleasant dreams.
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12-18-05, 12:40 PM
Dwight
Not only can't they find the U.S. on the map, the males won't ask for directions, either.

(OK, lame but somebody had to bring this up...)
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12-18-05, 12:46 PM
Ogi
also it's not just considered the norm to go to college it's damn near required. coming out of the military with a technical background in electro mechanical devices, i am having a REALLY hard time finding a job in that field with out a college degree. right now i got another job in the fire alarm business to hold me over until i find something more technical.

bottom line: you can't get a decent job w/o a college degree, so people HAVE TO get through the system.
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12-18-05, 04:46 PM
aminator2002
Juan - I meant English as a second or third/fourth language students.

Yes, college is nearly required to get a job. Alumni are generally more concerned about football/basketball teams than they are about academic standards and that is part of the problem. It becomes a case of "What University did you go to?" rather than whether or not you attended college. So it is actually quite important for alumni to demand quality entrance and academic standards because the reputation of the school is linked to the distinction of the school.

It would certainly help if property values weren't tied to academic achievement of schools - school report cards, with percentage of college bound students. School boards have conflicted interests if you ask me. And it would also help if jobs that require training rather than education would hire people without asking for a degree.

Now in order to have any sort of academic distinction, people have to go to graduate school. It seemed to me that at least graduate schools had some quality standards, but I certainly didn't see it when I was assisting undergrad level courses.
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12-18-05, 09:23 PM
coldfuse

quote:
Originally posted by frankvan:
Isn't that what is meant by conservative ? Opposed to change ?

Have the progressive changes made in education over the last 45 years, on balance, been positive? Are teachers more effective than before? Are students learning more?
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12-18-05, 10:31 PM
DorianGreyed
"Have the progressive changes made in education over the last 45 years, on balance, been positive? Are teachers more effective than before? Are students learning more?"

I went through the school of education at a local university in the early 90s. The new methods of teaching, the widespread avaiability of computers, and the psychology of learning has improved teaching greatly, but, in many cases, there is just no substitute for a lecture and explanation from someone who knows the subject, and that is where schools of education often fail. People teach subjects in which they are not an expert. The things I mentioned above have helped greatly with K-6 students, and it shows on the tests I have linked to, but it is the upper grades that the expertise is lacking. I was certified to teach social sciences, literature, and English, which is fine; I know those subjects well. But I was also two courses away from being certified in science. (Those classes were not science classes, but a new middle school psych class and a new middle school methods class; both became requirements in the time between my graduation and certification.) There is no way I should ever teach a science class in middle school or high school unless absolutely no one with a science background could be found. Yet, in a school at which I was a long-term sub for a science teacher, I was told by several other teachers that I was teaching and students were learning more effectively than the regular teacher.

A big problem in education today is the amount of state and national testing done. Since jobs, funding, taxes, and reputations are linked to those results, administration stresses that the students must do well on the tests. That, of course, results in teaching the test. I promise you that anyone who was taught the test will do much better on that test, but retain very little, and often leave the class with no real understanding of what was just tested. Learning by rote has it place, but it cannot replace understanding. Anyone can memorize the list of US presidents, but understanding why they were elected, what the issues were at the time, and the results of the presidency is quite another matter.

Another problem, related to the one mentioned in the second paragraph, is the interference of the local school board, which is usually made up of would-be politicians, and not enough former teachers. (Yes, I am biased, but who is more fit to make decisions about education than a teacher?) As JR mentioned above, in many schools, athletes are not held to the same standards as other students, even in middle school and high school. When I was in high school, the wrestling coach was also the sponsor of the National Honor Society. Wrestlers were expected to get at least a C, and the smarter ones were expected to get an A in every subject. He once suspended possibly the best wrestler to ever attend the school for low grades. The wrestling team was and is known nationally as being one of, if not the, best; but he had his principles, and did not bend them even when he would have benefited. But football players were quite another matter. Many high schools do the same for their major sports, allowing star athletes to just get by, and pressuring teachers to pass a student athlete who shouldn't pass.

In K-12, there is also the problem of "social" promotions, that is, passing a student on to the next grade because he is old enough, or too old to be in the grade he academically qualifies for. Very often, these students are the discipline problems. I have heard only one legitimate reason for this, and it is a good one. In a middle school I taught in, I asked the principal, a fine man and a fine principal, why he allowed a certain student to go on to high school. This student was in the principal's office more than he was in any class, and couldn't have passed anything above 5th grade. The principal's answer wasn't nice, it wasn't politically correct, and it sounds like something a non-teacher would say, but I agreed with him after he said it. Quite simply, he said, "I won't have him (the student in question) infect any more of my students. Let him move along with the group he has already infected." I have no idea how many "social" promotions are based on this line of thought.

The last big problem that I want to mention is the parents. Far too many think that educating their child is solely the job of the school. If a parent sends a child to kindergarten not ready for kindergarten, whose fault is it? If a parent doesn't teach their child that learning is important, doesn't make time for their child, doesn't make sure (to the best of their ability) that their child gets enough rest, enough food, and enough time to study, that isn't the fault of the school, yet it is the school, and society that must deal with such children. If you want to see where many of the children who don't get that at home are after they leave school, visit the local juvvy hall, or even more adult facilities. A kid I tried to teach, one who had no chance at all, and who seriously wanted to kill me and said so, was arrested in St. Louis a few weeks ago. He was wanted in an investigation of a cop killing.


Note: Any typos are due to the fact that I never took a typing class, and not due to the failure of a teacher.
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12-19-05, 08:28 AM
frankvan

quote:
Originally posted by coldfuse:

quote:
Originally posted by frankvan:
Isn't that what is meant by conservative ? Opposed to change ?


Have the progressive changes made in education over the last 45 years, on balance, been positive? Are teachers more effective than before? Are students learning more?



Probably not, 'fuse. I'm afraid I was thinking about the red states and the intelligent design brouhaha. I'm losing brain cells at an alarming rate - and I can't afford to. Red Face
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12-19-05, 08:57 AM
coldfuse

quote:
Originally posted by frankvan:
I'm losing brain cells at an alarming rate - and I can't afford to.


For the purposes of economic development, and because of cultural and other alignments, Maryland is considered a Southern state (see the Southern Economic Development Council).

Welcome to "bubbathink" frank Big Grin.
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01-09-06, 01:19 PM
DorianGreyed
Fewer than half of U.S. eighth graders have math teachers who majored in math as undergraduates or graduate students or studied math for teacher certification. U.S. 12th graders recently performed below the international average for 21 countries on tests of general knowledge of math and science. - George Will in Newsweek
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"You get what you pay for." - John Arbuckle, Founder of Yuban Coffee
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01-09-06, 01:32 PM
aminator2002
Come on... you don't want a math major to teach your children! They can barely tie their shoes.
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01-09-06, 01:43 PM

FredPuli

quote:
Originally posted by aminator2002:

Do the other countries have mandatory education for 15 year olds?

.
Yes. In Europe most countries e.g Britain, set the school leaving age at 16. Poland, Hungary and Belgium have it at 18. The others have it set at 15.
72% of British children continue in full- time education beyond 16.
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01-09-06, 03:05 PM
DorianGreyed
To an extent, I agree, Ami. That is why I think a degree in teaching should require a major in the subject area along with all the education methods and psych classes now required. It should take 5 or 6 years, but that would truly prepare one to be able to teach a subject. In a middle school that I worked, I knew math better than both of the math teachers. That's a sad realization when you consider that I remember nothing above college algebra or analytic geometry. Frankly, I am not sure that I could even recognize a calculus problem anymore.
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01-21-06, 09:14 AM
methos
While the idea of teachers who know less math than DG is scary , I question the usefullness of Will's statistic. What my math-major friends were learning in college wouldn't have been particularly useful to someone teaching 8th grade. I have no idea what my 8th grade math teacher majored in, but my pre-calc and AP calc teacher (11th and 12th grades) majored in physics and knew far more math than was ever required for either class.
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01-21-06, 09:30 AM
DorianGreyed
Hey! I saw that!

This message has been edited. Last edited by: DorianGreyed,