Took a while to find this. Research by Americans, not by ME!
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Literacy levels among the educated must not continue recent decline
After years of hand-wringing about literacy in the United States, Congress
passed the National Literacy Act of 1991. The aim was to make improved
literacy a priority.
The federal government did a base-line assessment of national literacy in
1992. Now, the government has released the first follow-up. The results are
a big disappointment.
Overall, literacy has remained flat. In 1992, 83 percent of the population
16 and older were at basic literacy or above. That remained virtually the
same in 2003 (84 percent).
The bigger disappointment is that literacy is slipping at every level of
education. Educated Americans remain literate, but their capability in
processing complex information is declining.
That presents a quandary. Should we put our efforts into bringing the 17
percent of illiterate or barely literate adults up to basic literacy? Or
should we focus on improving the literacy of those who will graduate from
high school, college or postgraduate institutions? In an ideal world, we
would do both. But the more alarming dip is in the educated population. We
can more easily reach those individuals.
Part of the problem is that our culture is more oral and visual. With
television, cell phones, video games, etc., people increasingly deal with
flashes of information.
Educational institutions must swim upstream to get students to interpret and
analyze lengthy, difficult passages of words.
To see the problem in stark form, look at what's happened to college
graduates in the past decade.
They remain literate: 98 percent are at basic literacy or above (it was 99
percent in 1992). That looks like there's no problem. "Basic" means a person
can perform simple tasks such as interpreting instructions from an appliance
warranty or writing a letter explaining an error made on a credit card bill.
But then look at intermediate literacy or above: 84 percent are at that
level, compared with 89 percent in 1992. That's a five-point slip in skills
such as explaining the difference between two types of employee benefits,
using a bus schedule to determine an appropriate route or using a pamphlet
to calculate the yearly amount a couple would receive for basic Supplemental
Security Income.
But the biggest slip is at the proficient level: Only 31 percent are at this
highest level, compared with 40 percent in 1992. That's a nine-point slip in
mastery of complex activities such as critically evaluating information in
legal documents, comparing viewpoints in two editorials or interpreting a
table about blood pressure and physical activity.
We cannot afford to have our most educated population drop in complex
literacy levels. The task falls mostly to our schools, but they cannot do it
alone. Others, from parents to libraries, must limit the video games and
make reading fun again.
http://www.modbee.com/opinion/story/11668996p-12397206c.html
