So concludes the most comprehensive study of literacy ever done of Americans. Released last week by the U.S. Department of Education, the report offers an appalling portrait of the population’s proficiency with words and numbers. It, too, seems to confirm some of the worst fears of business leaders and educators: American workers–and not just the latest wave of immigrants–appear ill equipped to compete globally, and and high schools are hardly helping by awarding degrees to students barely able to read or write. “This should be a wake-up call,” says Education Secretary Richard Riley. “The vast majority of Americans do not know that they do not have the skills to earn a living in our increasingly technological society and international marketplace.”
Sure, Johnny can read simple prose. And Mary can add a couple of integers all right. The problem is their inability to make practical use of those skills in everyday life. Nearly half of the nation’s 191 million adults, the study says, cannot do such tasks as fill out a bank-deposit slip, compute the cost of carpeting a room or translate information from a table to a graph. And heaven help them if they need to find a Saturday departure on a bus schedule (chart, page 45). Despite those facts, most of the 26,000 randomly selected participants in the literacy study said they were able to read and write English “well” or “very well.” “Yeah, we’re dumber than we thought we were,” says William Bennett, secretary of education under President Reagan and current conservative activist.
The last major federal study on literacy was in 1975. It concluded that roughly 25 million American adults were functionally illiterate–far below the numbers revealed in last week’s landmark report. Part of the reason for the increase is that the definitions have been changed. Traditionally, illiteracy has referred only to folks who signed their names “X” or hadn’t graduated at least from a low grade. Now the net has been cast wider. “This test revealed that many people can read in the technical sense that they can decode the words, says Irwin Kirsch, project director for the $14 million Education Department survey, which Congress commissioned five years ago. “But they lack the strategies and skills needed to use the information.” Case in point: half of the individuals scoring in the lowest 20 percent graduated from high school. “Does a high school diploma mean anything today?” asks Bennett. “No. 2 the report’s other findings:
Literacy among 21- to 25-year-olds is dropping, when compared with a similar study from 1985. The likely cause is the dramatic increase in young Hispanics in the population, many of whom were born in other countries and are learning English as a second language. They might do better if the test were given in other languages, but the study only set out to measure English literacy, and those who conducted the study point out that American commerce is still primarily done in English.
White Americans outscored other ethnic groups, who, with the exception of Asians/Pacific Islanders, had less education or, with the exception of blacks, were more likely to speak English as a second language. Blacks scored worse, according to the study, because schools they attend are poorer than ones whites attend.
Among the worst performers were immigrants, the elderly and inmates. The elderly ‘in particular constituted a disproportionate percentage of those in the lowest literacy level.
Men did about as well as women in reading skills but were better at math and interpreting documents.
Individuals with higher literacy more often were employed and earned higher wages. Those with the lowest test scores earned an average of $230 a week; those with the highest, about $680.
Of course, the more education a person had, the better he or she did. Nonetheless, 4 percent of college graduates tested at the lowest levels.
The survey results are especially worrisome because many employers now need workers with higher math and reading skills. “During various transition periods of our history, society’s demands outstrip the skills of the people,” Kirsch says. “We’re now moving away from a manufacturing society to an information society.” That means workers will need more interpretative abilities and less of the rote skills prized on the assembly line. Kirsch and others, including President Clinton, have long urged redoubled efforts to educate and train Americans. By some estimates, employers are spending as much as $50 billion to try to eliminate the kind of practical illiteracy that the new study describes.
The alarm sounded by American business, of course, raises again the specter of the United States being overtaken by the more qualified work forces of other Western nations. Maybe so, but they’re about to get the treatment as well. The literacy test is being exported to eight other countries–Germany, Canada, Mexico, Ireland, France, Poland, Switzerland and the Netherlands–with a report due out in 1995. They, too, could be in for a few surprises.
