AMERICAN ADULT LITERACY
Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC)
(1933-1942) The Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) camps were in operation.
The educational programs provided jobs for unemployed teachers. Standardized tests and interviews prior to entering CCC camps determined individuals’ educational needs. As a result, enrollees studied a wide range of subjects at a wide range of levels. Options included “elementary subjects” (reading, arithmetic, spelling); “high school subjects” (English, history, mathematics); “college subjects” (accounting, psychology, French); “vocational courses” (forestry, photography, agriculture); “correspondence courses” (diesel engineering, mechanical drawing, civil service); and “lectures” (health and hygiene, first aid, sanitation). One gap that CCC administrators considered critical to fill was that left by illiteracy, defined as “an inability to read a newspaper or write a simple letter” or less than three years of schooling (5).
2003 Adult Literacy Assessment NCES' "Literacy in Everyday Life" presents data from the 2003 National Assessment of Adult Literacy, the first assessment of the English literacy of adults (16 and up) in the U.S. since 1992.
Three types of literacy were measured: prose (news stories and instructional materials), document (job applications and food and drug labels), and quantitative (balancing a checkbook and figuring out a tip).
Between 1992 and 2003, there were no statistically significant changes in average prose and document literacy. However, average quantitative literacy increased. And, in a reversal from 1992, women had higher average prose and document literacy than their male peers in 2003. While men still recorded higher average quantitative literacy than women, that gap narrowed. Why does this matter? There is a clear, direct relationship between literacy and a number of future economic indicators, such as employment status, occupation, salary, and participation in public assistance programs. For example, a higher percentage of adults with high levels of literacy lived in households with incomes above $100,000. Moreover, parents at various literacy levels interact differently with children at home. For example, a higher percentage of adults with high prose literacy read to their children five or more times a week.
Literacy Levels of American Adults
~ Frank Forman
NCLB says by 2014 all children must be "proficient" in reading and mathematics. According to professor Edmund W. Gordon, "The ability to use knowledge to engage and solve problems, not just acquire knowledge, is increasingly the currency of advanced societies. The goal should be to develop such abilities in a broader range of young people."
What can so-called literate adults do? by Frank Foreman
We're often told that such and such a percentage have "basic" literacy, that so and so percent are "proficient," but we're rarely given the actual questions, or maybe just one or two.
I went to the National Assessment of Adult Literacy and then to the sample questions from the test. If this doesn't work try, http://www.nces.ed.gov/NAAL/SampleItems.asp?PageId=138 or just go to http://www.nces.ed.gov/NAAL/ and tool around.
Here are seven of the 96 at the site (text altered slightly to fit this web page). I am sending these to amaze you, since the actual questions are rarely publicized. The reason you'll probably be amazed is that most of us associate, except for short conversations lasting under one minute, almost entirely with those of similar literacy levels.
I'm also estimating what the rest of the world would come out.
World IQ averages about 90, so the 50th percentile for Americans (IQ 100) is the 75th percentile for the world. (I realize these are simplifications, but they'll do for now.)
FIRST QUESTION:
Find which energy source will supply more power in 2000 than it did in 1971, using this table.Estimated U.S. Power Consumption by Source (Quadrilion BTUs)
1971 |
1980 |
1985 |
2000 |
|
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Coal | 18.2% |
16.8% |
16.8% |
16.3% |
| Petroleum | 44.2% |
43.9% |
43.5% |
37.2% |
| Natural Gas | 32.9% |
28.1% |
24.3% |
17.7% |
| Nuclear Power | 6.0% |
7.0% |
10.1% |
25.7% |
| Hydropower |
4.1% |
4.2% |
3.7% |
3.1% |
| Total 10^12 BTU | 69.0 |
96.0 |
116.5 |
191.9 |
Source: US Department of Interior United States Energy Through the Year 2000
BTU: Quanity of heat required to raise the temperature of one pound of water one degree Fahrenheit.
SCORE:
Now if you said nuclear power, you figured out what 46% of adult Americans can't (and 71% of adults on this planet cannot either.)
[I'm just using a normal distribution table here, with world literacy approximating world intelligence, that is about 90, with Americans at 100. standard deviations are 15 throughout. This approximation is good enough here. I may be overestimating the rest of the world, to the extent their bad environment produces education worse than that in the United States.[ 1 ]
SECOND QUESTION:
Fill in product quantities, numbers, and descriptions on an order form.
You wish to order the following supplies:
1 24" teak book rack
1 carton sealer and 3 packages of transparent tape
2 sets of magazine files
Use the catalog page information to complete your order form.
Have the order shipped and billed to: Dr. Janet Cook, 1436 North Elm Street, Eugene, OR 97403 (phone: (503) 603-9410).
The image is that of a typical catalog that gives a picture, a description, product number, and price. Here's the from:
Ship To:
Name _______________________________________
Address ___________________________________
City ______________________________________
State ____________________ Zip __________
Telephone No. _______________________________
Quantity/ Product Number/ Product Description/ Price Each/ Total Price
_____ _____ _____ _____ _____
_____ _____ _____ _____ _____
etc.for several more lines.
[Use this table: PACKING AND GUARANTEED DELIVERY:
Orders to be shipped to the U.S.A., its territories or possessions, to EACH shipping address,
please add
_____________SUBTOTAL
_____________Shipping & Handling (SEE CHART)
_____________GRAND TOTAL
PACKING AND GUARANTEED DELIVERY:
Orders to be shipped to the U.S.A., its territories or possessions, to EACH shipping address,
Order Total Shipping Charge
Up to $15.00 $2.45
$15.01-$25.00 $3.45
$25.01-$50.00 $4.45
$50.01-$100.00 $5.95
SCORE:
If you can fill out this form, you can do what 54% Americans (and 19% of the world's) adults can do, just like the last question.
THIRD QUESTION:
Use the article to write a sentence that explains why the investigating committee thinks these practices are dangerous.
Panel: Sloppy work perils nuke plants
By THOMAS O'TOOLE
Washington Post
WASHINGTON--After investigating corruption in two of the nation's largest construction unions, the Senate Labor Committee charged Wednesday that so many incompetent welders and engineering technicians are helping build nuclear power plants it constitutes a national safety hazard.
"Unqualified workers have been routinely referred for work as skilled craftsmen, working qualification tests have been circumvented and favoritism is rampant in choosing who will work," according to a 72-page report released by the majority staff of the Senate Labor Committee.
The committee spent two years investigating the International Brotherhood of Boilermakers and one year investigating the International Union of Operating Engineers.
The report concluded that "new legislation to certify workers and make test cheating and extortion a federal crime is needed to ensure the safety, proficiency and durability of . . . construction sites."
The committee said that one of the most serious practices it uncovered is the sale of union cards for as much as $1,600 to welders who never took qualifying tests.
The committee also charged that experienced welders routinely took tests for inexperienced welders, who were then put to work on jobs that included the Three Mile Island and Beaver Valley nuclear plants in Pennsylvania and the Perry, Ohio, plan near Cleveland.
The committee said that one witness testified that "60 percent of the welders he worked with on the [TMI] fuel pool [where spent radioactive uranium was kept under water] were not qualified for the union journeyman books they held and had bought their books right on the job."
Another witness said that "some of the worst work I’ve ever seen" was done at the TMI fuel pool. The witness said "incompetent welders" made up to 25 or 30 bad welds in the pipe used to carry radioactive fuel, the report said. The witness added that the welders covered mistakes by "washing the bad welds down with a torch to make them all look uniform."
SCORE:
This is a much tougher exercise. Only 20% of American (6% of world) adults could write the required one sentence. This corresponds to an IQ 0f 113.
FOURTH QUESTION:
Category: Quantitative literacy.
You need to borrow $10,000. Find the ad for Home Equity Loans in the newspaper provided. Explain to the interviewer how you would compute the total amount of interest charges you would pay under this loan plan. Please tell the interviewer when you are ready to begin.
FIXED RATE * FIXED TERM
HOME EQUITY LOANS
Annual Percentage Rate 14.25%
Ten Year Term
SAMPLE MONTHLY REPAYMENT SCHEDULE
Amount Financed ___________Monthly Payment
$10,000 $156.77
$25,000 $391.93
$40,000 $627.09
120 Months 14.25% APR
SCORE:
This is also a tough question. 22% of adult Americans could explain to an interviewer that the way to calculate total interest charges is to multiply monthly payments by the number of months over which the loan is repaid then to subtract the amount loaned. It is not required to do the actual odoriferous business of multiplying $156.77 by 120 and subtracting $10,000, merely to state that this is what to do.
NOTE: Unfortunately, none of the questions put online were so difficult that only the "cognitive elite" (top 5% of the U.S., IQ 125, top 1.0% of the world).
FIFTH QUESTION:
Fill out a deposit slip.
You wish to deposit a $300 check and $57.23 in cash in a checking account.
Fill out your deposit slip to do so.
List both deposits and indicate the total amount deposited.
Date your deposit slip May 22, 1985.
NATIONAL BANK
Name____________________
_______________ 19_______
BE SURE EACH ITEM IS PROPERLY ENDORSED
CASH __________Dollars _________Cents
CHECKS
List Singly
Total Items
Total
SCORE:
This is an easier question and roughly marks the underclass, or the bottom 20% of the American population. In IQ terms this means 87. Forty-two percent of the world's adults have an IQ of 87 or above.
SIXTH QUESTION:
Find out a what age the swimmer began swimming competitively.
Swimmer completes Manhattan marathon - The Associated Press
NEW YORK-- University of Maryland Senior Stacy Chanin on Wednesday became the first person to swim three 28-mile laps around Manhattan.
Chanin, 23, of Virginia, climbed out of the East River at 96th Street at 9:30 p.m. She began the swim at noon on Tuesday.
A spokesman for the swimmer, Roy Brunett, said Chanin had kept up her strength with "banana and honey sandwiches, hot chocolate, lots of water and granola bars."
Chanin has twice circled Manhattan before and trained for the new feat by swimming about 28.4 miles a week. The Yonkers native has competed as a swimmer since she was 15 and hoped to persuade Olympic authorities to add a long-distance swimming event.
The Leukemia Society of America solicited pledges for each mile she swam.
In July 1983, Julie Ridge became the first person to swim around Manhattan twice. With her three laps, Chanin came up just short of Diana Nyads distance record, set on a Florida-to-Cuba swim. SEVERAL TASKS:
SCORE:
If you can tell at what age Chanin became swimming competitively, you're out of the American underclass, since your at or above the 25th percentile. That's IQ 90, the exact 50th percentile of the world.
SEVERAL TASKS:
Filling out various parts of this message slip.
James Davidson phones and asks to speak with Ann Jones, who is at a meeting. He needs to know if the contracts he sent are satisfactory and requests that she call before 2:00 p.m. His number is 259-3860. Fill in the message slip below
MESSAGE
_________________________________________ phoned
NAME OF THE CALLER OR VISITOR
of_______________________________________ visited
Phone number ____________________________
call_____ Return your call______ Will call again ______
URGENT
Message:
________________________
________________________
________________________
MESSAGE FOR:
Taken by _________________________________
Date____________
Time________
SCORES:
86% can write the name of the caller.
85% can write the number of the caller.
77% can write the name of the message recipient.
74% can check the "Please call" box.
61% can write the name of the message taker.
53% can write the telephone message.
REMEMBER, THESE ARE ADULTS, the end products of the educational system.
----------------------
Study Finds One-Third in D.C. Illiterate Mar 19 2007
About one-third of the people living in the national's capital are functionally illiterate, compared with about one-fifth nationally, according to a report on the District of Columbia. Adults are considered functionally illiterate if they have trouble doing such things as comprehending bus schedules, reading maps and filling out job applications. The study by the State Education Agency, a quasi-governmental office created by the U.S. Department of Education to distribute federal funds for literacy services, was ordered by Mayor Anthony A. Williams in 2003 as part of his four-year, $4 million adult literacy initiative.
The growing number of Hispanic and Ethiopian immigrants who aren't proficient in English contributed to the city's high functional illiteracy level, which translated to 170,000 people, said Connie Spinner, director of the State Education Agency. The report says the district's functional illiteracy rate is 36 percent and the nation's 21 percent.
Adults age 65 and older had the lowest literacy score of any group, the report found.
The District of Columbia Chamber of Commerce, which contributed to the report, said the city lost up to $107 million in taxes annually between 2000 and 2005 because of a lack of qualified job applicants.
