Levels of Literacy - Adult literacy declines in new age

Levels of literacy: Adult literacy declines in new age
Columbia Missourian: November 14, 2008 by Kelsi Stoltenow

COLUMBIA — Even if you can read this, you might still be illiterate.

Although Americans can read at roughly the same level they could in the early 1990s, the demands of work, family and civic life require higher levels of literacy than they did before.

In a 2007 academic report, "America's Perfect Storm," Andrew Sum, a professor in labor economics at Northeastern University in Boston, found by 2030, the average literacy levels of adults will have decreased by 5 percent.

If Sum's prediction is correct, it will be the first time in U.S. history that a generation is replaced with one less educated. Already this is evident in the workplace, at home and in the chronic illiteracy that persists in American society.

~ As the U.S. trades its old manufacturing jobs for high-tech computer jobs, fewer and fewer Americans have the literacy and other skills employers need their employees to have.

~ A child’s literacy level increases with the number of books at home, but the number of books any adult is likely to read and keep in the home grows smaller each year.

~ About $238 billion worth of medical-related mistakes are made each year in the U.S. because of citizens’ low health literacy.

~ In a seemingly borderless global civilization, there were still 7 million illiterate adults in the U.S. in 2003 (out of about 254 million adults).

A 2007 study [To Read or Not To Read: A Question of National Consequence] completed by the National Endowment of the Arts found employers identify lack of skills in written communication as the most common employee deficiency. Employers also cite reading comprehension as a common deficiency among employees. READ MORE