I used to work for a municipal literacy program and the number we had on file was an 87% for "functional literacy" as in an ability to do basic tasks and write one's own name, not necessarily the ability to read a full paragraph and understand the information. I've seen wildly varying rates from other studies. America is pretty touchy about simply announcing a standardized, formal literacy rate, I've noticed.
I remember checking this out recently, it's a fun one (although I don't remember if America actually was significantly worse than other developed countries):
4% of Americans are nonliterate. Most can identify 1 piece of information on a familiar paper.
14% are below-basic. They can identify which candidate earned the fewest votes from a simple table identifying three candidates and the number of votes they received.
34% have basic literacy levels. (7/8th grade reading level.) Most can count the number of countries in which the generic drug market accounts for 10% or more of drug sales from two paragraphs and a chart of generic drug use in 15 countries.
36% have intermediate literacy levels, most can identify the link leading to the organization’s phone number from a website with several links, including “contact us” and “FAQ.”
12% are proficiently literate and can click to the second page of search results from a library website to identify the author of a book called Ecomyth.
2% can review search results from a library website to identify a book suggesting that the claims made both for and against genetically modified foods are unreliable.
I used to work for a municipal literacy program and the number we had on file was an 87% for "functional literacy" as in an ability to do basic tasks and write one's own name, not necessarily the ability to read a full paragraph and understand the information. I've seen wildly varying rates from other studies. America is pretty touchy about simply announcing a standardized, formal literacy rate, I've noticed.
I remember checking this out recently, it's a fun one (although I don't remember if America actually was significantly worse than other developed countries):
4% of Americans are nonliterate. Most can identify 1 piece of information on a familiar paper.
14% are below-basic. They can identify which candidate earned the fewest votes from a simple table identifying three candidates and the number of votes they received.
34% have basic literacy levels. (7/8th grade reading level.) Most can count the number of countries in which the generic drug market accounts for 10% or more of drug sales from two paragraphs and a chart of generic drug use in 15 countries.
36% have intermediate literacy levels, most can identify the link leading to the organization’s phone number from a website with several links, including “contact us” and “FAQ.”
12% are proficiently literate and can click to the second page of search results from a library website to identify the author of a book called Ecomyth.
2% can review search results from a library website to identify a book suggesting that the claims made both for and against genetically modified foods are unreliable.
Where is this particular study from? It's got an interesting way of framing the data. I like it.
Also, having a 4% nonliterate rate automatically places America behind most developed nations and behind more than a few developing ones.