Literacy

Literacy is the ability to read and write, which are skills that form the educational foundation to prepare individuals to meet their own economic needs and contribute to the social and economic development of their communities and nations. The United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) and the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) are among the international organizations that have responded to the global emphasis on improving literacy.

The global adult literacy rate in 2022 was 87 percent, according to the World Bank. Although adult literacy rates have improved worldwide in the twenty-first century, disparities in literacy rates have remained. One such gap is the literacy gender gap. In 2022, women had a literacy rate of 84 percent, compared to 90 percent for men, and comprised about two-thirds of adults who were illiterate in 2024. In both developing and developed countries, literacy rates are closely tied to poverty rates. Countries with lower poverty rates had higher literacy rates than countries with higher poverty rates.

Background

In his State of the Union address in January 1964, President Lyndon B. Johnson announced that the federal government was committed to fighting the War on Poverty. Three months later, Johnson submitted the Economic Opportunity Act of 1964 to Congress, maintaining that the program was designed to help young Americans develop the necessary skills to successfully enter the workplace. That summer, the Head Start program was launched to provide assistance to low-income preschool children and provide them with the reading skills necessary to enter school. In 1965, Congress passed the Elementary and Secondary School Act, which supported integration and denied federal funds to schools that were still racially segregated. Title I of the act established federal funding for special programs, teacher salaries, and testing for low-income schools in order to level out racial and socioeconomic differences in reading skills.

While much criticism has been leveled against the United States for lagging behind other industrialized countries on standardized tests, those differences disappear when poverty is factored in. Students attending middle- and upper-income schools perform similarly to those in other countries. Between 1970 and 2011, the gap between low-income students and others grew by 40 percent. Much of that increase was due to the aftermath of the Reaganomics setbacks suffered in the 1980s (economic policies during the Reagan administration that emphasized downsizing government by making large cuts to social programs, including education programs that targeted disadvantaged students).

Youth and adults who are illiterate may face a lifetime of poverty as a result of being either unemployable or being limited to low-paying, low-skill jobs. In 1998, through the Workforce Investment Act (WIA), Congress authorized funding for adult literacy programs. Title II of the WIA, called the Adult Education and Family Literacy Act, funded state grants for the development of adult literacy programs, to help illiterate parents learn the skills needed to assist their children in developing literacy skills, and provide assistance in obtaining a high school diploma. Special programs were established to offer literacy and academic assistance to American Indian and Hawaiian youths who lived on reservations in Oklahoma, Alaska, and Hawaii.

US adult literacy levels gradually improved on a percentage basis between 1992 and 2013. In 1992 and again in 2003, the National Center for Educational Standards examined literacy in the United States. In 1992, 26 percent of the nation’s adults had a below basic literacy level, while the 2003 study revealed 22 percent of the nation’s adults scored in the below basic literacy level. In 2013, the US Department of Education published illiteracy statistics for the nation, which revealed that 14 percent of the US population, or 32 million individuals, could not read. By 2018, those numbers had remained essentially consistent.

In “Profiting from a Child’s Illiteracy,” an op-ed article for the New York Times on December 7, 2012, Nicholas Kristof, a Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist, spoke out in favor of intervention programs that assist parents in helping children learn literacy skills. At that time, 8 percent of low-income children were classified as disabled, which allowed them to receive Supplement Security Income (SSI). Kristof noted that some parents remove their children from literacy classes out of the fear that the monthly SSI checks that are needed for survival will disappear.

In his 2010 State of the Union Address, President Barack Obama stressed that education is the key to fighting poverty and improving the standard of living for America’s poor. In June of that year, the National Governors Association for Best Practices and the Council of Chief State School Officers announced its support for the Common Core State Standards as a way of improving literacy in American schools and preparing students for college or the workplace after high school graduation. Common Core Standards establish grade-appropriate literacy benchmarks for students in kindergarten through twelfth grade in English, history and social studies, math and science, and technical subjects. By June 2014, Texas, Nebraska, Oklahoma, Alaska, Virginia, Indiana, and South Carolina had either not adopted or had adopted and later rejected the Common Core Standards. Minnesota had adopted only English standards. By 2024, forty states had adopted Common Core; five states had adopted it, but later repealed it; four had never adopted it; and one state, Minnesota, had partially adopted it.

Literacy Today

Education experts suggest that test scores can be improved by enhancing professional standards of teaching and administrative staffs, creating focused learning climates for students, involving both parents and communities in the learning process, and setting specific learning goals. Numerous studies have demonstrated that reading to children is the most important factor in encouraging them to develop reading skills, but low-income parents are less likely than those from higher income brackets to read to their children. The failure to read may be a result of a parent’s own inadequate literacy skills or a lack of time because of working long hours. Experts agree that low-income students are more likely to perform well in school when their basic needs for food, housing, and health care are addressed.

Reports on the number of children playing video games in the United States suggest that an overwhelming majority of children and youths between the ages of two and seventeen play video and/or online games, and some literacy experts advocate using that love of gaming to improve literacy skills: Players may read Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs), walkthroughs, cheats, codes, and other text material to improve their gaming performance, which many teachers find may also increase students’ literacy skills.

Biliteracy

In addition to continuing to emphasize the overall importance of literacy, several states have begun more actively promoting the concept of biliteracy. Experts have long argued that the ability to read, speak, and write in more than one language is an increasingly crucial skill, particularly in terms of competitive employment. As part of an organized effort to motivate young adults to become biliterate, in 2011 California started participating in a program that awards those high school graduates who qualify with an official, state-approved Seal of Biliteracy. This seal is placed on the graduate's diploma or transcript to recognize achievement in mastering reading, writing, and speaking two or more languages. By 2024, all fifty states and the District of Columbia offered state-approved Seals of Biliteracy.

Bibliography

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"Frequently Asked Questions." Seal of Biliteracy, 2024, sealofbiliteracy.org/faq. Accessed 1 Oct. 2024.

Kristof, Nicholas D. “Profiting from a Child’s Illiteracy.” The New York Times, 7 Dec. 2012, www.nytimes.com/2012/12/09/opinion/sunday/kristof-profiting-from-a-childs-illiteracy.html. Accessed 22 Oct. 2014.

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"Literacy Rate, Adult Total (% of People Ages 15 and Above), 1970-2023." World Bank Group: Data, 24 Apr. 2024, data.worldbank.org/indicator/SE.ADT.LITR.ZS. Accessed 1 Oct. 2024.

Literacy Rates Continue to Rise from One Generation to the Next. UNESCO, Sept. 2017, uis.unesco.org/sites/default/files/documents/fs45-literacy-rates-continue-rise-generation-to-next-en-2017.pdf. Accessed 6 Aug. 2018.

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Shannon, Patrick. Reading Poverty in America. Routledge, 2014.

St. George, Donna. "A New Marker of Success at Graduation: The Seal of Biliteracy." The Washington Post, 7 June 2017, www.washingtonpost.com/local/education/a-new-marker-of-success-at-graduation-the-seal-of-biliteracy/2017/06/02/240c79ce-46da-11e7-bcde-624ad94170ab‗story.html. Accessed 6 Aug. 2018.

Teaching and Learning: Achieving Quality for All; 2013/4. UNESCO, 29 Jan. 2014, unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0022/002256/225660e.pdf. Accessed 2 Sept. 2014.

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