Hi all, Listened to the original webcast of this data release. A couple observations ...
We now have perhaps a clue why it took over 2 years and multiple delays of the planned release date since the end of field work to learn anything from this new data (and there is still more - e.g. about health literacy - that has yet to be released) as it doesn't look like the 'education president' and No Child Left Behind have moved any child or adult forward in terms of literacy skills. In fact, across all levels of education -- prose literacy skills declined in the past ten years. That is true for people with a graduate degree and for those with less than or some high school. For the other two 'types' of literacy the National Assessment of Adult Literacy (NAAL) measured, across education levels (from none or some high school to graduate degree) document literacy declined or remained unchanged and quantitative literacy remained unchanged. The administration spin tried to present the overall aggregate movement in average literacy rates as the most important point. However, any raise in 'average;' literacy level was created only because more people have a higher level education now than ten years ago (because of the way they analyzed the data so far, it is problematic to actually combine the prose, document, and quantitative literacy scores to determine an 'average'). But remember, people in this study with a graduate degree dropped 13 points in prose literacy and 17 points in document literacy as compared to those with a similar level of education ten years ago. What does all this mean? To my thinking, the shift in literacy rates the early look at the new data gives us is easily interpretable as a function of pushing more people through more years of schooling while actually teaching them less of the skills they need to survive and succeed in the world. In digital divide terms, it is entirely probably the new assessment will show that in terms of literacy the divide between the 'haves' and the 'have nots' has increased or, at the least, stayed the same (though we can't yet get to the original data to run that type of a complete analysis). Best wishes, Andrew Pleasant On 12/16/05, David Rosen <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > Andy and others, > > Thanks for posting this. > > It is important to note that the interpretation that NCES -- which > released the study -- gives to the decline in literacy for Hispanics > is increased immigration by Hispanic adults who may not speak English > or who may have had little schooling in their country of origin. > > There are some other findings worth noting: > > 1) Overall : No significant increases in U.S. adult literacy from > 1992-2003. > 2) Quantitative literacy skills are higher. > 3) The results show a strong correlation between literacy and > education level attainment > 4) As literacy increases so does the % of the population which is > fully employed (Of course this would also depend on the economy.) > 5) Median weekly earnings also go up with higher literacy levels. > > David J. Rosen > [EMAIL PROTECTED] > > > On Dec 16, 2005, at 3:19 PM, Andy Carvin wrote: > > > From the NY Times... -andy > > > > Literacy level falls for US college graduates > > > > The average American college graduate's literacy in English > > declined significantly over the past decade, according to results > > of a nationwide test released yesterday. The National Assessment of > > Adult Literacy, given in 2003 by the Department of Education, is > > the nation's most important test of how well adult Americans can > > read. The test also found steep declines in the English literacy of > > Hispanics in the United States, and significant increases among > > blacks and Asians. > > > > When the test was last administered, in 1992, 40 percent of the > > nation's college graduates scored at the proficient level, meaning > > that they were able to read lengthy, complex English texts and draw > > complicated inferences. But on the 2003 test, only 31 percent of > > the graduates demonstrated those high-level skills. There were 26.4 > > million college graduates. > > > > <snip> > > > > Among blacks and Asians, English literacy increased from 1992 to > > 2003. About 29 percent of blacks scored at either the intermediate > > or proficient levels in 1992, but in 2003, those rose to 33 > > percent. The percentage of blacks demonstrating "below basic" > > literacy declined to 24 percent from 30 percent. Asians scoring at > > either the intermediate or proficient levels rose to 54 percent > > from 45 percent in 1992. > > > > The same period saw big declines in Hispanics' English reading > > skills. In 1992, 35 percent of Hispanics demonstrated "below basic" > > English literacy, but by 2003 that segment had swelled to 44 > > percent. And at the higher-performing end of the literacy scale, > > the proportion of Hispanics demonstrating intermediate or > > proficient English skills dropped to 27 percent from 33 percent in > > 1992. > > > > <snip> > > > > http://www.nytimes.com/2005/12/16/education/16literacy.html > > > > > > -- > > ----------------------------------- > > Andy Carvin > > Program Director > > EDC Center for Media & Community > > acarvin @ edc . org > > http://www.digitaldivide.net > > http://katrina05.blogspot.com > > Blog: http://www.andycarvin.com > > ----------------------------------- > > _______________________________________________ > > DIGITALDIVIDE mailing list > > DIGITALDIVIDE@mailman.edc.org > > http://mailman.edc.org/mailman/listinfo/digitaldivide > > To unsubscribe, send a message to digitaldivide- > > [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the word UNSUBSCRIBE in the body of > > the message. > > _______________________________________________ > DIGITALDIVIDE mailing list > DIGITALDIVIDE@mailman.edc.org > http://mailman.edc.org/mailman/listinfo/digitaldivide > To unsubscribe, send a message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] the word UNSUBSCRIBE in > the body of the message. > _______________________________________________ DIGITALDIVIDE mailing list DIGITALDIVIDE@mailman.edc.org http://mailman.edc.org/mailman/listinfo/digitaldivide To unsubscribe, send a message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the word UNSUBSCRIBE in the body of the message.
