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Spazmatic · 03-25-2006, 01:16 PM

Journalists, like any subpopulation, are prone to severe exaggeration or outright lies when it comes to their own interests. Approach with caution.

American literacy is NOT falling. In fact, it is still climbing upwards. NAAL, for instance, found a small but significant increase at every level of literacy. Similar studies elsewhere have found similar results.

Nor, if you use a historical definition of complex literacy, is complex literacy falling. That is, if you compare complex literacy in America now to complex literacy in America X number of years ago, using the measures from X number of years ago, you would not see a decrease. In fact, you'd see a substantial increase. (As I will address later, however, the bar for complex literacy today should be placed higher.)

In terms of technical vocabulary, most Americans have seen an improvement measured in orders of magnitude over the technical vocabulary of their parents. There are also noted increases in general vocabulary.

So, why do journalists say literacy rates are falling?

First, there hasn't been any substantial gains in years. In a sense, the derivative has fallen off - which makes a reasonable amount of sense since estimates of overall American literacy range from 97-98%. It's hard to get that last 2%.

However, more importantly, there are some other, very important issues. When reports appear about these issues, journalists tend to relay them incorrectly as "American literacy rates are falling". They are far more nuanced, but equally dire problems.

First, literacy rates amongst children increase at a far slower rate than any those in any other industrialized nation. There are obviously issues with different definitions of literacy in different nations. However, when children in other countries are routinely outperforming Americans on ENGLISH exams, there's some reason to worry. This does not mean fewer Americans will grow up to be literate - however, the level of literacy they achieve is expected to be lower.

Second, the world is demanding increasingly complex literacy at a very rapid rate, but the average American's literacy has improved only marginally over the last ten years. While you didn't need very complex literacy to handle life in the past, the modern era demands the ability to handle signing contracts and reading laws and understanding new political rhetoric, all of which is soaked in complex language. Similarly, when compared with complex literacy around the world, Americans are beginning to falter.

Also, taking "Americans" in general as a category is highly misleading. In any comparison I know of with students in other countries, suburban American students match or out perform those countries' suburban students. However, urban students perform below those countries' urban students. Similar statements can be made about minority groups. This is the so called "achievement gap". The growing achievement gap in many areas (despite efforts to shrink it) is often mislabeled by journalists as "American literacy is falling". While a very important issue, it is not a sign of falling literacy.

P.S. Eppy, perhaps you should post a thread in either TMC or TMS telling people what you want, so they can suggest a mud? It's generally a fairly successful enterprise.

03-25-2006, 01:16 PM	#7
Spazmatic Member Join Date: Mar 2003 Posts: 103	Journalists, like any subpopulation, are prone to severe exaggeration or outright lies when it comes to their own interests. Approach with caution. American literacy is NOT falling. In fact, it is still climbing upwards. NAAL, for instance, found a small but significant increase at every level of literacy. Similar studies elsewhere have found similar results. Nor, if you use a historical definition of complex literacy, is complex literacy falling. That is, if you compare complex literacy in America now to complex literacy in America X number of years ago, using the measures from X number of years ago, you would not see a decrease. In fact, you'd see a substantial increase. (As I will address later, however, the bar for complex literacy today should be placed higher.) In terms of technical vocabulary, most Americans have seen an improvement measured in orders of magnitude over the technical vocabulary of their parents. There are also noted increases in general vocabulary. So, why do journalists say literacy rates are falling? First, there hasn't been any substantial gains in years. In a sense, the derivative has fallen off - which makes a reasonable amount of sense since estimates of overall American literacy range from 97-98%. It's hard to get that last 2%. However, more importantly, there are some other, very important issues. When reports appear about these issues, journalists tend to relay them incorrectly as "American literacy rates are falling". They are far more nuanced, but equally dire problems. First, literacy rates amongst children increase at a far slower rate than any those in any other industrialized nation. There are obviously issues with different definitions of literacy in different nations. However, when children in other countries are routinely outperforming Americans on ENGLISH exams, there's some reason to worry. This does not mean fewer Americans will grow up to be literate - however, the level of literacy they achieve is expected to be lower. Second, the world is demanding increasingly complex literacy at a very rapid rate, but the average American's literacy has improved only marginally over the last ten years. While you didn't need very complex literacy to handle life in the past, the modern era demands the ability to handle signing contracts and reading laws and understanding new political rhetoric, all of which is soaked in complex language. Similarly, when compared with complex literacy around the world, Americans are beginning to falter. Also, taking "Americans" in general as a category is highly misleading. In any comparison I know of with students in other countries, suburban American students match or out perform those countries' suburban students. However, urban students perform below those countries' urban students. Similar statements can be made about minority groups. This is the so called "achievement gap". The growing achievement gap in many areas (despite efforts to shrink it) is often mislabeled by journalists as "American literacy is falling". While a very important issue, it is not a sign of falling literacy. P.S. Eppy, perhaps you should post a thread in either TMC or TMS telling people what you want, so they can suggest a mud? It's generally a fairly successful enterprise.