Let’s Start Improving Literacy

Most of my blog posts are directed toward relevant topics in higher education, education technology, workforce development, and education in general. Occasionally, I post a few personal thoughts about my family or my new hometown of Austin, Texas.

The headline of an article written by Emily Schmidt and published by the APM Research Lab in March of 2022 drew my attention. The headline – Reading the Numbers: 130 Million American Adults Have Low Literacy Skills, But Funding Differs Drastically by State – was deserving of many people’s attention.

Ms. Schmidt writes about a Gallup analysis of data reported by the U.S. Department of Education. The Gallup analysis was completed for the Barbara Bush Foundation for Family Literacy and focused on the economic cost of low adult literacy. Gallup concluded that the low literacy rate in the U.S. costs our economy the equivalent of $2.2 trillion per year.

The focus of Ms. Schmidt’s article was less on the economic benefit of improving literacy and more on the solutions to improve it as well as the discrepancies in funding, state by state. One of her sources of information was Dr. Iris Feinberg, associate director of the Adult Literacy Research Center at Georgia State University. Dr. Feinberg stated that low literacy skills can occur with anyone, not just the poor. She noted that adult literacy has been underfunded and not well researched in academia.

The data that formed the basis for the Department of Education release reviewed by Gallup was the Survey of Adult Skills designed by the OECD and conducted by the U.S. Department of Education from 2012-2017. The survey measures adults’ proficiency in information processing skills – literacy, numeracy and problem solving – and collects information on how adults use their skills at home, work, and in the community. The U.S. ranked 16th out of 39 countries and economies that were surveyed.

The Survey of Adult Skills defines five levels of literacy with Level 5 as the highest and Level 1 as the lowest. Simply put, the results are not good. More than 20 percent (22%) of U.S. adults have a literary proficiency at or below Level 1. According to Ms. Schmidt, adults who scored at this level have difficulty using or understanding printed materials. More than 30 percent (32%) of U.S. adults have a literary proficiency of Level 2. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to realize that less than 50 percent (46%) of adults have a literary proficiency at or above Level 3. Sadly, most of the 46 percent (33% overall) are clustered in the Level 3 category.

Ms. Schmidt notes that the 10 counties in the U.S. with the highest percentages of their populations at or below Level 1 literacy are in Texas along the U.S.-Mexican border. She notes that the OECD division responsible for conducting the survey provides an indirect literacy estimation at the county level for all 50 states. Some of these counties have high populations of immigrants whose first language is not English. The APM Research Lab has a partnership with Arizona State’s Ten Across initiative which looks at the 10 states on our Southern border that frame the Interstate 10 corridor. All 10 of these states have higher than average Level 1 scores.

Citing Dr. Feinberg, Ms. Schmidt writes that adults who have poor reading skills tend to live in communities with few resources, also called a “print desert” due to little signage beyond local stores and few libraries or bookstores. Adults living in these communities likely went to schools supported by a low-income tax base. They likely have poor internet access and can’t use it if they can’t spell.

There are adult literacy programs, but their enrollments have decreased substantially over the past 20 years due to lack of funding and public schools increasing their percentages of high school graduates. In 2001-2002, 2.8 million adults were enrolled in adult literacy programs. That number decreased to 1.1 million adults in 2019-2020. Federal funding is based on the percentage of people without a high school diploma.

Ms. Schmidt’s team at APM looked at the differences in federal and state funding for Minnesota and New Mexico, two states at the opposite end of the literacy scores. With the highest scores in the U.S., 57 percent of Minnesota adults scored at or above a Level 3 proficiency. On the low end, 29 percent of New Mexico’s adults scored at or below a Level 1 proficiency. With less than half of the population of Minnesota, New Mexico receives nearly 75 percent of the level of federal funding sent to Minnesota ($5.1 million vs. $6,9 million). At the state funding level, the funding levels are dramatically different with New Mexico’s state funding for adult literacy at $6.2 million and Minnesota’s funding at $49.8 million. When these funding amounts are broken down by participant, Minnesota’s state aid is 2.5 times greater per participant.

Citing the research that Gallup did for the Barbara Bush Foundation, Ms. Schmidt writes that Minnesota’s higher adult literacy education funding may be worth the investment given the $2.2 trillion annual national impact. If every adult in Minnesota achieves a Level 3 proficiency, the cost could become a gain.

While immigration is cited as a reason for low literacy and high Level 1 percentages, low resources and a low tax base are also cited. If a low tax base provides fewer adult literacy program funds, imagine what it might be providing (or not providing) for K-12 education.

America’s K-12 education outcomes have been slipping for years and despite increasing funding per pupil, we have seen little improvement. The explanations for this are myriad, but if we want to make an impact, why wouldn’t we increase our spending on adult literacy and improving reading instructional programs in PreK-3? Few companies are going to hire workers whose reading levels are at Level 1 unless it’s for the lowest of manual laborer positions where reading skills are not needed at all. The reason I emphasized PreK through 3rd grade is that the earlier a child learns to read, the better they perform in school. In areas with “print deserts,” funding can be extended to cover grades beyond 3rd grade based on local needs. It will be tough for a child with immigrant parents living in a print desert to get support at home which is another reason to increase the funding support for adult literacy as well. The longer a child goes without learning how to read at an age-appropriate level, the more difficult the rest of their life will be. The longer an adult goes without learning how to read beyond Level 1, the more difficult it will be to earn a decent wage, find opportunities for advancement, and provide for your family.

Subjects of Interest

EdTech

Higher Education

Independent Schools

K-12

Student Persistence

Workforce