Our Golden Road to Illiteracy

RECENTLY many Americans were stunned by test scores appearing in a $14-million National Adult Literacy Survey. Though most of the 180 million adults in this survey have attended school for 12 years, over 96 per cent (174 million) can’t read, write, and figure well enough to go to college; two-thirds (120 million) do not have the “literacy proficiency” to go to high school; and nearly a fourth (40 to 44 million) can’t read. Some can sign their names. A few have learned to fill in the height, weight, age, and birthdate blanks on forms. But they can’t really read.

In fact—as neither the Education Department professionals nor the media experts seem to have noticed— there is nothing new about this news. These scores are congruent with the scores on the National Assessment of Educational Progress tests over the last twenty years. Indeed, they are almost the same as the percentages on Armed Forces Qualification Tests that appalled President Johnson during the Vietnam War. In 1964, 20 per cent of Selective Service registrants were making scores in the Army’s lowest, non-inductible Category V. And another 20 per cent were making scores almost as low, in Category IV.

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Regna Lee Wood

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RECENTLY many Americans were stunned by test scores appearing in a $14-million National Adult Literacy Survey. Though most of the 180 million adults in this survey have attended school for 12 years, over 96 per cent (174 million) can’t read, write, and figure well enough to go to college; two-thirds (120 million) do not have the “literacy proficiency” to go to high school; and nearly a fourth (40 to 44 million) can’t read. Some can sign their names. A few have learned to fill in the height, weight, age, and birthdate blanks on forms. But they can’t really read.

In fact—as neither the Education Department professionals nor the media experts seem to have noticed— there is nothing new about this news. These scores are congruent with the scores on the National Assessment of Educational Progress tests over the last twenty years. Indeed, they are almost the same as the percentages on Armed Forces Qualification Tests that appalled President Johnson during the Vietnam War. In 1964, 20 per cent of Selective Service registrants were making scores in the Army’s lowest, non-inductible Category V. And another 20 per cent were making scores almost as low, in Category IV.