Journal ArticleDOI
Literacy and reading performance in the United States, from 1880 to the present
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TLDR
The authors reviewed literacy and reading achievement trends over the past century and place current debates in a historical perspective, and suggested that students' reading performance at a given age remained stable until the 1970s and much of it can be explained by the changing demographics of test-takers.Abstract:
THE AUTHORS review literacy and reading achievement trends over the past century and place current debates in a historical perspective. Although then-and-now studies are methodologically weak, they suggest that students' reading performance at a given age remained stable until the 1970s. The test score decline that then occurred was not as great as many educators think, and much of it can be explained by the changing demographics of test-takers. The decline pales when compared to the tremendous increase in the population's educational attainment over the past 40 years. However, the strategy of ever-increasing schooling to meet ever-increasing literacy demands may have run its course. High school dropout rates are increasing, and educational attainment has leveled off. Researchers have identified substantial mismatches between workers' skills and job demands, and between job and school literacy skills. In spite of their flaws, functional literacy tests suggest that 20 percent of the adult population, or 30 million people, have serious difficulties with common reading tasks. Upgrading literacy skills now requires new initiatives by coalitions of educators, community groups, employers, and government agencies.read more
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BookDOI
Health literacy : a prescription to end confusion
TL;DR: Health Literacy: Prescription to End Confusion examines the body of knowledge that applies to the field of health literacy, and recommends actions to promote a health literate society.
Journal ArticleDOI
Schooling and the Acquisition of Knowledge
Journal ArticleDOI
Health Literacy Among Medicare Enrollees in a Managed Care Organization
Julie A. Gazmararian,David W. Baker,Mark V. Williams,Ruth M. Parker,Tracy Scott,Diane C. Green,S N Fehrenbach,J Ren,Jeffrey P. Koplan +8 more
TL;DR: Elderly managed care enrollees may not have the literacy skills necessary to function adequately in the health care environment, and low health literacy may impair elderly patients' understanding of health messages and limit their ability to care for their medical problems.
Health Literacy: Report of the Council on Scientific Affairs
Parker Rm,Williams Mv,Weiss Bd,Baker Dw,Davis Tc,Doak Cc,Doak Lg,K. Hein,Meade Cd,J. Nurss,Schwartzberg Jg,Somers Sa,Davis Rm,Riggs Ja,Champion Hc,Howe Jp,Altman Rd,Deitchman Sd,M. Genel,Karlan Ms,Khan Mk,Nielsen Nh,Williams Ma,Young Dc,J. Schwartzberg,Bresolin Lb,Dickinson Bd +26 more
Journal ArticleDOI
Intelligence: Is It the Epidemiologists' Elusive "Fundamental Cause" of Social Class Inequalities in Health?
TL;DR: Various bodies of evidence are concatenated to demonstrate that differences in general intelligence (g) may be that fundamental cause of health inequalities.
References
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Book
Ways with Words: Language, Life and Work in Communities and Classrooms
TL;DR: In this article, the piedmont: textile mills and times of change, and the teaching of how to talk in Trackton and Roadville, are discussed, as well as the teachers as learners and the townspeople.
Journal ArticleDOI
Ways with Words: Language, Life and Work in Communities and Classrooms
TL;DR: In this article, the piedmont: textile mills and times of change, and the teaching of how to talk in Trackton and Roadville, are discussed, as well as the teachers as learners and the townspeople.
Book
The Mismeasure of Man
TL;DR: The Mismeasure of man was immediately hailed as a masterwork, the ringing answer to those who would classify people, rank them according to their supposed genetic gifts and limits, and yet the idea of innate limits-of biology as destiny-dies hard, as witness the attention devoted to The Bell Curve, whose arguments are here so effectively anticipated and thoroughly undermined by Stephen Jay Gould.
Book
Inequality : a reassessment of the effect of family and schooling in America
TL;DR: Most Americans say they believe in equality. But when pressed to explain what they mean by this, their definitions are usually full of contradictions as mentioned in this paper. But most Americans also believe that some people are more competent than others, and that this will always be so, no matter how much we reform society.