Literacy and reading performance in the United States, from 1880 to the present
TL;DR: 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.
Citations
More filters
01 Jan 2004
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.
Abstract: To maintain their own health and the health of their families and communities, consumers rely heavily on the health information that is available to them. This information is at the core of the partnerships that patients and their families forge with today?s complex modern health systems. This information may be provided in a variety of forms ? ranging from a discussion between a patient and a health care provider to a health promotion advertisement, a consent form, or one of many other forms of health communication common in our society. Yet millions of Americans cannot understand or act upon this information. To address this problem, the field of health literacy brings together research and practice from diverse fields including education, health services, and social and cultural sciences, and the many organizations whose actions can improve or impede health literacy. 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. By examining the extent of limited health literacy and the ways to improve it, we can improve the health of individuals and populations.
4,107 citations
876 citations
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.
Abstract: ContextElderly patients may have limited ability to read and
comprehend medical information pertinent to their health.ObjectiveTo determine the prevalence of low functional health
literacy among community-dwelling Medicare enrollees in a national
managed care organization.DesignCross-sectional survey.SettingFour Prudential HealthCare plans (Cleveland, Ohio;
Houston, Tex; south Florida; Tampa, Fla).ParticipantsA total of 3260 new Medicare enrollees aged 65 years
or older were interviewed in person between June and December 1997 (853
in Cleveland, 498 in Houston, 975 in south Florida, 934 in Tampa); 2956
spoke English and 304 spoke Spanish as their native language.Main Outcome MeasureFunctional health literacy as measured by the
Short Test of Functional Health Literacy in Adults.ResultsOverall, 33.9% of English-speaking and 53.9% of
Spanish-speaking respondents had inadequate or marginal health
literacy. The prevalence of inadequate or marginal functional health
literacy among English speakers ranged from 26.8% to 44.0%. In
multivariate analysis, study location, race/language, age, years of
school completed, occupation, and cognitive impairment were
significantly associated with inadequate or marginal literacy. Reading
ability declined dramatically with age, even after adjusting for years
of school completed and cognitive impairment. The adjusted odds ratio
for having inadequate or marginal health literacy was 8.62 (95%
confidence interval, 5.55-13.38) for enrollees aged 85 years or older
compared with individuals aged 65 to 69 years.ConclusionsElderly managed care enrollees may not have the
literacy skills necessary to function adequately in the health care
environment. Low health literacy may impair elderly patients'
understanding of health messages and limit their ability to care for
their medical problems.
864 citations
TL;DR: Various bodies of evidence are concatenated to demonstrate that differences in general intelligence (g) may be that fundamental cause of health inequalities.
Abstract: Virtually all indicators of physical health and mental competence favor persons of higher socioeconomic status (SES). Conventional theories in the social sciences assume that the material disadvantages of lower SES are primarily responsible for these inequalities, either directly or by inducing psychosocial harm. These theories cannot explain, however, why the relation between SES and health outcomes (knowledge, behavior, morbidity, and mortality) is not only remarkably general across time, place, disease, and kind of health system but also so finely graded up the entire SES continuum. Epidemiologists have therefore posited, but not yet identified, a more general "fundamental cause" of health inequalities. This article concatenates various bodies of evidence to demonstrate that differences in general intelligence (g) may be that fundamental cause.
552 citations
Cites background from "Literacy and reading performance in..."
...…and policy makers have long considered the seemingly low levels of functional competence in large segments of the population a threat to social equality and national productivity as well as to the well-being and civic involvement of the individuals involved (Stedman & Kaestle, 1987; Sum, 1999)....
[...]
References
More filters
Journal Article•
TL;DR: The Pinellas County School System (Tampa Bay area of Florida) as discussed by the authors showed that reading achievement at the sixth grade level in 1978-79 was substantially below the level of the period from 1955 to 1960.
Abstract: The Pinellas County School System (Tampa Bay area of Florida)* re cently compared sixth-grade reading achievement in the late Seventies with achievement in the Fifties. Although in tended primarily to gather comparative data across approximately one generation, the study is relevant to the controversy on achievement changes during the Seventies alone, reported in the 1978-79 volume of the Kappan. The Pinellas County study showed conclusively that, whatever the changes during the decade of the Seven ties, reading achievement at the sixth grade level in 1978-79 was substantially below the level of the period from 1955 to 1960. However, we also agree with Paul Copperman that, in fact, sixth-grade stan dards have deteriorated in the Seventies as well.l Our agreement is based on our own review of available "equating" publica tions. Moreover, since our study touches two points in time approximately a gener ation apart, and since there seems to be general agreement that reading achieve ment improved up until the early or mid Sixties, the study's findings cannot pos sibly be reconciled with any claims of im proved or even maintained sixth-grade achievement during the Seventies. Study Design ? A number of similar studies have been reported in the educa tional press. Some of these studies com pared two different samples of students.2 They compared the reading achievement of an earlier sample of students with the reading achievement of a sample of to day's students, using the same test for both groups. Such comparisons are beset with a common problem: If today's stu dents score differently on that test, we don't know whether to attribute the dif ference to a change in reading achieve ment, or to differences in the demo graphic characteristics of the two samples relative to the national population. The present study avoids this problem by administering two tests to the same sample (rather than the same test to two samples that may or may not differ). Each student in the study took both the current edition and the 1950s edition of a major standardized test. Their performance on these two tests was then rated according to the national norms reported for these tests at the time of their publication. Thus the comparison was based on two ratings of the same sample's present reading compe tence: namely, 1) the grade equivalent of that competence according to the current test and its norms versus 2) the grade equivalent of that same competence ac cording to the earlier test and its norms. This design is analogous to that used by test publishers when " equating" a new edition with a previous edition. Reviews of these studies across the years have generally shown increased achievement from the 1950s to the early 1960s. This in crease has been followed by a differential pattern from the 1960s through the 1970s: continued increase in the earlier elemen tary grades but declines from the late elementary through the secondary grades. Instruments ? In order to avoid gener alizing findings from a single publisher's tests and norms, we decided to conduct three parallel studies, using the old and new tests of three separate publishers and three separate samples of students. The criteria for selecting the tests were: 1) There had to be a current (1977 or 1978) edition of the test; 2) there had to be an earlier edition of the test dated sometime in the 1950s; 3) adequate norm informa tion had to be available for the earlier as well as the current test; 4) the reading skills measured by the earlier tests, and the item styles used, had to be generally com parable to the reading skills and item styles used in current reading tests and curricula, i.e., multiple-choice items on literal content, main idea, inference, con text. The three sets of reading subtests that best met these criteria were the Iowa Tests of Basic Skills (ITBS), 1978 and 1955; the Metropolitan Achievement Tests (MAT), 1978 and 1958; and the Sci ence Research Associates Achievement Series (SRA-AS), 1978 and 1955.3 Samples and Procedures ? Each of the three samples was composed of stu dents in 18 sixth-grade Pinellas County classrooms, drawn at random from each of the county's 18 middle schools. Each student took both the current and the earlier test by the same publisher on con secutive days or with one day between tests. Testing took place during the period from 21 May to 31 May 1979. In half of the classrooms the current test was ad ministered first; in the other half, the earlier test was administered first. Results ? The results of this study (see Table 1) indicate that reading achievement at the sixth-grade level in 1979 was lower than the reading achievement of sixth grade students in the 1950s. Using ITBS as the yardstick, the median Pinellas County student in 1979 was reading only as well as a 1955 student rated at a grade level five months lower; based on MAT, 1979's me dian student was reading only as well as a 1958 student rated at a grade level seven months lower; based on SRA-AS, 1979's median student was reading only as well as a 1955 student rated at a grade level 10 months lower. In other words, today's median sixth-grade reading level was be ing reached five to 10 months earlier in the 1950s. A second finding of the study was the difference in results when separate com parisons were made for each achievement group. The achievement grouping was based on an April 1979 county wide testing program that was entirely independent of this study. That is, the grouping was not based on the students' scores on either of the tests taken as part of this study. Thus the possible effects of regression were equated within each achievement group. JANE ELLIGETT (Clearwater-St. Peters burg Chapter) is director of evaluation and planning and THOMAS S. TOCCO is assistant superintendent for research, evaluation, and data processing, Pinellas County Schools, Clearwater, Fla. Mr. Tocco is also an associate professor at the University of South Florida. Pinellas is the twenty-fourth largest school system in the nation; it has 88,000 K-12 students.
2 citations
01 Dec 1984
TL;DR: A study on academic trends during the 1972-73 and. 1981-82 school years focused on courses in computer application, foreign languages, mathematics, social sciences, visual and performing acts, and vocational education as mentioned in this paper.
Abstract: This report summarizes the,findings of the analyses of data on course offerings in the public secondary schools of the United States. The study on academic trends during the 1972-73 and . 1981-82 school years focused on courses in computer application, foreign languages, mathematics, social sciences, visual and performing acts, and vocational education. Section 1 present the ikationale for the' study. Section 2 describes the methodologyjof the analysis. In the third section, a summary highlights enrollments in each of academic years, the courses which were most frequently offered, and hose with the highest enrollment. Section 4 contains a summary of the trends in subject area enrollments over the nine-year period from 1973 to 1981. Section 5 presents tables displaying Zhe r' , '.. findings reported in the previous two sections. The report concludes with a technica; appendix describing the survey sample designs of the 1972 an-.1982 'Surveys. (JD) .
1 citations