History of Literacy Statistics

Many of you want to know more about literacy statistics, according to our training survey.  Here is some background information.   For links to literacy statistics, go to our wiki.

Background
Back in the 1970's when I got involved in literacy, the only figures available  for Florida were based on the Census.  I generally used adults 18 and older with less than 8th grade education as evidence of low literacy. I still see this as one benchmark figure, because in the United States, you cannot drop out of school until you are 16.  This means many adults eventually get to 8th grade before dropping out.  I also said that, older adults, with an 8th grade education often could read pretty well because that was a standard level of completion in their day.  This was before testing was required to move up grade levels.  I would like to hear whether this trend is changing.

I believe a survey had been done in late 1970's or early 1980's of adults in Texas.  It found that about 20% of the population were functionally illiterate, and this figure was often used nationally.  This was the first time a survey actually documented reading levels.  Finally in 1992, a similar, more comprehensive national survey was conducted and Florida participated.  This was the first time Florida got actual figures of reading levels. It documented what many running volunteer literacy programs knew.  Many adults with traditional high school diplomas could not read very well. 

A new version of a similar survey was done in 2002, but Florida did not participate.  Because of this there was no Florida data immediately available.  For the first time literacy was divided up by type of reading.  It included prose, document and quantitative literacy.  The survey recognized that what we read impacts how well we are able to read.  But the prose literacy data is the figure which tends to be used to track traditional literacy skills.

Finally, in January 2009 figures were released for Florida's counties.  These are estimates based on the 2002 survey and each county's demographics.  So, at this point, this the most recent survey data. 

Go to our wiki. for statistics.

Please post you questions, observations and thoughts on literacy rates in our comments section on the blog.
Sandy Newell
President, VALF