Comment by ch4s3
6 months ago
The stat is skewed wildly by immigration. The literacy level of native born Americans is higher. The population of foreign born adults is nearly 20% of the total adult population, and as you can imagine many are actively learning English.
It’s not skewed much by immigration. This is because the native-born population is much larger.
See: https://www.migrationpolicy.org/sites/default/files/publicat...
51% of native-born adults scored at Level 3 or higher. This is considered the benchmark for being able to manage complex tasks and fully participate in a knowledge-based society. Only 28% of immigrant adults achieved this level. So yes immigrants are in trouble, but it’s still a huge problem with 49% native-born below Level 3.
In my mind “literate” is not “hand complex tasks”, it’s a basic ability to read and write.
Seems like the standards have changed over time?
Considering the amount of digitalization in society, more government regulations, etc. I think basic literacy alone does not guarantee you can participate in society effectively.
2 replies →
The immigration is actually working to boost literacy levels. Americans have been falling off for a long time.