Literacy in the United States
Literacy in the U.S. has increased through increased educational accessibility and higher vocational standards. Literacy has particular importance in adulthood since the changing dynamics of the American job market demand greater skills and knowledge of entry-level workers. The push for high levels of mass literacy has been a recent development.
About Literacy in the United States in brief
Literacy in the United States has increased through increased educational accessibility and higher vocational standards. Literacy has particular importance in adulthood since the changing dynamics of the American job market demand greater skills and knowledge of entry-level workers. The push for high levels of mass literacy has been a recent development; expectations of literacy have sharply increased over past decades. The National Institute for Literacy estimates that 32 million American adults are unable to read, which can contribute to chronic unemployment, low self-esteem, and a lower quality of available work. The U.S. Department of Education assesses literacy in the general population through its National Assessment of Adult Literacy. More than 15 percent of people age 15 or older who can read and write, which is the simplest definition of literacy in a nation, is used to rank the U. S. More-complex definitions of literacy, such as those used for higher education, have been driving forces behind national education reform from primary school to higher education. Initiatives to improve literacy rates have taken the form of government provisions and external funding, which have been used to improve the nation’s status. The issue of sub-par academic performance is compounded. Students who struggle with literacy struggle throughout their high school years because they do not have the foundation of understanding and breadth of knowledge to build knowledge. It has been observed that adolescents undergo a critical transition during their grade-school years which prepares them to learn and apply knowledge to their actions and behavior in the outside world. A Nation at Risk was published in 1983, and interest in the performance of American students relative to other youth populations worldwide has been great.
Addressing sub- par reading performance and low youth literacy rates are important to achieve levels of Mass Literacy and mass literacy rates in the nation. The National Bureau of Economic Research published a data set with an overview of the history of education in the 20th and 21st centuries. According to the bureau, literacy, especially basic literacy, is essential for a well-functioning democracy, and enhances citizenship and community. A multi-variable analysis indicated that low and below-basic literacy rates were characteristic of individuals without higher education and improving and sustaining mass literacy at earlier stages of education has become a focus of American leaders and policymakers. There has been an increase of immigrants in cities, the majority of whose children speak languages other than English and who thus fall behind their peers in reading. Starting in the 2000s, there was an increase in federal acts and models to ensure that children were developing their literacy skills and receiving education. There was a notable increase in American citizens’ educational attainment since then, but studies have also indicated a decline in reading performance which began during the 1970s. In the 2003 National Assessment, young adults without a post-secondary education experienced difficulty obtaining career positions. As the job market has become more demanding, the rigor of educational institutions has increased to prepare students for the more-complex tasks which will be expected of them.
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This page is based on the article Literacy in the United States published in Wikipedia (as of Dec. 03, 2020) and was automatically summarized using artificial intelligence.
