If you're reading this right now, congratulations. You're one of the 87 percent of Pennsylvania residents who have functional adult literacy skills.
But there's at least 13 percent of state residents who lack basic literacy skills, according to a report released by the National Center for Education Statistics.
The report is billed as the first-ever national comparison of state and countywide statistics on adult literacy.
The information compiled in the report is a bit dated, circa 2003, and I have bet the numbers have gotten worse considering the state of our education system and the reliance of so many people on television for information. And let's not talk about how many kids are spending hours playing video games instead of reading a book.
The good news in the report is that Pennsylvania's 13 percent literacy rate is near the national average and hasn't changed since the last survey in 1992.
The lowest literacy rate is in Philadelphia at 22 percent of adults unable to read.
Here's a look at the rates in other SE Pennsylvania counties: Berks, 14%; Bucks, 9%; Chester, 7%; Delaware, 10%; Lehigh, 13%; Montgomery, 8%
To compare the literacy rates of Pennsylvania's 67 counties or see how the Keystone State stacks up against other states, go to the National Assessment of Adult Literacy Web site at http://nces.ed.gov/naal/
No comments:
Post a Comment