The Need
One out of five adult Americans cannot read or write well enough to function in today's world.
They are functionally illiterate, and in Waukesha County that could
be as many as 60, 000 people. Another 45 million Americans are marginally
competent.
The problems of illiteracy are not limited to
the individual. They can affect everyone in the following
ways:
-
Increased welfare costs
-
Higher crime and prison costs
-
Reduced business productivity·
-
Unearned tax revenues
-
Remedial business and military training
Facts About Literacy in
Wisconsin from the 2000 U.S. Census:
-
7.3%, or 368,712 residents over the age of
5, speak a language other than English at home.
-
21% of Wisconsin’s population growth from
1990 - 2000, or 99,727 of the state’s 471,906 new
residents, came from Latino immigrants or their children.
-
7.6% of this state’s population growth in
the last decade, or 35,928 new residents, came from Asian
immigrants or their children.
-
15 % of Wisconsin’s adults age 25 and
older, or 518,417 residents, do not have a high school
diploma or its equivalent.
From the National Adult
Literacy Survey
The last national survey of
adult literacy was conducted in 2003. The survey assesses
adults’ actual ability to perform real life document, prose and computational literacy tasks. Scores are given based
on a five-point scale, with one being the lowest level of literacy
and five being the highest.
According to the 1992
survey, 39% of Wisconsin’s adult population functions in the two
lowest levels of literacy, and 14% of Wisconsin’s adult
population functions in Level 1, the lowest level of
literacy.
What does this mean for14%
of Wisconsin’s adults? They can identify a country in a short article and
locate an expiration date but cannot locate
an intersection on a street map or enter
information on a social security card application
25%
of Wisconsin’s adult population functions in Level 2, the
second lowest level of literacy. These adults can
locate YTD gross pay on a paycheck but cannot identify
the type of sandpaper to buy from a table listing the types of
grains on the horizontal axis and the types of applications on
the vertical axis.
|
