Workplace literacy / edited by Anne Skagen

Includes bibliographical references.

1. If Everyone Can Read, Why Are There So Many Illiterates? -- 2. Workplace Schoolrooms -- 3. Corporate Outreach -- 4. Coalitions Mobilize -- 5. Designing Instruction for the Workplace.

Perhaps Jonathan Kozol's 1985 book, Illiterate America, did more than any other publication to bring the issue of adult illiteracy into the national spotlight. Kozol's statistics are dramatic: More than 25 million adult Americans can't read the front page of a daily newspaper, the warning on a bottle of poison, or a note from a child's teacher. Fifteen percent of the graduates from U.S. urban high schools read at a sixth grade level, or lower. And in some cities, the high school drop-out rate tops 50 percent. Although figures recently compiled by the U.S. Census Bureau put the number of adult illiterates somewhat lower (in the 17 to 21 million range), the analysis is still chilling. "We are creating a new generation of illiterates," stated Robert Barnes of the U.S. Department of Education, when he released the results of the Census Bureau's simple fill-in-the blank test, administered to 3,400 adults. The numbers make people uneasy. One response is to explain things in a way that suggests the problem "isn't all that bad." After all, more than 35 percent of the Census Bureau's "illiterates" are people who grew up with a language other than English. Many may be literate in their native languages. Moreover, more than 30 percent are over age 65. Furthermore, the standard barometers of school performance (the American College Tests and Scholastic Aptitude Tests) show that reading abilities improved in 35 states in 1985 and that the rate of high school completion climbed in 39 states. On the other hand, those researchers who are closest to the issues tell a different story.