Functional Literacy
A functional literate person can be described as someone who has the reading and writing ability and knowledge that enables him or her to utilize the print of his or her world. Individuals are proficient in literacy on various levels. Literacy proficiency levels are determined by educational background and attainment. People with low levels of literacy are able to function mostly by using environmental print. If the majority of those who are responsible for children’s education, such as parents and teachers, were serious and collaborative, perhaps the levels of low functional literacy would be at a minimum.
Linguist, anthropologist, and teaching professionals from kindergarten through college level, have a common interest in the word literacy. Interestingly, not many people agree on one definition of the term. “We have scholarly articles and public debates on functional literacy, on full literacy, on semi-literacy, on pre-literacy…” (Pattison 4). One thing that is agreed upon universally in regard to literacy is that it involves some form of reading and writing.
According to Mike Rose, “Functional literacy in the 1930’s meant having three or more years of schooling. During World War II it meant completion of the fourth grade, in 1960, completion of the eighth grade. In the late 1970’s, some defined functional literacy as completion of high school. In later years, this definition proved too simplistic.” Functional literacy is now defined by statisticians on various skill levels. These include the literacy proficiency levels as defined in “Digest of Education Statistics.” 1992:
A functional literate person can be described as someone who has the reading and writing ability and knowledge that enables him or her to utilize the print of his or her world. Individuals are proficient in literacy on various levels. Literacy proficiency levels are determined by educational background and attainment. People with low levels of literacy are able to function mostly by using environmental print. If the majority of those who are responsible for children’s education, such as parents and teachers, were serious and collaborative, perhaps the levels of low functional literacy would be at a minimum.
Linguist, anthropologist, and teaching professionals from kindergarten through college level, have a common interest in the word literacy. Interestingly, not many people agree on one definition of the term. “We have scholarly articles and public debates on functional literacy, on full literacy, on semi-literacy, on pre-literacy…” (Pattison 4). One thing that is agreed upon universally in regard to literacy is that it involves some form of reading and writing.
According to Mike Rose, “Functional literacy in the 1930’s meant having three or more years of schooling. During World War II it meant completion of the fourth grade, in 1960, completion of the eighth grade. In the late 1970’s, some defined functional literacy as completion of high school. In later years, this definition proved too simplistic.” Functional literacy is now defined by statisticians on various skill levels. These include the literacy proficiency levels as defined in “Digest of Education Statistics.” 1992:
Level 1: Able to follow brief written directions and select phrases to describe pictures.Example: Locate time or place of a meeting on a form.
Level 2: Able to understand combined ideas and make references based on short uncomplicated passages about specific or sequentially related information.Example: Enter background information on an employment form.
Level 3: Able to search for specific information, interrelate ideas, and make generalizations about literature, science and social studies materials.Example: Integrate information from long, dense texts or documents.
Level 4: Able to find, understand, summarize, and explain relatively complicated literary and informational material.Example: Research and write a college-level term paper with footnote references.
Level 5: Able to understand the links between ideas even when those links are not explicitly stated and to make appropriate generalizations even when the texts lack clear instructions or explanations.
Example: Read and comprehend the themes in a classical play or novel such as Hamlet or War and Peace.
Previously, the definition has changed numerously overtime and also increased in expectation. However, Rose’s theory on literacy offers more elasticity and is less standardized.
Parents and teachers play a very important role in children’s education and ultimately in the lack or sufficiency of literacy. A reading and writing teacher is responsible for ensuring that their students are taught the concepts of reading and writing. “As primary students learn to decode words through phonemic and phonological awareness activities, they must also be exposed to authentic literature and taught explicitly concepts of print such as directionality, return sweep, use of punctuation, and the differentiation between letters, words and sentences” (Watson 46). In addition, in order for these concepts to become cohesive, there should be ongoing practice on the part of the young learner.
Although parents are not in the class room while their children are learning to read and write, their role is vital in encouraging good learning and studying habits. Parents who are actively involved with their children’s learning can and will enhance their literacy skills by re-inforcing what is being taught at school. In addition, their support also sends a message to their child, as well as the teacher, that education and their child is important to them and participating actively usually encourages diligence on the student’s part.
As one might imagine, functional literacy levels increase when educational attainment increases. An analysis conducted by the National Assessment of Adult Literacy examined how, “literacy scores rose with successive levels of educational attainment; they were lowest across the three scales for adults who did not complete high school and highest for adults with graduate study or a graduate degree.” Table 3-2 shown below illustrates the average prose, document, and quantitative literacy scores of adults by highest educational attainment between the years of 1992 and 2003.
Table 3-2. Average prose, document, and quantitative literacy scores of adults, by highest educational attainment: 1992 and 2003
Educational Attainment Prose Document Quantitative
1992 2003 1992 2003 1992 2003
Still in High School 268 262 270 265 263 261
Some High School 216 207 * 211 208 209 211
GED/H.S Equivalency 265 260 259 257 265 265
High School Graduate 268 262* 261 258 267 269
Some College 292 287* 288 280* 295 294
Associate’s Degree 306 298* 301 291* 305 305
Bachelor’s Degree 325 314* 317 303* 324 323
Graduate Degree 340 327* 328 311* 336 332
*Significantly different from 1992
Note: Adults are defined as people 16 years of age and older living in households or prisons. Adults who could not be interviewed because of language spoken or cognitive or mental disabilities (3 percent in 2003 and 4 percent in 1992) are excluded from this table.
Source: U.S. Department of Education, Institute of Education Sciences, National Center for Educational Statistics, 1992 National Adult Literacy survey and 2003 National Assessment of Adult Literacy.
Other statistics from the ‘National Adult Literacy Survey in 1992’ shows that:
Those with less than a high school diploma performed 35% of the literacy tasks correctly; those with a college degree performed 65% of the tasks correctly. Ninety-five percent of those with less than a high school diploma functioned at the two lowest levels. This group had less than 1% functioning at the highest levels. Those with a college degree had the highest percentage functioning at the highest two levels (53%). However, 14% of those with a college degree function at the two lowest levels of proficiency. Surprising! Adults who are proficient at levels one and two are considered, by some, to be functionally illiterate. In 1992, this included 90 million adults (48% of the adult population).
People who have low literacy proficiency levels are able to function by using things in their environment to help them better understand the world around them. Objects such as posters, street/traffic signs, pictures and big words on a menu or a cereal box are some examples of environmental print. When people are able to interpret this type of print, it affords an opportunity of basic reading and discovery for learners. More importantly, the reading of environmental print enables individuals to become functionally literate to some extent. Also, according to Rose’s theory, people are able to increase their literacy proficiency levels according to the amount of time spent on educating themselves.
In conclusion, there is no one definition for the term functional literacy or even literacy for that matter. Even professionals are ambiguous on the matter. Through my research, one thing that is clear in regard to functional literacy is that it involves an unidentified amount of reading and writing. Rose’s theory seems to be the most appropriate, that literacy proficiency can be found on different levels and not at one standard. If literacy is the ability to read and write, and all people perform this act on various levels, then does it make sense to have a standard that determines if a person is functionally literate?
The proficiency levels included in this essay are a realistic and considerate approach to how people function with literacy. It does not demand that all people meet the same standard. Oftentimes, this is not possible due to disabilities, socioeconomic reasons, etc. In addition, acknowledging various proficiency levels sends a message that learning is not a threshold but a continuum.
Bibliography
Courts, Patricia. Literacy and Empowerment. Bergin and Garvey: New York, Westport, Connecticut and London, 1991. Print.
Dodd, Wescott Anne and Konzel, Jean L. Making Our High Schools Better. St. Martin’s Press: New York, 1999. Print.
National Center for Education Statistics. Literacy in Everyday Life: Results from the 2003 National Assessment of Adult Literacy. Washington, DC, 2007.
Pattison, Robert. On Literacy: The Politics of the Word from Homer to the Age of Rock. Oxford University Press: Oxford, New York, Toronto, Melbourne, 1982.
Rose, Mike. Lives on the Boundary: The Struggles and Achievements of America's Underprepared. Simon and Schuster: New York, 1999. Print.
Watson, Dwight. Reading the World: Supporting the Functional Literacy Abilities of Urban Learners.
www.education.wisc.edu/.../dwightWatson-Readingtheworld.pdf
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