All articles tagged with #literacy rates
A study using PIAAC data reveals that New Hampshire and Minnesota have the highest adult literacy rates in the U.S., while New Mexico, Louisiana, and Mississippi have the lowest. Overall, adult literacy levels are declining nationally, with an increase in adults with low literacy skills and a decrease in those with high literacy, highlighting the need for expanded adult education programs.
Indiana's statewide reading test scores reveal that nearly one in five third graders struggle to read, highlighting a "crisis" in education, according to the state's secretary of education. While there was a slight improvement in proficiency, with 81.9% of students demonstrating reading proficiency, scores remain 9.5 percentage points below the state's highest-ever rate. The Department of Education noted that reading proficiency improved for some student groups but declined for Hispanic students. The department aims to have 95% of students pass the reading assessment by 2027, with 242 elementary schools achieving that goal so far.
New York City, the largest school district in the US, is implementing mandated phonics lessons in an effort to reverse low literacy rates. The new reading curriculum will upend the current approach and focus on phonics, which teaches children to decode words by sounding out letters and syllables. The move comes as the city and the nation as a whole grapple with a reading crisis, with only about a third of US fourth-graders reading proficiently.