Return-Path: <nifl-povracelit@literacy.nifl.gov> Received: from literacy (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by literacy.nifl.gov (8.10.2/8.10.2) with SMTP id f064kQ912860; Fri, 5 Jan 2001 23:46:26 -0500 (EST) Date: Fri, 5 Jan 2001 23:46:26 -0500 (EST) Message-Id: <00e501c0779b$322e3860$23bffea9@hppav> Errors-To: listowner@literacy.nifl.gov Reply-To: nifl-povracelit@literacy.nifl.gov Originator: nifl-povracelit@literacy.nifl.gov Sender: nifl-povracelit@literacy.nifl.gov Precedence: bulk From: "Mary Ann Corley" <macorley1@earthlink.net> To: Multiple recipients of list <nifl-povracelit@literacy.nifl.gov> Subject: [NIFL-POVRACELIT:346] Discussion on NLA List on Literacy and Social Justice X-Listprocessor-Version: 6.0c -- ListProcessor by Anastasios Kotsikonas X-Mailer: Microsoft Outlook Express 5.50.4133.2400 Status: O Content-Length: 9585 Lines: 185 The NLA list has had some postings recently that may be of interest to subscribers on the nifl-povracelit list. Cross-posted below are two messages, one from Tom Sticht on social justice issues and the International Adult Literacy Survey (IALS), and the other from Silja Kallenbach with a somewhat different perspective. I'm cross-posting these because they seem to speak to the issues that are at the heart of our povracelit list. (I apologize to those of you who have already read these messages on the NLA list.) For those who wish to subscribe to the NLA list, send an e-mail to majordomo@world.std.com Skip the header. In the body of the message, type (only) subscribe nla Thanks. Mary Ann Corley Director, National Center for Literacy and Social Justice macorley1@earthlink.net ********************************* (From Silja Kallenbach:) Thank you, Tom Sticht for your many insightful postings on this list. This is a very belated response to your analysis of the International Adult Literacy Survey, and specifically the conclusion that "the emphasis of this recent report using IALS data is largely on the inequality of literacy among adults within nations, and the economic consequences of these differences in literacy for adults within a given nation." As a lifelong literacy practitioner and advocate I would not argue against the importance of adult literacy in "promoting the general health, welfare and prosperity of the nation." And I agree with Tom's preference for that as an argument for increased funding of AELS rather than the argument of increased global competitiveness. I would like to point out that there are other ways to analyze the cause and effect regarding social inequality and adult literacy. If I understand Tom's statement correctly, he is proposing that more and better adult literacy education would bring about more social equality. In my mind, the social equality comes first and high adult literacy is the outcome, not the other way around. To think or argue that adult literacy is going to make a dent in the enormous and shameful social inequality in this country is to burden adult literacy with yet another impossible mission. Even if people's earnings do increase with more education, the very unequal quality of K-12 education and ways in which people can meet their basic needs will ensure a steady supply of adult literacy learners to take the place of those who have managed to move ahead in life economically. I think the IALS is a strong argument for the literacy field to be concerned with a myriad social justice concerns (such as campaign finance reform, ending corporate welfare, health care reform, affordable housing) to increase social equality in the U.S. while also advocating for improved adult literacy funding and policies. Only then, I believe, we will begin to see some discernible improvement in adult literacy rates. Of course, the prospects for more social equality in this country do not look bright after the recent elections. . . Happy and healthy new year to all my fellow NLAdvocates. Silja Kallenbach Coordinator New England Literacy Resource Center/ World Education >>> Thomas Sticht <tsticht@aznet.net> 12/13 3:03 PM >>> Tom Sticht Research Note 12/13/00 >From International Competitiveness to International Inequality: New Perspectives on Social Justice From the International Adult Literacy Survey (IALS) On September 8 of this year, International Literacy Day, I attended ceremonies at the Library of Congress in which a new report on adult literacy was released and discussed. I think it is of interest to note that since then there has been little discussion of the report. This is unfortunate because the report takes a somewhat different stance with regard to the results of the International Adult Literacy Survey than has been reported in the past. Funded by the U. S. Department of Education, the report entitled Benchmarking Adult Literacy in America: An International Comparative Study, was authored by Albert Tuijnman of the Institute of International Education, Stockholm University. It is available for downloading at: http://www.ed.gov/offices/ovae/publicat.html and it has a publication date of September 2000 (it is also available at www.nald.ca under Full Text Documents). One of the major findings of interest to me in the Benchmarking report are the data for the literacy proficiency of the adult population aged 26-65. These data indicate that, for 21 nations, the United States average literacy score was significantly better than 11 nations (including the United Kingdom and Switzerland), no different from 6 others (including Australia, Denmark, Germany, New Zealand, Canada and the Netherlands) and statistically lower than only three nations- Finland, Norway and Sweden. For the population aged 16-25, the U. S. was no different from the United Kingdom, Italy, New Zealand, Ireland, Czech Republic, Switzerland, Germany, Canada, Belgium (Flanders), though it scored lower on the average than Denmark, Australia, Netherlands, Norway, Sweden and Finland, but not by much. It seems to me that the foregoing is especially important given the concerns for global competitiveness that some policy-oriented reports have used to focus adult literacy education on workforce development. For instance, the influential Jump Start report of 1989 stated, "There is no way in which the United States can remain competitive in a global economy, maintain its standard of living, and shoulder the burden of the retirement of the baby boom generation unless we mount a forceful national effort to help adults upgrade their basic skills in the very near future (p.iii)." Yet now we find the U.S. pre-eminent in the global economy, with very low unemployment rates internally, and on a par with the worldAEs leading economic western nations in terms of average adult literacy skills. Overall then, there is not much of a basis in the report for arguing that the U. S. is not economically competitive internationally because of low adult literacy. Hence such economically-based arguments are likely to be less influential in the foreseeable future for advocating for adult literacy education. Concerns for Inequality and Social Justice On the Rise When one looks in the Benchmarking report at the range of scores in each nation, there are clearly differences across nations in terms of the range of literacy scores between the lower scoring and higher scoring adults. There are large international differences in the variation among the adult populations within nations with regard to their literacy scores. The report makes a great deal about these inequalities among nations. The report creates an index of inequality in literacy for each of 22 nations by dividing the literacy scores of those at the 90th percentile by the scores of those at the 10th percentile. For the United States, the score of 183 (10th percentile) was divided into 355 (90th percentile) producing an inequality index of 1.9. For the adult population aged 26-65 years, the U. S. has a larger index of inequality than 14 of the 21 nations, and has less inequality in literacy only than Portugal, Poland, Slovena, Italy, and Chile. Only Canada and the U.S. are equal in their distributions of literacy and both of these nations have inequality indices that are not statistically different from the average inequality index computed using all 22 nations (1.8). Similar findings hold for the adult population aged 16-25, though in this case the U. S. has more inequality than in 13 other nations, including Canada. The report goes on to note that "inequality in the range of literacy scores in North America is also among the highest of the nations surveyed. Especially in he United States, inequality in the distribution of literacy scores on the English test [that is, the NALS] used for the survey is strongly related to economic inequality measured by income differentials between households." It seems to me, then, that the emphasis of this recent report using IALS data is largely on the inequality of literacy among adults within nations, and the economic consequences of these differences in literacy for adults within a given nation. In many respects, this seems to be somewhat of a change in perspective from the concern for adult literacy as a factor in international competitiveness that has in large part driven the Workforce Investment Act of 1998, to a return to the concern for issues of poverty and the need for individuals to be economically competitive within our nation that led to the enactment of the adult basic education program as part of the War on Poverty's Economic Opportunity Act of 1964. In a sense, with this new report using IALS data, we seem to have gone back from the concerns with international competitiveness of A Nation at Risk of the 1980s and 1990s to the concerns for People at Risk of the 1960s. This might be a more fruitful stance for advocating for the full recognition of the Adult Education and Literacy System (AELS) as the third major, mainstream component of our nation's publicly supported educational structure (K-12, AELS, Higher Education,) for promoting the general health, welfare and prosperity of the nation. It might also augur well for placing workforce development in a more appropriate, tertiary position with regard to its importance as an outcome for adult education and for getting the WIA changed to the Adult Education, Literacy and Workforce Investment Act (AELWIA) when it next comes up for reconsideration.
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