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 f6SIfqf05074; Sat, 28 Jul 2001 14:41:52 -0400 (EDT) Date: Sat, 28 Jul 2001 14:41:52 -0400 (EDT) Message-Id: <003901c11794$b8002360$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:550] Vote On Adult Functional Illiteracy X-Listprocessor-Version: 6.0c -- ListProcessor by Anastasios Kotsikonas X-Mailer: Microsoft Outlook Express 5.50.4522.1200 Status: O Content-Length: 3386 Lines: 70 Mary Ann: This is a cross-post of a message I sent to the National Literacy Advocates (NLA) list. I thought that perhaps POVRACELIT members who have followed the debate about the Washington Post article might want to vote on the numbers of adults to be declared functionally illiterate, too, and explain to the POVRACELIT members why they voted as they did. Thanks, Tom Sticht ***************************** Vote On Adult Functional Illiteracy Stimulated by my post of July 10, 2001 on the NLA list, the Washington Post for July 17, 2001 ran an article by Jay Mathews in which Andrew Kolstad, former director of the National Adult Literacy Survey (NALS) said that the NALS overstated the numbers of adults who are in the lowest level of literacy, NALS Level 1. Kolstad said that the NALS used a response probability (RP) of .80 to say that adults were proficient at a given level of difficulty on the NALS. He said that was too high and created too many false statements that adults could not perform NALS tasks when, in fact, they could. He argued that a 50 percent RP value gives the most statistically accurate and valid numbers of adults who can and cannot perform NALS tasks. Using a 50 percent RP drops the percentage of adults in NALS Level 1 from 20 to 9 percent and the numbers of adults considered "functionally illiterate" from around 40,000,000 to less than 20,000,000. All this points out that the decision by the NALS developers to use an 80 percent RP level was completely arbitrary and represented what they thought was a good indicator of "mastery" of literacy at a given difficulty level. Other RP values give different percentages of adults in the NALS levels. Since the use of any RP level other than 50 percent, the statistically most appropriate and most valid RP value, is an arbitrary choice, and Kolstad's final technical report for the NALS gives a wide range of RP values and percentages of adults who would fall in the five NALS levels using different RP values, it might be of interest for NLA list members to vote on how many functionally illiterate adults they want in the United States and explain why they voted as they did. Following are some RP values from Kolstad's report and the associated percentages and numbers of adults who would fall in NALS Level 1 if the given RP value were chosen to represent the literacy proficiency levels of adults [I have used 191,000,000 as the 1992 population numbers for these calculations]. NLA members can use these figures to vote on how many adults they wish to designate as functionally illiterate in the United States. RP 20-5% [9.5+ million adults in NALS Level 1 RP 30-6% [11.4+ million adults in NALS Level 1] RP 40-8% [15.2+ million] RP 50-9% [17+ million]-Kolstad's RP value that is most accurate/valid statistically RP 60-12% [22.9+ million] RP 70-15% [28.6+ million] RP 80-20% [38+ million]-this is the RP value used in the NALS RP 90-32% (61+ million ) It may be of interest to note that when NALS examiners asked adults themselves how well they read, about 7 percent [13.7+ million] said they did not read well or not at all, 93 percent [177.6+ million ] said they read well or very well. Those interested can find a discussion of the Washington Post article on NIFL's POVRACELIT list. The WP article entitled Adult Illiteracy, Rewritten, can be found at www.nald.ca under Headline News.
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