Together, data from these three special topics indicate that the less literate adults are likely to be low in both oral and written language competence, and that their children tend not to achieve at the higher levels of literacy, even though they may complete education at the high school level or beyond. Further, as children grow up to become the less literate adults, the more likely they are to be found in the lower status occupations, and in many instances, the least literate will not perform job tasks as well as the more highly literate.

One of the most disconcerting findings from the study of literacy and occupational status is that African- American college graduates performed Prose, Document and Quantitative literacy tasks at a level of skill below that of the typical clerical worker in the nation (page 137). Only 20 percent of African-Americans of any education level exceeded the average literacy levels of clerical workers (page 136). This suggests serious occupational access problems for African-Americans in the future.

Part III: Testing of Adult Literacy Development in Education Programs

Part III of the Compendium moves from the assessment of the literacy skills of adults to the assessment of literacy skill development in adult literacy programs. It presents a summary of the gains that adult literacy students have made in a wide variety of adult literacy programs across the nation. Numerous scores on standardized tests given at the beginnings of literacy programs are presented (called "pre-test" scores), along with scores made later on in the program or at the end of a program (called "post-test" scores). Limited data are presented for adults who were tested three or four times for up to three years.

Generally, the data from these program assessments indicate that, on average, adults achieve about one half to one-and-a-half "years" of gain in a wide variety of programs. This gain is not influenced much by the entering level of skill of the students or the number of hours of instruction between pre- and post-tests.

The data for students who were repeatedly post-tested three or more times in longitudinal studies indicate that little improvement occurred after the fast post-test. Why this is so is not knowable from the data presented. But, in part, it may reflect a failure on the part of adult learners to engage in sufficient literacy practice, either in or out of programs, to develop the extensive bodies of knowledge needed to move up the scale from lower to higher levels of literacy.

References

Richard C. Anderson, P. T. Wilson, & L. G. Fielding (1988, Summer). Growth in reading and how children spend their time outside of school. Reading Research Quarterly, 23, 285-303.

Gordon Berlin & A. Sum (1988, February). Toward a More Perfect Union: Basic Skills, Poor Families, and Our Economic Future. Occasional Paper 3. New York: The Ford Foundation.

Keith E. Stanovich (1993). Does reading make you smarter? Literacy and the development of verbal intelligence. In H. Reese (Ed.) Advances in Child Development and Behavior, Vol . 24. New York: Academic Press.

Thomas G. Sticht (1975, June). A Program of Army Functional Job Reading Training: Development, Implementation, and Delivery Systems. Final Report HumRRO-FR-WD(CA)-75-7. Alexandria, VA: Human Resources Research Organization.

Thomas G. Sticht (1992, October). The Military Experience and Workplace Literacy: A Review and Synthesis for Policy and Practice. Pennsylvania, PA: National Center on Adult Literacy, University of Pennsylvania.

Thomas G. Sticht, M. J. Beeler, & B. A. McDonald (1992). The Intergenerational Transfer of Cognitive Skills: Volume II: Theory and Research in Cognitive Science. Norwood, NJ: ABLEX Publishing Corporation.

Thomas G. Sticht, L. Beck, R. Hauke, G. Kleiman, & J. James (1974). Auding and Reading: A Developmental Model. Alexandria, VA: Human Resources Research Organization.

Brian K. Waters, J. D. Barnes, P. Foley, S. D. Steinhaus, & D.C. Brown (1988, October). Estimating the Reading Skills of Military Applicants: Development of an ASVAB to RGL Conversion Table. HumRRO Final Report 88-22, FR-PRD-88-22. Alexandria, VA: Human Resources Research Organization.

Richard F. West, K. E. Stanovich, & H. R. Mitchell (1993, January/February). Reading in the real world and its correlates. Reading Research Quarterly, 28, 35-50.