4 ms·

I analyzed technology proficiency level vs adult literacy level. Listing the equivalent literacy level with relatively equal % of population. ie, level 3 profi

by jonmc12 10y ago

I analyzed technology proficiency level vs adult literacy level. Listing the equivalent literacy level with relatively equal % of population. ie, level 3 proficiency is 5% of population; above a college reading level is 5% of adult population: Cant use computers ~ Under 4th Grade level including illiterate Below level 1 ~ 4-6th grade reading level Level 1 ~ 6-10th grade reading level Level 2 ~ 10th-college reading level Level 3 ~ College+ reading level Literacy %'s from https://contently.com/strategist/2015/01/28/this-surprising-reading-level-analysis-will-change-the-way-you-write/ https://contently.com/strategist/2015/01/28/this-surprising-...

eitally 10y ago
That's a neat analysis -- thanks for posting!
sytelus 10y ago
This is not adding up... 32% of US population has Bachelor's degree but only 5% has college level reading skills? I think original survey probably has some fatal flaws. May be they should re-publish results after only taking in to account individuals of age 25 years or more who actually respond. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Educational_attainment_in_the_United_States https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Educational_attainment_in_th...
- azernik 10y ago
  The disconnect is that the definition of "college-level reading skills" is normative, not empirical. It refers to what a college-educated person "should" be able to read, based on the materials they see in coursework, not on what an actual college graduate can in practice read. Similarly, you'll often see stats showing that the average 10th-grader in so-and-so slice of the student population reads at a 3rd-grade level - meaning that their reading skills are really only up to school materials taught in 3rd grade.
  - TorKlingberg 10y ago
    I would say the term "college-level reading skills" is poorly defined if it's based on some idealalized college graduate rather than real ones.
    - jasode 10y ago
      The phrase "college-level reading skills" has always been well-defined as a prescribed threshold of literacy rather than describe any college student with any level of reading. If we used your suggested 2nd definition of "real students", the label would be circular and meaningless. (E.g. prerequisites reworded in a bizarre way such as, "Remedial Reading courses support students who do not demonstrate non-idealized reading skill proficiency that real students have."[1],[2]) [1]http://www.hawaii.edu/offices/cc/arpd/instructional.php?action=analysis&college=MAU&year=2014&program=136 http://www.hawaii.edu/offices/cc/arpd/instructional.php?acti... [2]https://www.ccaurora.edu/MyCCA/Advisor/Advising/minimum_assessment_scores_or_%20ACT.pdf https://www.ccaurora.edu/MyCCA/Advisor/Advising/minimum_asse...
      - lkbm 10y ago
        The alternative definition "any college student with any level of reading" certainly strikes me as a straw man (granted, unintentional one). How about "average reading level of a college student"? Or "average needed to graduate college"? (I'm not saying that is the definition, but I think it's closer to what laymen assume "reading level" refers to.)
        csa 10y ago
        > How about "average reading level of a college student"? This is a form of normed referencing, and ultimately it becomes a (sometimes rapidly) moving target that makes comparisons difficult. The standard used in the field is criterion referencing (similar to "prescriptive" used by 'jasode). This allows for easier apples-to-apples comparisons. You are correct that they layman understanding is closer to your definition (at least in my experience). The layman understanding that you describe is not the standard in the field.
- SixSigma 10y ago
  They probably did the survey at my university
- madaxe_again 10y ago
  That seems reasonable - anecdotally I know many graduates from both sides of the pond who have never read a book they didn't have to - for instance, in the UK, fifty shades was broadly heralded as the first book many had read in their adult lives. From within our intellectual elite bubble it's easy to go "surely it ain't so", but there it is. Hell, my ex business partner who was a highly educated and intelligent man doesn't own a single book and hasn't read one since "animal farm" at school. The sad reality is that the vast majority of people have absolutely no interest in reading. It's not a question of access, rather perceived effort.
  - icefo 10y ago
    I think school is partly responsible for this. I had to read many terrible books in school. French is my mother tongue and I had to read stuff written in ancient French where a third of the page is definition so you can understand. Most of the time the book is just uninteresting. In my 5 years of high school, there are 3-4 books out of the 20+ that I consider worth reading. And the worst thing for me is the Analysis that come out of nowhere. I actually liked to read when I was a kid but now when I see a book I just have French class flashbacks and a feeling of disgust. People told me it goes away after a while. I hope it's true.
- johngalt 10y ago
  Anecdata: I know a lot of well educated people who don't read. At all. What reading level would you expect for someone who got a degree in their early twenties then didn't read anything more complicated than People magazine for decades after.
  - csa 10y ago
    Level 1 or 2. They may have never been functional at level 3 (not that there is anything wrong with that). Level 3 means that someone can consistently read and comprehend the full meaning of college-level texts. In the US, one does not need to read at this level to graduate from college (or even many grad schools). There are many people in the world who are smart and/or very knowledgeable who don't consistently read and comprehend at level 3 across the range of topics covered in a typical college curriculum. Source: Me. I have trained people in both reading literacy and tech literacy. My experience is both theoretical and practical. Feel free to ask follow-up questions if you have any.
  - alistairSH 10y ago
    Anecdata: I know a lot of well educated people who don't read. At all. Our current Presdident Elect (US) reportedly falls into this category (or, pretty darn close to it). That's a scary thought.
VLM 10y ago
The literacy idea is a good one. I was mystified by the description of the tasks being basically an IQ test or cognition test or math and logic test tangentially involving a computer as a topic and shockingly the result of predictable IQ test results being that computer user interfaces suck, which is pretty hilarious. "I failed my standardized tests math section because the user interface of a #2 graphite pencil is poor." No, its because you're not good at math, the problem isn't the pencil. Half the population has to be below the median, after all, and we design civilization to make sure evolution doesn't cull anyone, so ... I am kinda old and I can assure you that plenty of people were completely incompetent at using a physical card catalog (kind of like a printed out google search form, where an old fashioned library used to kinda be a printed out internet, back before libraries became internet cafes without coffee and also turned into daycares). Inability to search for things intelligently is not a recent invention of computation, any more than the inability to write essays is a result of word processing software or century old typewriter or the ballpoint pen. Its truism thru history that as soon as the first tool was invented, some dude without enough mental horsepower to use it immediately started attacking the tool as being poorly designed. Fire, wheels, carpentry tools, farm machinery, computers, same old story. Some folks can't think, and giving them a tool then asking them to perform a thoughtful task is doomed to fail and result in the tool catching most of the blame. Why if only wheels were better designed to be round in all three dimensions instead of just two then that pesky problem of axle placement wouldn't be so stressful for end users, etc etc. The fact of the matter is the median human is barely at a level of boolean algebra basics and arithmetic and following instructions on a packaged cake mix box. Giving someone innumerate a calculator doesn't mean they can now launch the space shuttle, any more than giving someone an anvil means they can shoe horses or handing me a basketball means I automatically have a career in the NBA.
- dozzie 10y ago
  > No, its because you're not good at math, the problem isn't the pencil. Half the population has to be below the median, after all, [...] This is hilarious, talking about hypothetical somebody sucking at math and using popular incorrect opinion about median in almost the same sentence xD There is a quite simple distribution with population of just five that has neither half of the population below the median nor above the median.

by jonmc12 10y ago

eitally 10y ago

That's a neat analysis -- thanks for posting!

sytelus 10y ago

This is not adding up... 32% of US population has Bachelor's degree but only 5% has college level reading skills? I think original survey probably has some fatal flaws. May be they should re-publish results after only taking in to account individuals of age 25 years or more who actually respond. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Educational_attainment_in_the_United_States https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Educational_attainment_in_th...

azernik 10y ago
The disconnect is that the definition of "college-level reading skills" is normative, not empirical. It refers to what a college-educated person "should" be able to read, based on the materials they see in coursework, not on what an actual college graduate can in practice read. Similarly, you'll often see stats showing that the average 10th-grader in so-and-so slice of the student population reads at a 3rd-grade level - meaning that their reading skills are really only up to school materials taught in 3rd grade.
- TorKlingberg 10y ago
  I would say the term "college-level reading skills" is poorly defined if it's based on some idealalized college graduate rather than real ones.
  - jasode 10y ago
    The phrase "college-level reading skills" has always been well-defined as a prescribed threshold of literacy rather than describe any college student with any level of reading. If we used your suggested 2nd definition of "real students", the label would be circular and meaningless. (E.g. prerequisites reworded in a bizarre way such as, "Remedial Reading courses support students who do not demonstrate non-idealized reading skill proficiency that real students have."[1],[2]) [1]http://www.hawaii.edu/offices/cc/arpd/instructional.php?action=analysis&college=MAU&year=2014&program=136 http://www.hawaii.edu/offices/cc/arpd/instructional.php?acti... [2]https://www.ccaurora.edu/MyCCA/Advisor/Advising/minimum_assessment_scores_or_%20ACT.pdf https://www.ccaurora.edu/MyCCA/Advisor/Advising/minimum_asse...
    - lkbm 10y ago
      The alternative definition "any college student with any level of reading" certainly strikes me as a straw man (granted, unintentional one). How about "average reading level of a college student"? Or "average needed to graduate college"? (I'm not saying that is the definition, but I think it's closer to what laymen assume "reading level" refers to.)
      - csa 10y ago
        > How about "average reading level of a college student"? This is a form of normed referencing, and ultimately it becomes a (sometimes rapidly) moving target that makes comparisons difficult. The standard used in the field is criterion referencing (similar to "prescriptive" used by 'jasode). This allows for easier apples-to-apples comparisons. You are correct that they layman understanding is closer to your definition (at least in my experience). The layman understanding that you describe is not the standard in the field.
SixSigma 10y ago
They probably did the survey at my university
madaxe_again 10y ago
That seems reasonable - anecdotally I know many graduates from both sides of the pond who have never read a book they didn't have to - for instance, in the UK, fifty shades was broadly heralded as the first book many had read in their adult lives. From within our intellectual elite bubble it's easy to go "surely it ain't so", but there it is. Hell, my ex business partner who was a highly educated and intelligent man doesn't own a single book and hasn't read one since "animal farm" at school. The sad reality is that the vast majority of people have absolutely no interest in reading. It's not a question of access, rather perceived effort.
- icefo 10y ago
  I think school is partly responsible for this. I had to read many terrible books in school. French is my mother tongue and I had to read stuff written in ancient French where a third of the page is definition so you can understand. Most of the time the book is just uninteresting. In my 5 years of high school, there are 3-4 books out of the 20+ that I consider worth reading. And the worst thing for me is the Analysis that come out of nowhere. I actually liked to read when I was a kid but now when I see a book I just have French class flashbacks and a feeling of disgust. People told me it goes away after a while. I hope it's true.
johngalt 10y ago
Anecdata: I know a lot of well educated people who don't read. At all. What reading level would you expect for someone who got a degree in their early twenties then didn't read anything more complicated than People magazine for decades after.
- csa 10y ago
  Level 1 or 2. They may have never been functional at level 3 (not that there is anything wrong with that). Level 3 means that someone can consistently read and comprehend the full meaning of college-level texts. In the US, one does not need to read at this level to graduate from college (or even many grad schools). There are many people in the world who are smart and/or very knowledgeable who don't consistently read and comprehend at level 3 across the range of topics covered in a typical college curriculum. Source: Me. I have trained people in both reading literacy and tech literacy. My experience is both theoretical and practical. Feel free to ask follow-up questions if you have any.
- alistairSH 10y ago
  Anecdata: I know a lot of well educated people who don't read. At all. Our current Presdident Elect (US) reportedly falls into this category (or, pretty darn close to it). That's a scary thought.

VLM 10y ago

The literacy idea is a good one. I was mystified by the description of the tasks being basically an IQ test or cognition test or math and logic test tangentially involving a computer as a topic and shockingly the result of predictable IQ test results being that computer user interfaces suck, which is pretty hilarious. "I failed my standardized tests math section because the user interface of a #2 graphite pencil is poor." No, its because you're not good at math, the problem isn't the pencil. Half the population has to be below the median, after all, and we design civilization to make sure evolution doesn't cull anyone, so ... I am kinda old and I can assure you that plenty of people were completely incompetent at using a physical card catalog (kind of like a printed out google search form, where an old fashioned library used to kinda be a printed out internet, back before libraries became internet cafes without coffee and also turned into daycares). Inability to search for things intelligently is not a recent invention of computation, any more than the inability to write essays is a result of word processing software or century old typewriter or the ballpoint pen. Its truism thru history that as soon as the first tool was invented, some dude without enough mental horsepower to use it immediately started attacking the tool as being poorly designed. Fire, wheels, carpentry tools, farm machinery, computers, same old story. Some folks can't think, and giving them a tool then asking them to perform a thoughtful task is doomed to fail and result in the tool catching most of the blame. Why if only wheels were better designed to be round in all three dimensions instead of just two then that pesky problem of axle placement wouldn't be so stressful for end users, etc etc. The fact of the matter is the median human is barely at a level of boolean algebra basics and arithmetic and following instructions on a packaged cake mix box. Giving someone innumerate a calculator doesn't mean they can now launch the space shuttle, any more than giving someone an anvil means they can shoe horses or handing me a basketball means I automatically have a career in the NBA.

dozzie 10y ago
> No, its because you're not good at math, the problem isn't the pencil. Half the population has to be below the median, after all, [...] This is hilarious, talking about hypothetical somebody sucking at math and using popular incorrect opinion about median in almost the same sentence xD There is a quite simple distribution with population of just five that has neither half of the population below the median nor above the median.