5 ms·

For anyone else wondering, I believe the statistic comes from p. 15, Table 8.

by tcpekin 13y ago

kenjackson 13y ago
The data from that table doesn't say what the other poster said. From the document: "Basic indicates skills necessary to perform simple and everyday literacy activities." That sounds like functional literacy. In Table 8 they break out 3 different types of literacy (prose, document, quantitative). Those with college degrees that score at Basic or above are: Prose: 97% (with 83% being above Basic) Document: 98% (with 87% being above Basic) Quantitative: 96% (with 74% being above Basic) Note, if you compare this to people with less than High School (no HS degree or GED): Prose: 50% Document: 55% Quantitative: 36%
- tcpekin 13y ago
  I noticed that but wasn't sure what the OP meant with a "good job". Looking at the examples between Basic, Intermediate and Proficient, Proficient seems pretty required for what I would consider a non-menial, well paying job. Basic skills include "locating easily identifiable quantitative information and using it to solve simple,one-step problems when the arithmetic operation is specified or easily inferred" and "reading and understanding information in simple documents". The examples are comparing ticket prices and using a TV guide to find out what time a show is on. Those are not skills I personally feel qualify you for a "good job", my definition of good job being defined as one where you work with your mind. However, basic literacy does not mean you cannot be a very skilled tradesman and know a craft extremely well. However, the majority of college graduates are intermediate or proficient. Will they all become lawyers or programmers? No. Are they functionally literate and can they perform in a workplace? Most likely, yes.
- Alex3917 13y ago
  > That sounds like functional literacy. The term has an actual definition. The fact is that 'proficient' is the minimum necessary to read a newspaper article, as per their definition of 'proficient'. If you can't do that, you sure as hell can't do any sort of knowledge work.

For anyone else wondering, I believe the statistic comes from p. 15, Table 8.

by tcpekin 13y ago

For anyone else wondering, I believe the statistic comes from p. 15, Table 8.

The data from that table doesn't say what the other poster said. From the document: "Basic indicates skills necessary to perform simple and everyday literacy activities." That sounds like functional literacy. In Table 8 they break out 3 different types of literacy (prose, document, quantitative). Those with college degrees that score at Basic or above are: Prose: 97% (with 83% being above Basic) Document: 98% (with 87% being above Basic) Quantitative: 96% (with 74% being above Basic) Note, if you compare this to people with less than High School (no HS degree or GED): Prose: 50% Document: 55% Quantitative: 36%

tcpekin 13y ago
I noticed that but wasn't sure what the OP meant with a "good job". Looking at the examples between Basic, Intermediate and Proficient, Proficient seems pretty required for what I would consider a non-menial, well paying job. Basic skills include "locating easily identifiable quantitative information and using it to solve simple,one-step problems when the arithmetic operation is specified or easily inferred" and "reading and understanding information in simple documents". The examples are comparing ticket prices and using a TV guide to find out what time a show is on. Those are not skills I personally feel qualify you for a "good job", my definition of good job being defined as one where you work with your mind. However, basic literacy does not mean you cannot be a very skilled tradesman and know a craft extremely well. However, the majority of college graduates are intermediate or proficient. Will they all become lawyers or programmers? No. Are they functionally literate and can they perform in a workplace? Most likely, yes.
Alex3917 13y ago
> That sounds like functional literacy. The term has an actual definition. The fact is that 'proficient' is the minimum necessary to read a newspaper article, as per their definition of 'proficient'. If you can't do that, you sure as hell can't do any sort of knowledge work.