this post was submitted on 10 Dec 2024
152 points (98.7% liked)

News

36694 readers
1973 users here now

Welcome to the News community!

Rules:

1. Be civil


Attack the argument, not the person. No racism/sexism/bigotry. Good faith argumentation only. This includes accusing another user of being a bot or paid actor. Trolling is uncivil and is grounds for removal and/or a community ban. Do not respond to rule-breaking content; report it and move on.


2. All posts should contain a source (url) that is as reliable and unbiased as possible and must only contain one link.


Obvious biased sources will be removed at the mods’ discretion. Supporting links can be added in comments or posted separately but not to the post body. Sources may be checked for reliability using Wikipedia, MBFC, AdFontes, GroundNews, etc.


3. No bots, spam or self-promotion.


Only approved bots, which follow the guidelines for bots set by the instance, are allowed.


4. Post titles should be the same as the article used as source. Clickbait titles may be removed.


Posts which titles don’t match the source may be removed. If the site changed their headline, we may ask you to update the post title. Clickbait titles use hyperbolic language and do not accurately describe the article content. When necessary, post titles may be edited, clearly marked with [brackets], but may never be used to editorialize or comment on the content.


5. Only recent news is allowed.


Posts must be news from the most recent 30 days.


6. All posts must be news articles.


No opinion pieces, Listicles, editorials, videos, blogs, press releases, or celebrity gossip will be allowed. All posts will be judged on a case-by-case basis. Mods may use discretion to pre-approve videos or press releases from highly credible sources that provide unique, newsworthy content not available or possible in another format.


7. No duplicate posts.


If an article has already been posted, it will be removed. Different articles reporting on the same subject are permitted. If the post that matches your post is very old, we refer you to rule 5.


8. Misinformation is prohibited.


Misinformation / propaganda is strictly prohibited. Any comment or post containing or linking to misinformation will be removed. If you feel that your post has been removed in error, credible sources must be provided.


9. No link shorteners or news aggregators.


All posts must link to original article sources. You may include archival links in the post description. News aggregators such as Yahoo, Google, Hacker News, etc. should be avoided in favor of the original source link. Newswire services such as AP, Reuters, or AFP, are frequently republished and may be shared from other credible sources.


10. Don't copy entire article in your post body


For copyright reasons, you are not allowed to copy an entire article into your post body. This is an instance wide rule, that is strictly enforced in this community.

founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
 

Summary

A new survey by the National Center for Education Statistics reveals that 28% of U.S. adults perform at the lowest levels of literacy, up from 19% in 2017, with a growing gap between top-skilled and lowest-skilled individuals.

The Survey of Adult Skills, which compares literacy, numeracy, and problem-solving abilities across over two dozen countries, found the U.S. remained average as many nations experienced similar declines.

NCES Commissioner Peggy Carr noted these low scores indicate functional illiteracy, affecting basic life and work tasks, though the exact causes of the decline remain unclear.

top 26 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[–] MyOpinion@lemm.ee 36 points 1 year ago

MAGA is celebrating in the streets!

[–] PugJesus@lemmy.world 32 points 1 year ago (1 children)
[–] njm1314@lemmy.world 22 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Seems to indicate this is a universal problem not just the United States problem.

[–] ChicoSuave@lemmy.world 16 points 1 year ago (1 children)

The rise of right wing politics with it is no coincidence.

[–] HellsBelle@sh.itjust.works 2 points 1 year ago

The isolation during the pandemic has been proven to have affected kid's education as well.

[–] NarrativeBear@lemmy.world 26 points 1 year ago (2 children)

This is by design, a dumber population is easier to control by the few.

A educated population is beneficial to society as a whole.

[–] kmartburrito@lemmy.world 10 points 1 year ago

That's why the Dept of Education is getting dismantled in the next four years and returning it "back to the states" so that they can privatize things and profit from it.

Damn it feels good to be a ~~gangsta~~ billionaire

[–] Bakkoda@sh.itjust.works 1 points 1 year ago

Yes and no. Easier to control when you are in control but mob mentality can shift incredibly quickly when the mass is just plain dumb. Intelligent people weight their decision, act slowly and methodically and only act quickly when it's absolutely necessary.

[–] ieatpwns@lemmy.world 19 points 1 year ago (1 children)

“No child left behind or whatever”

-George bush circa 2000s more likely than not

[–] RagingRobot@lemmy.world 5 points 1 year ago

all the other kids were waiting for one of them to learn to read so they all couldn't move on and now no one can read lol

[–] gnomesaiyan@lemmy.world 14 points 1 year ago (1 children)

All of the people online that were getting chastised for correcting spelling and grammar left the Internet. Misspelled memes became a thing, and now everyone's fucking retarded. Eating Tiktok for breakfast and shitting Twitter by lunchtime. This fucking species, I swear.

Alien overlords, AI emergence, a fucking ELE asteroid, I'll take anything over this Onion of a planet.

[–] Randomgal@lemmy.ca 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Lol imagine thinking the reason education is failing is because not enough grammar Nazis are online lol

No wonder y'all are 1/4 illiterate.

[–] gnomesaiyan@lemmy.world 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Imagine using 'lol' to start and finish a sentence. I award you the obligatory dunce cap. Go sit in the corner.

[–] foggy@lemmy.world 10 points 1 year ago

Gonna get worse.

[–] homesweethomeMrL@lemmy.world 9 points 1 year ago

And as for media literacy? Negative numbers.

[–] partial_accumen@lemmy.world 8 points 1 year ago (1 children)

There was a similar story posted here on Lemmy about a month ago. On that one it was referring to English literacy only without any regard to other languages.

The article linked here doesn't like to the actual study, so I can't see if its the same thing here.

[–] MySkinIsFallingOff@lemmy.world 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I mean the numbers here seem very high across the board. I'm Norwegian, and I can't imagine the numbers for our illiteracy to Norwegian being anywhere near that high. It would make sense for the number there to be in regards to English, both for my country and the others there.

[–] captainlezbian@lemmy.world 1 points 1 year ago

Someone posted a chart and it looks like Norwegens are just real good at readin. Seriously though, I'm shocked too as an American. I just assume everyone around me can read except when I'm reminded of our illiteracy problem

[–] Blackout@fedia.io 7 points 1 year ago

Can someone record themselves reading this article and send me a link?

[–] MrSilkworm@lemmy.world 5 points 1 year ago

The movie idiocracy is turning from a comedy to a documentary!

[–] JackFrostNCola@lemmy.world 4 points 1 year ago

Financial literacy question #1: how does a tariff work?

[–] reddig33@lemmy.world 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I wonder how many of these people went to public school in the US? How many are native English speakers?

[–] MNByChoice@midwest.social 6 points 1 year ago (1 children)

How many went to private schools with reduced oversight?

[–] reddig33@lemmy.world 7 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Or homeschooled? It would be interesting to see where the illiterate people are coming from. Id like to know where the failure points are.

[–] Drusas@fedia.io 3 points 1 year ago

I used to work in a school at a correctional facility for incarcerated teenagers and almost all of them were homeschooled. Many of them could barely read, fewer than 10% could write a coherent statement, and almost none of them had even basic math skills.