An article published by USA Today on September 9th (in relation to International Literacy Day on September 8th) pointed out that 22 percent of American adults are functionally illiterate in English, meaning they cannot, according to the definition provided by the Program for the International Assessment of Adult Competencies (PIAAC), “complete tasks that require comparing and contrasting information, paraphrasing, or making low-level inferences.” Furthermore, almost 32 percent of adults are considered functionally literate but read below a 6th-grade level, meaning almost 130 million people—over half of the American adult population—read below the level expected of an 11–12 year-old…and 43 million cannot read above a third-grade level.
The effects of such low adult literacy levels are profound. Of the over two million incarcerated adults in the United States, 29 percent have low literacy skills (and 52 percent have low numeracy skills). Still more, an estimated $2.2 trillion dollars is lost each year due to the inability of low-literacy adults to engage in the reading and thinking required by modern workplaces and society.
The situation for school-aged children, while better than that for adults, is still unsettling. The 2022 National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) found 37 percent of 4th graders and 30 percent of 8th graders are below basic proficiency in reading (the most recent assessment for 12th graders in 2019 likewise found 30 percent scoring below basic proficiency). The assessment also found that the proficiency gap is increasing at all grade levels between the most and least proficient readers.
The Importance of Book Availability for Literacy
Studies have repeatedly shown the importance of access to books and other resources for developing literacy. For example, a 2018 study of over 100,000 3–5 year olds in 35 countries emphasized the importance of books in homes for children’s literacy. Only half of the children studied had one or more children’s books in their home; for those who had at least one book, however, their chance of developing age-appropriate reading proficiency doubled, with demonstrable improvements in linguistic, socio-emotional and cognitive development. Interestingly, it’s access to those crucial first few books that is most important: the author’s note,
Evidence on the effect of book availability on children’s educational attainment also suggest that when families have few or no books at all, additional books produce higher gains in educational attainment than when they already have many and may indicate that interventions to make books available to children will have maximal effect in these settings.
This means, they conclude, “such interventions will require integrated delivery at optimal quality with universal coverage.”
An earlier, but highly influential, study by Susan B. Neuman similarly looked at the effect of book access and interaction on preschoolers in over 330 child care centers and found that access to five books, with both storybook reading activity and literacy-related activities, had significant positive effects on children’s literacy with effects lasting at least six months after the activity period. Children who engaged with books showed improvements—sometimes of more than 20 percent—in such areas as letter name knowledge, writing, narrative and print. Neuman summarizes her findings,
These results suggest that it was both the physical proximity of books and the psychological proximity of people around them that enhanced the placement, opportunity, and access to books for children. With these supports, caregivers began to play a more critical role in children’s literacy, reading more often and offering them helpful assistance and encouragement.
Given these findings—that literacy requires universal coverage of access to books, along with well-trained specialists who can introduce children to books and engage them in reading—it is heartbreaking to look at the current situation in the United States. There are over 2.5 million children, the U.S. Department of Education states, enrolled in school districts with no libraries, and 13 million children in districts (including those in my region of southern Oklahoma) where the children’s materials circulation is less than ten per student. The numbers are even worse, they warn, for students in poverty and students of color.
Saving the Libraries
While the need for well-funded, well-staffed libraries is obvious, book banners are taking an opposing position and furiously attempting to close libraries. There are far too many examples to give here—you can find overviews from (among many others) Fabiola Cineas and Kelly Weill, and the American Library Association’s Intellectual Freedom Blog gives a weekly list of links to the latest threats. Cineas powerfully describes how communities have overcome the efforts of book banners:
In most of these cases, it was a local and international outpouring of support for libraries that pressured lawmakers to change course. ‘We’re seeing more ‘ed scare’ legislation at the state level and new ways that districts are changing book policies locally. But, at the same time, there’s a collective voice that’s growing and pushing back against the idea that these books are bad, harmful, pornographic, and obscene,’ said (Kasey) Meehan. ‘The more we challenge those ideas, eventually, I hope it grows stronger than the campaign to suppress.’
Image: Children’s library in Nuneaton (Source).
.jpg){kind=link}