Functional Illiteracy Research Articles

Designing a children's emergency department healthcare advice ‘APP’

<h3>Aims</h3> Provision of additional educational healthcare information (AEHI) is an important part of ‘safety netting’ when discharging from the Children9s Emergency Department (CED). The provision of written AEHI has obvious limitations when you consider the increasing numbers of families in whom English is not the first language and the UK functional illiteracy rate of 18%. We decided to explore the possibility of creating a smart phone App that delivered a combination of written and audio AEHI about a range of common CED presentations in English and other commonly encountered languages. <h3>Methods</h3> A 3 stage feasibility assessment for the App was undertaken: 1. Internet and literature reviews to ascertain the availability of smart phones and whether there is evidence or experience of using smart phones for AEHI provision. 2. Surveys of patients and staff to determine the acceptability of providing AEHI via an App in addition to gathering information on potential content and the most commonly encountered languages. 3. Discussion with a design company to determine the technical feasibility of an App that provides combined written and audio AEHI in several languages. <h3>Results</h3> A literature search revealed little evidence for the use of Apps in this setting. One recent British CED based study demonstrated that 50% of families surveyed would be interested in the provision of advice by other means with mobile phones being most frequently suggested. Consumer studies suggest that smart phones are now widely used in the UK. Families visiting our CED demonstrated widespread support for an App with 29 of 30 (97%) survey respondents indicating they would be happy to receive advice in this fashion. A staff survey revealed the commonest other languages encountered were Somali, Polish, Romanian and Urdu. Further information about smart phone operating systems and what advice families and staff wanted to see on the App was recorded. Discussions with a design company confirmed the technical feasibility of the App. <h3>Conclusion</h3> This feasibility assessment suggests that an AEHI App would be welcomed and capable of providing both written and audio advice to families in a range of commonly encountered languages.

Tradução e adaptação cultural do Questionário Aberdeen para Veias Varicosas

CONTEXTO: Atualmente há um crescente interesse por instrumentos de avaliação em saúde produzidos e validados em todo o mundo. Apesar disso, ainda não temos no Brasil instrumentos que avaliem o impacto da doença venosa crônica na vida de seu portador. Para utilização dessas medidas torna-se necessária a realização da tradução e da adaptação cultural ao idioma em questão. OBJETIVO: Traduzir e adaptar culturalmente para a população brasileira o Aberdeen Varicose Veins Questionnaire (AVVQ- Brasil). MÉTODOS: O processo consistiu de duas traduções e duas retrotraduções realizadas por tradutores independentes, da avaliação das versões seguida da elaboração de versão consensual e de pré-teste comentado. RESULTADOS: Os pacientes do pré-teste eram do sexo feminino, com média de idade de 49,9 anos, média de tempo de resposta 7,73 minutos, que variou entre 4,55 minutos (tempo mínimo) a 10,13 minutos (tempo máximo). Escolaridade: 20% analfabetismo funcional, 1º grau completo e 2º grau completo; 30% 1º grau incompleto; e 10% 3º grau completo. Gravidade clínica 40% C3 e C6S, 10% C2 e C5, havendo cinco termos incompreendidos na aplicação. CONCLUSÕES: A versão na língua portuguesa do Aberdeen Varicose Veins Questionnaire está traduzida e adaptada para uso na população brasileira, podendo ser utilizada após posterior análise de suas propriedades clinimétricas.

Word reading and word spelling in French adult literacy students: the relationship with oral language skills

We analysed word reading and spelling in French adults with low levels of literacy (A‐IL). As well as examining phonological and lexical processes, we explored the relationship between literacy and oral language skills. Fifty‐two adult literacy students were compared with reading level‐matched pupils in Years 1–3 of primary school on reading tasks (pseudoword reading, word reading, text comprehension), spelling tasks (pseudoword spelling, text dictation) and oral language tasks. A‐IL scored the same as children on word reading and spelling but less well on pseudoword reading and spelling. They also produced fewer phonologically acceptable errors in the dictation. Regarding oral language skills, as a group A‐IL encountered greater difficulty in phonology than in morphosyntax and semantics, and correlations revealed strong relationships between literacy levels and oral skills, particularly in the domain of phonology. Within their group, however, A‐IL displayed several distinct language profiles. These could reflect different risk factors leading to functional illiteracy and are discussed regarding the cognitive and environmental causes of impaired reading acquisition.

Evaluation of Web Accessibility: An Approach Related to Functional Illiteracy

Functionally illiterate users, that means those lacking reading, writing, calculation and science skills, are potential Internet users, so technological solutions must ensure that content is intelligible to them. The interface design guided by accessibility norms and may improve accessibility, but considering accessibility evaluations is an essential part of this process. Evaluation can be automatic, performed by specialists or performed with the participation of users. Some barriers are only detected with user tests. Usually, usability tests are adapted and performed with the purpose of evaluating accessibility, but most of works in this area dealt with persons with visual impairment. This paper aimed to research the behavior of functionally illiterate users, identifying important characteristics that the evaluators and specialists should consider in the performance of an evaluation of accessibility with this audience. As a result was generated a list of important characteristics that contribute to the adaptation of usability evaluation methods with functionally illiterate users. Besides that, it was elaborated a list of best strategies that the specialists and researchers should consider in accessibility evaluation with the audience under examination.

Obstetric Fistula in Low and Middle Income Countries

Vesicovaginal fistula secondary to obstructed labor continues to be an all-too-common occurrence in underdeveloped nations throughout Africa and Asia. Vesicovaginal fistula remains largely an overlooked problem in developing nations as it affects the most marginalized members of society: young, poor, illiterate women who live in remote areas. The formation of obstetric fistula is a result of complex interactions of social, biologic, and economic influences. The key underlying causes of fistula are the combination of a lack of functional emergency obstetric care, poverty, illiteracy, and low status of women. In order to prevent fistula, some strategies include creation of governmental policy aimed toward reducing maternal mortality/morbidity and increasing availability of skilled obstetric care, as well as attempts to increase awareness about its prevention and treatment among policymakers, service providers, and communities. Whereas prevention will require the widespread development of infrastructure within these developing countries, treatment of fistula is an act which can be done "in the now." Treatment and subsequent reintegration of fistula patients requires a team of specialists including surgeons, nurses, midwives, and social workers, which is largely unavailable in developing countries. However, there is increasing support for training of fistula surgeons through standardized programs as well as establishment of rehabilitation centers in many nations. The eradication of fistula is dependent upon building programs that target both prevention and treatment.

The experiential basis of speech and writing as different cognitive domains

Traditionally, writing is viewed as a code that stands in one-to-one correspondence to spoken language, which is therefore also viewed as a code. However, this is a delusion, which is shared by educators and has serious consequences for cognition, both on individual and on social levels. Natural linguistic signs characteristic for the activity of languaging and their symbolizations (graphic markings) are ontologically different phenomena; speech and writing belong to experiential domains of different dynamics. These dynamics impact differently on the linguistic/behavioral strategies of individuals and communities, viewed as second- and third-order living systems operating in a consensual domain as structure-determined systems. Failure to acknowledge this contributes to the spread of functional illiteracy in modern societies, which may lead to cognitive/communicative dysfunction. Technology-enhanced new literacies challenge the value of traditional written culture, raising questions about the relationship between speech and writing and their roles in human evolution

S-TOFHLA in mild Alzheimer's disease and Mild Cognitive Impairment patients as a measure of functional literacy: Preliminary study

The greatest difficulty in diagnosing cognitive loss in our population is the diversity of its education which has a broad spectrum ranging from illiteracy, functional illiteracy and different degrees of literacy, even in those with the same level of schooling.ObjectivesTo verify whether there is impairment on the S-TOFHLA among individuals with AD and MCI compared with healthy controls, and to compare performance on the S-TOFHLA performance with neuropsychological tests and the scores achieved on the Raven’s Colored Matrices and Vocabulary and Block Design (WAIS-III) as a measure of estimated intellectual level.Methods59 subjects: controls (n=23; age 70.96±8.31y; schooling 10.2±5.87y; 6 men), MCI patients (n=11; age 74.18±8.12y; schooling 7.55±4.32y; 5 men) and AD patients (n=25; age 76.16±4.96y; schooling 7.32±4.78y; 10 men) were submitted to neuropsychological assessment, S-TOFHLA and functional evaluation.ResultsDifferences on BD, Raven and Estimated IQ were found between controls and MCI patients as well as controls and AD patients. On the S-TOFHLA, differences were found between MCI and AD patients, controls and AD patients, but not between control and MCI groups. S-TOFHLA performance correlated strongly with schooling and all neuropsychological tests, except Clock Drawing.ConclusionsThe S-TOFHLA seems to be a useful measure for determining the level of literacy in MCI patients, but not in AD patients. S-TOFHLA performance was more closely associated with neuropsychological test scores than were years of education and seems to be a good predictor of level of literacy. The Vocabulary subtest proved to be uninfluenced by the disease process in early stages and preserved in both MCI and AD patients, showing that semantic memory and crystallized intelligence are preserved.

Compétences narratives et communicatives chez des personnes en situation d’illettrisme

The purpose of the article is the study of the nature and extent of oral language difficulties suffered by those people who are in a situation of functional illiteracy, in relation to their reading abilities. We are aiming at providing a systematic analysis of narrations delivered by an extensive sample of illiterate adults, in a standardized narration task considered as a communication situation, implementing at the same time lexicosyntaxic rules on the one hand and pragmatic skills of producing linguistic forms in relation to a given context, intentions and mutual expectations, on the other. Fifty-two illiterate men and women, along with a control group comparable with regards to age, sex and socioprofessional environment, delivered a narration from a sequence of pictures casting three protagonists of the same gender for an absent receiver. All narrations were integrally transcripted and coded using two sets of measurements: (1) structural ones (lexical diversity, morphologic errors, syntax complexity) and (2) pragmatic ones (evaluative expressions, canonic scheme, referential cohesion). Results show a sizeable deficit of the illiterates with regards to the structural level (mainly the morphosyntax), with a large variability between subjects at the pragmatic level. Furthermore, the correlations show some relationships between the narrative skills and reading abilities, mainly at the morphosyntaxic level. These results are discussed in terms of reciprocal causality between the written and oral languages and for their implications in the education of adults in written language.

A National Agenda for America's Children and Adolescents in 2008: Recommendations From the 15th Annual Public Policy Plenary Symposium, Annual Meeting of the Pediatric Academic Societies, May 3, 2008

Politicians savor “photo ops” with children—the younger the better—yet rhetoric notwithstanding, children's issues rarely rise to the top the nation's priority list. With pressing national issues, both domestic and foreign, the 2008 elections will likely continue in this pattern. A recent study from the Urban Institute estimated that children's share of domestic federal spending declined from 20.2% in 1960 to 16.2% in 2007, with another decrease projected to 13.8% in 2018 if current spending and revenue policies are continued.1 It is clear that strong and articulate advocacy is needed to reverse these trends. To this end, leaders of 5 major pediatric organizations have joined to develop a set of proposals to guide advocacy on behalf of children and adolescents in the 2008 elections. The setting was the 15th Annual Public Policy Plenary Symposium held at the annual meeting of the Pediatric Academic Societies in Honolulu, Hawaii, on May 3, 2008. Presidents of the 4 sponsoring societies (American Pediatric Society, Society for Pediatric Research, Academic Pediatric Association, and American Academy of Pediatrics [AAP]) participated together with the president-elect of the Association of American Pediatric Department Chairs. Each took responsibility for addressing a specific area of interest that was refined over the preceding several months with 2 conference calls and electronic communications. Summaries and recommendations follow. ### Phyllis A. Dennery, MD, President, 2007–2008 Society for Pediatric Research In the coming years, a larger portion of the US workforce will have been raised in poverty than ever before. This bodes poorly for the productivity and future success of our nation. Because of the demand for highly skilled workers to develop and manage new technologies and the relative functional illiteracy and innumeracy of a large proportion of US workers, our labor force is weakened compared with other nations. Citizens who have grown up in poverty have diminished cognitive and social skills as well as … Address correspondence to Myron Genel, MD, Public Policy Council, Yale Child Health Research Center, PO Box 208081, New Haven, CT 06520-8081. E-mail: myron.genel{at}yale.edu

Assisted Living Nursing Practice: Health Literacy and Chronic Illness Management

Functional illiteracy is an inability to read sufficient to function in society. In the high-tech, information-dependent environment of postindustrial society, being illiterate is being at risk. Health literacy is the ability to access, understand, and use basic information about health conditions and services that is necessary to make informed decisions. Older adults (>/=65 years of age) have lower health literacy than all other age groups. Limited health literacy is associated with greater use of emergency department visits, increased rates of hospitalization, and failure to take important diagnostic tests. To maintain independence and self-determination, assisted living (AL) residents need to be able to understand a new or changed diagnosis, as well as oral and written instructions, especially with regard to their medication management. This article discusses health literacy, "plain language," and assessment and interventions to maintain health literacy.

Brazil: Is this Nation of Non-Readers the Land of Opportunity?

After settling in to his second term, Brazil’s president Lula da Silva has pledged to improve on his country’s woefully inadequate education system. This means addressing illiteracy, which is one of Brazil’s most serious development issues. While Brazil has the potential to be one of the world’s largest economies, it is hampered by high rates of functional illiteracy. Furthermore, those that can read are non-readers. Consequently the Brazilian government has pledged to resolve illiteracy and launched a nationwide reading program in 2005 with the optimistic goal of increasing the national reading rate by 50%. The article analyzes the political risk in Brazil in light of the da Silva administration’s stated objectives. It will also assess the impact of state literacy campaigns will have on the publishing industry and the potential for investment in the country. Finally, it will discuss the importance of foreign investors in Brazil’s development goals.

Nova embalagem, mercadoria antiga

Diante das intervenções institucionais dos promotores do método fônico na aprendizagem da escrita, visando substituí-lo ao caminho promovido pelos Parâmetros Curriculares, o artigo analisa dois textos representativos dessa nova frente: o Relatório entregue à Câmara dos Deputados do Brasil e um texto do Observatoire National de la Lecture (ONL), instituição referenciada no Relatório. Os dois textos analisados, expressando a visão do ONL, definem o ato de ler como uma seqüência de dois processos distintos: uma extração da pronúncia, seguida por uma extração da compreensão. Retomando a visão saussuriana que considera a língua escrita como uma mera representação da língua oral, o ONL vê nos grafemas apenas a tradução dos fonemas e, na leitura, a transposição dos primeiros nos segundos. A especificidade da leitura, para os autores, encontra-se na 'decodificação'. Ao postergar a compreensão para uma segunda etapa, transformam a leitura em uma atividade que, operando fora do significado, deixa de ser um ato de linguagem. A partir dessa visão da escrita, a proposta pedagógica promove conseqüentemente uma abordagem em duas etapas a serem seguidas pela totalidade das crianças, sem considerar a experiência personalizada anterior. No entanto, parcialmente letradas pelo contato com a literatura infanto-juvenil e pela escuta de textos de ficção, nem sempre as crianças começam pela extração da pronúncia, escapando assim ao programa previsto pelo ONL. Esse retorno de uma proposta que apresenta semelhanças com o método da cartilha, com sua seqüência decifração e leitura corrente, não pode constituir uma resposta às necessidades de um país que quer erradicar o analfabetismo funcional.

Estudio de las necesidades de salud en atención primaria mediante el diagnóstico de salud de la familia

To assess the health needs of the eligible public population of the Mexican Institute of Social Security (IMSS).Observational, descriptive, transversal study.Family Medicine Unit number 8 of the IMSS, in the city of Tlaxcala, Mexico.A sample of 1200 families using multi-stage sampling, between October 1999 and March 2000.The designed and validated questionnaire on "Family health diagnosis" was used.A 19.2% of the families had a very low socio-economic level, and 14.9% of subjects were not entitled to Social Security. Functional illiteracy in at least one member was found in 12.6% of the families. According to the family Apgar, 93% of families were functional and two-thirds of the families were classified as nuclear. About 51.1% and 36.9% of women used programs for detection of cervical/uterine and breast cancer, respectively. Only 25% of the adult population underwent the detection tests for diabetes mellitus and hypertension and 10.9% had a chronic disease. 56.4% of families considered the quality of health care good, and only 18.13% were satisfied with the care received.Identification of health needs through diagnosis of family health is useful as a basis for establishing a hierarchy of problems as well as for developing health programs that may facilitate greater equity in attention.

Functional Illiteracy and Nutritional Education in the United States: A Research-Based Approach to the Development of Nutritional Education Materials for Functionally Illiterate Consumers

Nutritional education programs are at the intersection of two important macro-level issues; the rate of functional illiteracy among individuals in the United States and disturbing health and nutrition-related trends in the last two decades. Functionally illiterate consumers form a sizable portion of the population in the United States and a sizable portion of the likely target audience for nutritional education programs. However, until recently, research on functionally illiterate consumer behavior has essentially been nonexistent. This study’s analysis of materials currently used in nutritional education programs suggests that such materials should be modified to convey information in a more user-friendly manner. On the basis of a case study of a nutrition educational program and interviews and observations of teachers and clients, the authors develop and recommend educational materials using visual displays emphasizing the marketplace context rather than using verbal and numerical modes emphasizing abstract information.

Introducing the Issue

Introducing the Issue Cecilia Rouse (bio), Jeanne Brooks-Gunn (bio), and Sara McLanahan (bio) Cecilia Rouse Cecilia Rouse is Director of the Education Research Section and Professor of Economics and Public Affairs at Princeton University. Jeanne Brooks-Gunn Jeanne Brooks-Gunn is Virginia and Leonard Marx Professor of Child Development and Education at Teachers College and the College of Physicians and Surgeons, Columbia University. Sara McLanahan Sara McLanahan is Director of the Center for Research on Child Wellbeing and Professor of Sociology and Public Affairs at Princeton University. Endnotes 1. Wendy S. Grigg and others, The Nation’s Report Card: Reading 2002, NCES 2003-521 (U.S. Department of Education, Institute of Education Sciences, National Center for Education Statistics, 2003). 2. Christopher Jencks and Meredith Phillips, "The Black-White Test Score Gap: An Introduction," in The Black-White Test Score Gap, edited by Jencks and Phillips (Brookings, 1998), pp. 3–4. 3. Meredith Phillips, James Crouse, and John Ralph, "Does the Black-White Test Score Gap Widen after Children Enter School?" in The Black-White Test Score Gap, edited by Jencks and Phillips (Brookings, 1998). 4. James J. Heckman and Alan B. Krueger, Inequality in America (MIT Press, 2004). 5. Nazli Baydar, Jeanne Brooks-Gunn, and Frank F. Furstenberg, "Early Warning Signs of Functional Illiteracy: Predictors in Childhood and Adolescence," Child Development 64 (1993): 815–29; Jeanne Brooks-Gunn, "Do You Believe in Magic? What Can We Expect from Early Childhood Intervention Programs?" Social Policy Report of the Society for Research in Child Development 17, no. 1 (2003) (http://www.srcd.org/spr17-1.pdf). 6. National Education Goals Panel, Special Early Childhood Report (Government Printing Office, 1997). 7. Sheila Heaviside and Elizabeth Farris, Public School Kindergarten Teachers’ Views of Children’s Readiness for School, NCES 1993-410 (Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics, 1993). 8. C. Cybele Raver, "Emotions Matter: Making the Case for the Role of Young Children’s Emotional Development for Early School Readiness," Social Policy Report of the Society for Research in Child Development 16, no. 3 (2002) (http://www.srcd.org/spr16-3.pdf); Lisa McCabe and others, "Games Children Play: Observing Young Children’s Self-Regulation across Laboratory, Home and School Settings," in Handbook of Infant and Toddler Mental Health Assessment, edited by Rebecca DelCarmen-Wiggins and Alice Carter (Oxford University Press, 2004), pp. 491–521. 9. B. R. Hamre and Robert C. Pianta, "Early Teacher-Child Relationships and the Trajectory of Children’s School Outcomes through Eighth Grade," Child Development 72 (2001): 625–88. 10. Sara E. Rimm-Kaufman, Robert C. Pianta, and Martha J. Cox, "Teachers’ Judgments of Problems in the Transition to Kindergarten," Early Childhood Research Quarterly 15 (2000): 147–66. 11. Roland G. Fryer and Steven D. Levitt, "Understanding the Black-White Test Score Gap in the First Two Years of School," Review of Economics and Statistics 86, no. 2 (May 2004): 447–64. [End Page 14] Copyright © 2005 The Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs at Princeton University and The Brookings Institution

Low Literacy and Medication Safety: Spreading the Word

Patient education decreases the incidence of medication errors. However, the barrier to education is the level of comprehension of the patient. Studies show that even those with a college degree function at an eighth grade reading level when provided with medical educational materials. This level almost becomes nonexistent if the patient is considered low literate or a first time reader. This functional illiteracy has been reported to lead to approximately $73 billion in additional health care expenditures annually.1 Methods The Ohio Patient Safety Institute (OPSI), Project: LEARN of Summit County, and the Ohio Society of Health-System Pharmacists (OSHP) collaborated to create and implement a medication safety brochure that could be used by patients at varying reading levels. The partners in this project initiated the development of the brochure after an extensive search for standardized graphics used to relate medical answers to common questions yielded no results. Development of pictures and graphics that were considered universal were keys to the success of the project. The design of the brochure encompassed major problems encountered with medications. Implementation took several routes that led to distribution throughout the state. Results At this point more than 65,000 brochures have been circulated throughout Ohio, as well as mailed to interested parties outside the state. Conclusions By implementing this type of brochure, we are one step closer to ensuring the education of the entire community regarding medications and their dangers, as well as building relationships that maintain the trust in the medical community.

Functional health illiteracy. Ethical concerns.

Functional health illiteracy is a silent disability demanding the attention of healthcare professionals because it affects millions of people in the United States. Patients are reluctant to disclose this problem because they fear discrimination and stigmatization. Inadequate health literacy raises ethical questions because it is a barrier to healthcare and results in poor health outcomes. The purposes of this article are to provide an overview of functional health illiteracy, identify related ethical concerns, and discuss selected, relevant nursing implications. Nurses are in a unique position to serve as advocates, mediators, and translators for their patients who are functionally health illiterate.

Special characteristics affecting the neuropsychologic assessment of the elderly in Greece.

An important element in the diagnostic approach to psychogeriatric patients is the neuropsychologic assessment. Most instruments have been developed in the United States or the United Kingdom, but their appropriateness for culturally different populations is still an open question. Validation studies in Greece revealed certain difficulties both for the Mini-Mental State Examination and the Cambridge Cognitive Examination for the Elderly. These results were probably due to the functional illiteracy of elderly people in Greece, the coexistence of mood disorders, restricted access to news over past decades, and low levels of cooperation between the subject and the examiner The need for a more suitable diagnostic instrument for this kind of population led to the development of the Epidemiological Dementia Index. Data from developing countries support the possibility that research results from Europe and the United States are not directly applicable to the whole world; thus, the need for data from non-English speaking countries is evergrowing. Our understanding of psychogeriatric disorders in the developing world is like an iceberg: The larger portion is hidden because of the lack of relevant data.

Questões em torno da construção de indicadores de analfabetismo e letramento

Este artigo discute questões em torno da construção de indicadores de analfabetismo e de seu oposto, o letramento. Primeiramente, analisa a evolução desses conceitos e sua relevância para o campo da educação. Em seguida, descreve a situação brasileira em relação a três estratégias de medição de analfabetismo e letramento: os censos populacionais, as avaliações dos sistemas de ensino e os estudos por amostragem. Analisa problemas metodológicos de cada uma dessas estratégias e suas implicações políticas e ideológicas. Em relação aos dados censitários, questiona a validade do critério adotado pelo IBGE - menos de quatro anos de escolaridade - para quantificar o analfabetismo funcional. Aponta as potencialidades das avaliações dos sistemas de ensino, evidenciando sua grande repercussão na mídia e a pouca atenção que recebem dos especialistas da academia. Com relação às pesquisas por amostragem, descreve tendências internacionais recentes e uma iniciativa pioneira de construção de um indicador nacional de alfabetismo no Brasil. Destaca a importância de criticar os mitos associados ao letramento e evitar os estigmas associados ao analfabetismo. Conclui que a divulgação de pesquisas, sobre o letramento e sua distribuição na população, proporciona uma rica oportunidade para que a sociedade reflita sobre a própria cultura, sobre suas expectativas com relação à escola e outras instituições.

Literacy in the Information Age

AS THE candidates talk (and talk and talk) about education, it seems appropriate that we consider recent research on one of most fundamental skills: reading. But that is easier said than done, in part because definition of literacy just won't keep still. Once upon a time, a person who could sign his or her name was deemed literate. Later, anyone who had completed third grade was considered literate. Then along came a mushy concept, functional literacy, and its equally slushy counterpart, functional illiteracy, about which lots was written in days of minimum competency testing madness (roughly 1975 to 1985). Two April 2000 reports, Literacy in Labor Force (from U.S. Department of Education's Office of Educational Research and Improvement) and Literacy in an Information Age (from Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development), construct a scale that runs from 0 to 500 - much like scale used by National Assessment of Educational Progress. However, both OERI and OECD often collapse scale into five categories or levels. The OECD document defines literacy as the ability to understand and employ printed information in daily activities, at home, at work, and in community - to achieve one's goals and to develop one's knowledge and potential. Notice that, by this definition, there is no fun in literacy: reading a novel, a magazine, or a poem doesn't count. Both studies differentiate three varieties of literacy: prose, document, and quantitative. While three do present some differences, correlations between them are quite high, and they share some highly similar patterns as well. Unless specifically noted, results discussed below come from analyses of prose literacy. The first results of OECD study were discussed in Seventh Bracey Report (October 1997). Since then, 13 other nations decided to participate, bringing total to 22 countries. The U.S. average for prose literacy is significantly lower than that of four nations, not different from that of six, and significantly higher than that of 11. By contrast, our average for document literacy is significantly lower than that of 11 nations, same as that of four, and higher than that of six. The first principle of data interpretation in my book Bail Me Out! (Corwin Press, 2000) is Beware of Averages, and that advice is very useful here. Only one nation, Sweden, has a 95th percentile in prose literacy that is higher than that of U.S., and only four countries - Portugal, Poland, Slovenia, and Chile - have a 5th percentile that is lower. The difference between U.S. 95th percentile and that of Sweden is just 13 points, but difference between 5th percentiles is 78 points. In other words, dispersion of scores in U.S. is enormous. These results are similar to findings of 1992 international reading study, How in World Do Students Read?, which measured reading skills of 9- and 14-year-olds. American students were near top at both ages and had highest 95th and 99th percentiles. Our best readers scored higher than any other nation's best readers. Some of data are impossible to interpret. For example, data on scores for people who complete college are difficult to interpret because proportion of college graduates varies enormously across nations. Age comparisons are also iffy. Many adults in oldest age group would have lived through World War II and subsequent rebuilding efforts. Informal reports also indicate that older Europeans, especially those who would be expected to be on lower rungs, refused to participate, thereby raising sampling issues. There are substantial relationships between proportions of adults at lowest levels and at highest levels and a nation's economic productivity. The relationship is negative for first group, positive for second. …