<div dir="ltr"><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:12pt;margin:0in 0in 10pt;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">11/9/2021</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:12pt;margin:0in 0in 10pt;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Literacy
Classism in Adult Basic Skills Education</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:12pt;margin:0in 0in 10pt;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Tom Sticht, International
Consultant in Adult Education (Ret.)</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:12pt;margin:0in 0in 10pt;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">In reporting on
illiteracy in the United States, as found in the census of 1900, Hill (1906)
referred to those who could neither read nor write as “illiterate” and those who
could read but not write as “partial illiterates”. He reported that the partially
illiterate made up about 15.5 percent of the total illiterate population. Then
he went on to explain that in his further discussion both the total and the
partial illiterates were combined and referred to as “illiterates”.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:12pt;margin:0in 0in 10pt;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Jumping ahead
some 114 years, Rothwell (2020) prepared a report in which the term “partially
illiterate” is used, this time referring to those adults who scored below level
3 on the literacy tests of the Program for the International Assessment of
Adult Competencies (PIAAC). This led to 130 million adults, some 54 percent of
those represented in the PIAAC tests, being considered as “partially
illiterate”.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:12pt;margin:0in 0in 10pt;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">This reveals a
remarkable change in the concept of “partial illiteracy” in the last 114 years.
Earlier, “illiterate” meant someone who could neither read nor write. Then, in
Hill’s 1906 paper, the concept of someone who could read but not write, became
“partially illiterate”. Then in Rothwell’s 2020 paper the term “partially
illiterate” refers to an adult who could both read and write but who did not
score at level 3 on the PIAAC, at which level it was said they would be
considered “fully literate”. In Rothwell’s report the term “partially
illiterate” occurs once and thereafter all adults scoring in or below PIAAC level
2 are simply referred to as “illiterate”. Not surprisingly then, news articles about the study followed suit
and decried the plight of the 130 million “illiterates” in the nation, even
though most of them scoring in or below level 2 were not, in fact, “illiterate”.
</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 3pt;line-height:12pt;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";color:black">In contrast to
Rothwell’s (2020) characterization of adults who scored in or below PIAAC
literacy level 2 as “illiterate”, a year earlier a U.S. Department of Education
Data Point report of July 2019,</span><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""> also <span style="color:black">using data from the PIAAC,
refers to adults scoring in literacy levels 2 and above as possessing “mid or
high English literacy” and those scoring in or below level 1, including those
who could not be tested at all, as possessing
“low English literacy”, avoiding referring to any of the adults in these groups
as “illiterates”.</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 3pt;line-height:12pt;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";color:black"> </span></p>
<p class="gmail-Pa11" style="margin:4pt 0in;line-height:12pt;font-size:12pt;font-family:"Minion Pro","serif""><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";color:black">Given all the
evidence that “illiteracy” is not a major problem in the United States one
wonders why the term seems to be a default label for adults at the lower ends
of the literacy distribution. In a recent article, Quigley (2021) discusses the
problem of what he calls “literacy classism” when seeking funding and other
resources for adult literacy education. He notes that today, “…it is
unacceptable to denigrate the LGBTQ community, those living with HIV/ AIDS,
those with disabilities, the aged, Native Americans; and, here in Canada, First
Nations, Métis, and the Inuit. These changes tell us there is hope. Over the
past few decades, such previously marginalized populations have gained a voice,
at least some levels of respect, and have now some degree of greater equity.
Yet, why is it that, "It is still "acceptable to
denigrate…illiterates."</span></p>
<p class="gmail-Default" style="line-height:12pt;margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt;font-size:12pt;font-family:"Minion Pro","serif";color:black"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""> </span></p>
<p class="gmail-Default" style="line-height:12pt;margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt;font-size:12pt;font-family:"Minion Pro","serif";color:black"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Now it seems that the word “illiterate”
is, itself, being used to denigrate the less literate and even the mid-level
literate adults. And the funding for adult basic skills education, including
literacy and numeracy indicates that it belongs in the “lower class” of
education with a grossly underfunded education system formed by Title II of the
Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act in which the last two decades have
witnessed a decline of enrollments from around 4 million to 1.2 million students, most of whom do not make a
measurable gain in English literacy in an academic year, and in which they are
taught largely by part-time teachers with little or no benefits and no certain
job tenure from year to year. </span></p>
<p class="gmail-Default" style="line-height:12pt;margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt;font-size:12pt;font-family:"Minion Pro","serif";color:black"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""> </span></p>
<p class="gmail-Default" style="line-height:12pt;margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt;font-size:12pt;font-family:"Minion Pro","serif";color:black"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Clearly, as Quigley (2021) notes,
there is “literacy classism” in the United States and it works to help keep less
literate adults from gaining access to a first class literacy education system
and denigrates them by using the pejorative “illiterates” to suggest they
belong to a lower class </span></p>
<p class="gmail-Default" style="line-height:12pt;margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt;font-size:12pt;font-family:"Minion Pro","serif";color:black"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">of citizen, leading to a question
Quigley reported hearing at one meeting about adult literacy education, "Why
should we invest more money into programs for ‘losers?’" Quigley goes on to ask, "Why did no one
disagree with that blatant ‘losers’ statement?” And even more important today:
"Why has so little changed?” Indeed!</span></p>
<p class="gmail-Default" style="line-height:12pt;margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt;font-size:12pt;font-family:"Minion Pro","serif";color:black"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""> </span></p>
<p class="gmail-Default" style="line-height:12pt;margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt;font-size:12pt;font-family:"Minion Pro","serif";color:black"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">References
</span></p>
<p class="gmail-Default" style="line-height:12pt;margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt;font-size:12pt;font-family:"Minion Pro","serif";color:black"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""> </span></p>
<p class="gmail-Default" style="line-height:12pt;margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt;font-size:12pt;font-family:"Minion Pro","serif";color:black"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Hill, J. (1906). Illiteracy. Special
reports: Supplementary analysis and derivative tables. Washington, DC: Bureau
of the Census, Government Printing Office (328-375).</span> Online at: <span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""><a href="https://ia800208.us.archive.org/31/items/cu31924032599585/cu31924032599585.pdf">https://ia800208.us.archive.org/31/items/cu31924032599585/cu31924032599585.pdf</a></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:12pt;margin:0in 0in 10pt;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:12pt;margin:0in 0in 10pt;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Quigley, A.
(2021, Fall). <span style="color:black">"Naming
the Elephant": Literacy Classism, Human Rights and the Need for a New
Conversation: Viewpoint, Adult Literacy Education. Online at: <a href="https://www.proliteracy.org/Portals/0/pdf/Research/ALE%20Journal/ALE_ResearchJournal-v003_03-2021.pdf">https://www.proliteracy.org/Portals/0/pdf/Research/ALE%20Journal/ALE_ResearchJournal-v003_03-2021.pdf</a></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 7.5pt;line-height:normal;background-image:initial;background-position:initial;background-size:initial;background-repeat:initial;background-origin:initial;background-clip:initial;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";color:black">Rothwell, J. (2020). </span><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Assessing the
Economic Gains of Eradicating Illiteracy Nationally and Regionally in the
United States. Online at:</span><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";color:black">
<a href="https://www.barbarabush.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/BBFoundation_GainsFromEradicatingIlliteracy_9_8.pdf">https://www.barbarabush.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/BBFoundation_GainsFromEradicatingIlliteracy_9_8.pdf</a></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 10pt;line-height:115%;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:12pt;line-height:115%;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";color:black">U.S. Department of Education. )2019,
July). Data Point: Adult Literacy in the United States. Online at: </span><a href="https://nces.ed.gov/pubs2019/2019179.pdf" style="color:blue"><span style="font-size:12pt;line-height:115%;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">https://nces.ed.gov/pubs2019/2019179.pdf</span></a><span style="font-size:12pt;line-height:115%;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">
</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:12pt;margin:0in 0in 10pt;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""> </span></p></div>