According to the National Adult Literacy Survey (NALS):
Maine has 400,000 adults (42% of our adult population) functioning at Level 1
and 2.
Level 1 is defined as adult who can read a little, but not well enough to fill out an application, understand a food label or read a story to a child. According to NALS, about 15% of Maine's adults function at this level.
Level 2 readers can identify key pieces of information and perform simple calculations such as those on an order form. According to NALS, about 27% of Maine's adults function at this level.
According to the National Governors Association and others:
The new economy requires literacy skills at level 3 or above to succeed in family supporting employment.
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Proof that Reading Aloud Makes a Difference
- The single most important activity for building the knowledge required for eventual success in reading is reading aloud to children. (The National Commission on Reading-Vermont Center for the Book website)
- The gap between children from low and high-income families on reading comprehension scores is over 40 points. Children from low-income families, on average, score 27 points below the mean reading level score for all students. Students from wealthy families score 15 points above the average. (National Center for Education Statistics, 1993)
- 55% of children who receive a new age-appropriate book of their very own had an increased interest in reading and the percent of young adults with a "high interest in reading" jumped from 23 percent to 61%. (US Department of Education)
- Among adults at the lowest level of literacy proficiency, 43% live in poverty. Among adults with strong literacy skills, only 4% live in poverty. (First Book website)
- The most successful way to improve the reading achievement of low-income children is to increase their access to print. Communities ranking high in achievement tests have several factors in common: an abundance of books in public libraries, easy access to books in the community at large and a large number of textbooks per student. (Newman, Sanford et all. "America's Child Care Crisis: A Crime Prevention Tragedy"; Fight Crime: Invest in Kids, 2000)
- The children who were read to at least three times a week by a family member were almost twice as likely to score in the top 25% in reading than children who were read to less than 3 times a week. (National Institute for Literacy, The Early Childhood Longitudinal Study, Spring 2000)
- Children in families with incomes below the poverty line are less likely to be read aloud to every day than are children in families with incomes at or above the poverty line. Thirty-eight percent of children in families in poverty were read to every day in 1999, down from 46 percent in 1996, compared with 58 percent of children in families at or above the poverty line, which is down from 61 percent in 1996. (Reading is Fundamental website)