Estimated read time: Less than a minute
This archived news story is available only for your personal, non-commercial use. Information in the story may be outdated or superseded by additional information. Reading or replaying the story in its archived form does not constitute a republication of the story.
NEW YORK, Dec 16, 2005 (UPI via COMTEX) -- The average U.S. college graduate's literacy in English declined significantly in the past decade, a nationwide test shows.
The National Assessment of Adult Literacy, given in 2003 by the Department of Education, also found steep declines in the English literacy of Hispanics in the United States and significant increases among blacks and Asians, the New York Times said.
When the test was last administered, in 1992, 40 percent of the nation's college graduates scored at the proficient level, meaning that they were able to read lengthy, complex English texts and draw complicated inferences.
But, on the 2003 test, only 31 percent of the graduates demonstrated those high-level skills. There were 26.4 million college graduates.
URL: www.upi.com Copyright 2005 by United Press International
