I find this a fascinating process. Of course, I'm sure you can end up scoring highly on readability etc and yet have text that is not very readable even if sentences are short and words are simple. I recently had to achieve certain levels of readability and, while I could get it to what I thought was fairly clear, I found it took a while longer to drive the readability down to below 12. And I'm sure I've read somewhere that the average reading age of ADULTS is equivalent to that of a 12-year-old. Frightening.
http://www.online-utility.org/english/readability_test_and_improve.jsp
Reading age:
http://www.literacytrust.org.uk/About/FAQs.html
Less than one per cent of adults in England can be described as illiterate, although many people prefer not use such pejorative terms. Around 16 per cent, or 5.2 million adults in England, can be described as "functionally illiterate". They would not pass an English GCSE and have literacy levels at or below those expected of an 11-year-old.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2006/jan/24/books.politics
ReplyDelete.....The Department for Education is on course to have spent almost £6bn on its Skills for Life scheme by 2010, but its first few years have produced little evidence of improvement in provision in colleges or on-the-job training by employers.
The committee examined progress made improving the literacy, language and numeracy skills of adults in England, expanding learning provision and improving its quality, and targeting adults who need to improve their skills.
It looked in depth at the effectiveness of Skills for Life, which was launched in 2001 with a target to improve the skills of 2.25 million adults by 2010. There are about 12 million people in employment with literacy skills and 16 million with numeracy skills at level 1 or below - equivalent to the the levels of 11-year olds and younger, the committee found. The number of people underskilled in both aspects is unknown. The workforce comprises 30 million people, working full-time and part-time. To achieve level 1 in literacy a youngster would be expected to "understand straightforward texts of varying length on a variety of topics accurately and independently" and "obtain information of varying length and detail from different sources", according to the DfES.
http://www.literacytrust.org.uk/Database/stats/adultstats.html
ReplyDeleteEngland
Literacy levels among 16 to 65-year-olds
Level % number
Entry level 1 or below 3 1.1m
Entry level 2 2 0.6m
Entry level 3 11 3.5m
(All entry level or below) 16 5.2m
Level 1 40 12.6m
Level 2 or above 44 14.1m
(Skills for Life national needs and impact survey, DfES, 2003)
Adult literacy levels - what do they mean?
More statistics from the 2003 Skills for Life survey
Regional statistics
Adult literacy, numeracy, ESOL and ICT statistics are available by Government Office region, Learning and Skills Council area, district and ward, at www.dfes.gov.uk/readwriteplus_skillsforlifesurvey. The figures are drawn from the 2003 Skills for Life national needs and impact survey.
* Since 2001 the number of adults in the workforce without a level 2 qualification has reduced from 7.1 to 6.8 million and things are broadly in line to meet the Government target of a 40% reduction in adults in the workforce without a level 2 qualification by 2010. (Source: DfES, September 2004)
* For what the OECD refers to as "upper secondary attainment" - which in the UK is measured as a minimum of five GCSEs at grades A*-C, or an equivalent vocational qualification - the report shows that the difference is less than ten percentage points between 45-54-year-olds and 25-34-year-olds (who had, by definition, completed their compulsory schooling by 1993). (Source: DfES, September 2004)
* Only 5.2 million adults (16% of the adult population) would fail to pass an English GCSE in autumn 2003 - compared with slightly more than 7 million (20% of adult population) indicated in the Moser report in 1999. See Adult basic skills have a long way to go but
literacy is improving (31.10.03)
(Source: National Needs and Impact Survey of Literacy, Numeracy and ICT Skills, DfES, October 2003)
* In 2003, the DfES found that 29% of adults - as many as 11 million people - could not calculate the area of a floor, in either square feet or metres. More than 10% were unable to understand the instructions on a packet of seeds. And less than a third of people managed to work out the amount of plastic covering needed to line a pond - even with a calculator, pen and paper. (Source: BBC News website, 1 May 2003)
* Skills for Life: national strategy for adult basic skills
- what progresss has been made? (March 2002)
* Nearly four out of 10 adults in some parts of England cannot read or write properly or do simple sums according to a Basic Skills Agency's report in May 2000. This report came a year after the agency's chairman Sir Claus Moser's report, which described the serious problem of 20% of adults being "functionally illiterate". A reinterpretation of the Moser data put the national average even higher, at 24% - rising to nearly 40% in some areas. On average, 15% have low literacy, 5% have lower literacy and 4% have very low literacy.
(Source: Basic Skills Agency report, May 2000)
* Less than 1% of school leavers and adults can be described as illiterate. Basic literacy skills, however, may be insufficient to meet the demands of many occupations.
* 12 % of young adults said they had problems with reading, writing, spelling or basic maths.
(Source: The Basic Skills of Young Adults, BSA/City University, 1992)
By 2031, 47% of adults aged 16 and over - totalling more than 15 million - will continue to have low literacy skills below Levl 3 (Level 3 is the internationally accepted level of literacy required to cope in modern society.
ReplyDeletesource:OECD