As the graphs below show, it pays to read well. Phonics works, and it pays. The graph below is based on data from the 2003 National Assessment of Adult Literacy (NAAL) in their 2007 report, "Literacy in Everyday Life," Chapter 2, page 32, table 2-3. The graph uses an average of prose and document literacy. The data for the 2nd graph below and the table on the bottom right are from the 1992 National Adult Literacy Survey, or NALS. You can see the source data at the National Center for Education Statistics, or NCES.
The percent of Americans at each literacy level for both the 1992 and 2003 literacy surveys is shown here. | |
