In the US at least, there is more that needs to be done than getting greater numbers of people through the degree mill. Some examples -
- 50% of inner city school kids will not graduate high school.
- 2/3 of the prison population is functionally illiterate.
- 75% of the prison population did not finish high school.
- 19% of the US population cannot read a newspaper. Nearly all of them earn incomes at or below the poverty level.
The situation is the same in European countries as well. Italy has an extremely high rate of functional illiteracy. (Some estimates peg it at 47%) How can people be expected to live healthy productive lives when they cannot effectively communicate in written language?
Not sure what 'just barely literate' means. The literacy rate in the the US is greater than 96% and is comparable to other first world countries.
None of the statistical numbers above are surprising and, call me cynical but, I don't think there will be much change coming. I'd love to be proven wrong.
Actually, like the OP said it depends on how you define literacy. Using the definition of <3 on NCES it would be around 50% but if they were using a more liberal definition like CIA world factbook it would be almost 100%.
If someone is referring to that rating system they should use its definitions. Below level 1 is functionally illiterate. Levels 1 and 2 are not functionally illiterate, they are low literacy.
In the UK I believe it's defined in terms of 'reading age' (12?) which, if you don't have that either, is a sort of expected standard of reading ability at certain ages; so teachers can say at parents' evenings 'oh little five year old Bobby already has a reading age of 14, doing really well', or 'I'm afraid 10yo Sam needs some extra help, with a reading age of six currently...' etc.
So, in short, I think literacy level is reasonably quantifiable, and by 'just barely literate' I meant 'sufficient to be called literate but no higher', right on that boundary.
I don't know and wasn't suggesting anything about the current actual make up of literacy in the US; I was just replying to '50% are below average' which is of course always going to be true in a relative sense, but you can shift the absolute values up; it doesn't mean 50% must be illiterate or anywhere close, or any at all even. (Unless you define it as less lettered than average I suppose!)
- 50% of inner city school kids will not graduate high school.
- 2/3 of the prison population is functionally illiterate.
- 75% of the prison population did not finish high school.
- 19% of the US population cannot read a newspaper. Nearly all of them earn incomes at or below the poverty level.
The situation is the same in European countries as well. Italy has an extremely high rate of functional illiteracy. (Some estimates peg it at 47%) How can people be expected to live healthy productive lives when they cannot effectively communicate in written language?