With the proliferation of technology, some people assume that writing proficiency would be increasing and not diminishing. That isn’t the case.
One recent study shows that despite having higher than average educational attainment, adults in the United States are below average in basic literacy.
How low? The United States ranked 16th out of 23 countries in literacy proficiency, with one in six adults scoring below level 2 (illiterate) on the literacy scale. Perhaps more troubling, college graduates demonstrate comparatively miserable scores. This means that degrees are beginning to create a meaningless expectation that graduates possess basic skill sets.
“Moreover, the relationship between parents’ education and skills proficiency varies across generations,” the study says. “In Korea and the United States, for example, the relationship between socio-economic background and skills proficiency is much weaker among younger adults than among older adults.”