Dr. Phil on education: what the evidence says · JRE #1889

What the evidence says 01 / RECORD

The claim conflates "low literacy" with total illiteracy and misdates the underlying data. The government's most recent large-scale literacy study, the Program for the International Assessment of Adult Competencies (PIAAC), found that about 21% of U.S. adults (43.0 million) perform at "level 1 or below" on a five-level literacy proficiency scale, based on data collected in 2011-12 and 2013-14, not 2022. Scoring at level 1 or below means difficulty with tasks like comparing information or making low-level inferences, not an inability to read; only a smaller subset, those scoring "below level 1" (8.4 million) plus those unable to complete the background survey (8.2 million), are considered to have functionally low English literacy, roughly 16.6 million rather than 45 million. The often-cited "130 million" figure and the framing of adults unable to "read a simple story to their children" trace back to a widely criticized reinterpretation of the 1992 National Adult Literacy Survey and are not supported by NCES's more recent PIAAC data. No government or peer-reviewed source documents a 2022 nationwide literacy assessment producing these specific figures. The 21% low-literacy figure is roughly consistent with government data but is over a decade old and mislabeled as 2022, while the 130 million and 45 million figures substantially overstate the scope of functional illiteracy in the United States.