Literacy among youths 12-17 years, United States
Advanced Search
Select up to three search categories and corresponding keywords using the fields to the right. Refer to the Help section for more detailed instructions.

Search our Collections & Repository

For very narrow results

When looking for a specific result

Best used for discovery & interchangable words

Recommended to be used in conjunction with other fields

Dates

to

Document Data
Library
People
Clear All
Clear All

For additional assistance using the Custom Query please check out our Help Page

CDC STACKS serves as an archival repository of CDC-published products including scientific findings, journal articles, guidelines, recommendations, or other public health information authored or co-authored by CDC or funded partners. As a repository, CDC STACKS retains documents in their original published format to ensure public access to scientific information.
i

Literacy among youths 12-17 years, United States

Filetype[PDF-2.00 MB]


English

Details:

  • Personal Author:
  • Corporate Authors:
  • Description:
    "Prevalence of illiteracy as measured by the Brief Test of Literacy among youths by selected socioeconomic and demographic variables."

    This report presents information on the extent of illiteracy among American youths as assessed by a test specially constructed for this purpose and administered as part of the Health Examination Survey during 1966-70. The decision to include such a test in this particular program of the series of surveys was made because a relationship has long been recognized between certain states of ill health and illiteracy; it was therefore considered desirable to obtain a measure of the prevalence of illiteracy in the population along with relevant medical data. This first report contains the findings on illiteracy rates by sex, age, and certain socioeconomic and demographic variables only. Discussion of the findings in relation to health data will be published in subsequent reports. A number of attempts have been made in the last few years to define and assess the prevalence of illiteracy in the United States. The approaches to the problem vary widely. Sometimes estimated rates of illiteracy are based on household interviews where one household member provides information on the reading or writing ability of other members. In other cases literacy data are related to the ability of a person to perform specific functions, for example, completing application forms. The purpose and unique function of the Health Examination Survey, however, was to use direct examination and therefore a test was developed which could be administered to each sample person. This "Brief Test of Literacy" was specially constructed and pretested for the survey by Thomas .F. Donlon and W. Miles McPeek of the Educational Testing Service, Princeton, New Jersey. It adopted a definition of literacy which is commonly used in this country, namely, "literacy is that level of achievement which is attained by the average child in the United States at the beginning of the fourth grade. The items of the test were developed on the basis of this definition and the test was validated on a group of fourth graders. The estimates of illiteracy presented in this report are based on the same definition.

  • Content Notes:
    [by Dorothee K. Vogt].

    Includes bibliographical references.

  • Subjects:
  • Series:
  • Pubmed ID:
    25208470
  • Document Type:
  • Place as Subject:
  • Pages in Document:
    print; iv, 28 p. : ill. ; 27 cm.
  • Collection(s):
  • Main Document Checksum:
  • Download URL:
  • File Type:

Supporting Files

  • No Additional Files
More +

You May Also Like

Checkout today's featured content at stacks.cdc.gov