Literacy of College Graduates Is on Decline

Literacy experts and educators say they are stunned by the results of a recent adult literacy assessment, which shows that the reading proficiency of college graduates has declined in the past decade, with no obvious explanation.

"It's appalling -- it's really astounding," said Michael Gorman, president of the American Library Association and a librarian at California State University at Fresno. "Only 31 percent of college graduates can read a complex book and extrapolate from it. That's not saying much for the remainder."

While more Americans are graduating from college, and more than ever are applying for admission, far fewer are leaving higher education with the skills needed to comprehend routine data, such as reading a table about the relationship between blood pressure and physical activity, according to the federal study conducted by the National Center for Education Statistics.

This has led to employer having to make some harsh post employment decisions. 1) Do we retain the employee and retrain, or 2) do we fire and start the employment search over again.

In this time when jobs are difficult to acquire, college students and adults may need to brush up on their literacy skills using some basic phonemic. An increase in phonemic awareness can only enhance your potential for employment and beyond.