Literacy Falls for Graduates From College, Testing Finds - New York Times

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This article says that, according to the National Assessment of Adult Literacy exam -- which was given in 2003 to 19,000 people in the US -- our literacy has declined. Interestingly, the article emphasizes that it is the literacy of college graduates that has declined, but the test was given to "people 16 and older, in homes, college housing and in prisons" which implies to me that many of the people who took the exam were not, in fact, college graduates. Of those reults, though, some show a decline from 40% "proficient" literacy of college graduates in 1992 to 31% in 2003. Proficient is defined as "able to read lengthy, complex English texts and draw complicated inferences" -- in other words, what we as professionals have to do every day to understand and use reports, e-mails, articles, and instructions.

I'm scared.