from, https://www.dosomething.org/us/facts/11-facts-about-literacy-america
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2/3rds of students who cannot read proficiently by the end of 4th grade will end up in jail or on welfare. [Write Express Corporation, "Literacy Statistics", Begin to Read, February 24, 2015]
1 in 4 children in America grow up without learning how to read. [WriteExpress Corporation. "Literacy Statistics", Begin to Read, April 16, 2014]
Students who don't read proficiently by the 3rd grade are 4 times likelier to drop out of school. [The Annie E. Casey Foundation, "Students Who Don’t Read Well in Third Grade Are More Likely to Drop Out or Fail to Finish High School", Accessed February 25, 2015]
As of 2011, America was the only free-market OECD (Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development) country where the current generation was less educated than the previous one. [Council for the Advancement of Adult Literacy, "Reach Higher, America Overcoming Crisis In The U.S. Workforce", National Commission on Adult Literacy, April 16, 2014]
Nearly 85% of the juveniles who face trial in the juvenile court system are functionally illiterate, proving that there is a close relationship between illiteracy and crime. More than 60% of all inmates are functionally illiterate. [Blankenship, John: "Functional illiteracy continues to grow, but there is help.", The Register-Herald, April 16, 2014]
53% of 4th graders admitted to reading recreationally “almost every day,” while only 20% of 8th graders could say the same. [National Center for Educational Statistics, "The Condition of Education, 2009", U.S. Department of Education, February 24, 2015]
75% of Americans who receive food stamps perform at the lowest 2 levels of literacy, and 90% of high school dropouts are on welfare. [WriteExpress Corporation, "Literacy Statistics", Begin To Read, February 24, 2015]
Teenage girls between the ages of 16 to 19 who live at or below the poverty line and have below average literacy skills are 6 times more likely to have children out of wedlock than girls their age who can read proficiently. [WriteExpress Corporation, "Literacy Statistics", Begin To Read, February 24, 2015]
Long Beach, CA, was ranked the country’s most illiterate city, followed by Mesa, AZ, and Aurora, CO. [Hess, Alexander E.M., Samuel Weigley, and Michael B. Sauter, "America’s Most (and Least) Literate Cities", 24/7 Wall St.com, April 16, 2014]
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