The increasing rates of school attendance have been reflected in rising proportions of adults completing high school and college. Progressively fewer adults have limited their education to completion of the 8th grade which was typical in the early part of the century. In 1940, more than half of the U.S. population had completed no more than an eighth grade education. Only 6 percent of males and 4 percent of females had completed 4 years of college. The median years of school attained by the adult population, 25 years old and over, had registered only a scant rise from 8.1 to 8.6 years over a 30 year period from 1910 to 1940.
For establishing a solid picture about the construct of functional illiteracy, it is necessary to distinguish it from related constructs such as illiteracy and developmental dyslexia, and to define non-overlapping characteristics. Without such dissociation, functional illiteracy is just a new name for a deficit that is already part of other constructs.
In order to evaluate the recency of education, consider the time lapse between the education and the date of adjudication, the date last insured, or the prescribed period ending date, whichever is earlier. • The shorter the duration of education and the lesser the skill of the occupation it prepared the claimant for, the more likely it is for the advantage of education to diminish over time. In this situation, to qualify as a direct entry education, the time lapse should be shorter. • The longer the duration of education and the higher the skill of the occupation it prepared the claimant for, the less likely it is for the advantage of education to diminish over time. In this situation, to qualify as direct entry education, the time lapse can be longer. EXAMPLE: A claimant who completed a registered nurse bachelor’s degree program two years ago would be more likely to have an education that provided for direct entry than a claimant who completed a six-month travel agent training course two years ago.
In the last decade of the 19th century, the population growth rate fell to 22 percent and the drops continued into the first 2 decades of the 20th century. The 1920s marked a period of shifts in the population outlook. The birth rate continued to fall, dropping from 118 per 1,000 women 15 to 44-years-old in 1920 to 89 in 1930. But also, the actual number of births fell by 11 percent during the 1920s, marking a divergence from the relative stability of the teens. The decline in the birth rates stabilized during the 1930s, and then rose dramatically following World War II, reaching a peak of 123 births per 1,000 women in 1957. This post-war birth rate was nearly as high as those registered in the early teens. After this peak of the "baby boom," birth rates resumed their historical decline. The low points in birth rates so far this century were in 1984 and in 1986, when there were 65 births per 1,000 women. The U.S. is now experiencing a surge in the number of births caused by the large number of "baby boomers" at child-bearing age. The 4.1 million births in 1991 is nearly as high as the peak of 4.3 million in 1957.
Formal literacy has increased over the last decades. For instance, while in sub-Saharan Africa there are still 29.8 million children who do not have access to education, this number represents a one-quarter decrease from 2000. In contrast, in Europe “only” 0.7 million of children had never attended school in 2011 (UNESCO, 2013). However, despite improvements in formal literacy, many people still have problems understanding formal texts. On the one hand, this is a problem because in today’s society, functioning literacy plays a significant role. It appears in every aspect of daily life, e.g., opening bank accounts, reading ingredients of food products, understanding medication or technical instructions, signing contracts, etc. (Cree et al., 2012). On the other hand, this leads to fewer educational and employment opportunities and hinders living a successful life.
In Western societies, adult literacy programs are often offered to vulnerable or hard-to-reach learners. Some programs rely extensively on the use of technology and distance learning platforms (e.g., AlphaRoute in Canada), others are tailored to each participant’s needs, both in workshops and individual help (e.g., Fight Against Illiteracy in France). According to their main interest, we can differentiate from general literacy courses the work- (e.g., El Trabajo En Red Como Proyecto Educativo in Spain) and family-oriented (e.g., Family Literacy Project in Germany) programs (Aker et al., 2010). Former supports the (re)integration to labor market (Bhola, 1995), while latter’s key-strategy called the “Teach the parents – reach the children” approach in which parents and their children are working both separately and together. It aims at a long-term effect in the education of next generation (Nickel, 2007). Furthermore, supplementing literacy and numeracy classes with technology, even mobile phones, is restricted by its reduced availability (Aker et al., 2010).
Limited education. Limited education means ability in reasoning, arithmetic, and language skills, but not enough to allow a person with these educational qualifications to do most of the more complex job duties needed in semi-skilled or skilled jobs. We generally consider that a 7th grade through the 11th grade level of formal education is a limited education.