Webpages tagged with «["literacy", "education", "Children", "youth", "United States"]»

The economic, political, and social challenges facing the United States demand literacy skills that go well beyond the ability to recognize words and decode text. To attain adult success today young Americans must be able to use reading to gain access to the world of knowledge, to synthesize information from multiple sources, to evaluate arguments, and to explore in depth fields as disparate as history, science, and mathematics. To complicate the challenge, schools must not only better prepare students for these demands but also reduce sharp disparities in literacy outcomes between disadvantaged and privileged children. Low literacy levels among children from less advantaged families dramatically reduce the potential for upward mobility.