What is the literacy rate in the Black community?

Literacy Among Black Adults A 2019 report from the National Center for Education Statistics, which cited data from 2012 and 2014, found that 23% of Black adults in the country were considered to be low literacy, compared to 35% of white adults and 34% of Hispanic adults.

What race has the highest literacy rate?

Race/Ethnicity

  • Prose: Whites had the highest scores followed by Asians/Pacific Islanders, Blacks, and Hispanics.
  • Document: Whites and Asians/Pacific Islanders had the highest scores followed by Blacks and Hispanics.

Does race affect literacy?

These findings provide further evidence that reading ability better predicts cognitive functioning than years of education and suggest that disadvantages associated with racial minority status and low SES affect the relative influence of literacy and years of education on cognition.

How many African Americans were illiterate?

However, in the late 19th century and early 20th century, illiteracy was very common. In 1870, 20 percent of the entire adult population was illiterate, and 80 percent of the black population was illiterate. By 1900 the situation had improved somewhat, but still 44 percent of blacks remained illiterate.

Why is reading important for Black students?

According to an article from NEA Today: Black male students… who are underperforming in reading are ‘disengaged from learning, lacking motivation, don’t like to read, and are doomed academically and in life if they are not reading proficiently by fourth grade.

What is the literacy rate in the U.S. by race?

According to the U.S. Department of Education, 54% of adults in the United States have prose literacy below the 6th-grade level….NAEP.

Race / Ethnicity Proficient level Basic level
National Average 34% 65%
Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander 24% 55%
Hispanic 23% 54%
American Indian/Alaska Native 20% 50%

What is the largest percentage of people who have below basic literacy skills in the United States?

White adults
White adults constituted the largest percent of the below basic group (41 percent), followed by Hispanic adults (35 percent). Health literacy varies directly with level of education (see Figure 4).

Why is it important to be racially literate?

Racial literacy is important because it is a personal choice you can make to open the door to action. If you don’t have the vocabulary to discuss systemic racism or the eyes to recognize discriminatory policy, you will not make a difference.

What is diversity literacy?

What is Diversity Literacy? Individuals who are diversity literate value difference, recognize the effects of difference on individuals’ lives, and understand how to intervene to reduce the impact of structural barriers that stand in the way of inclusion and social equity.

Why were slaves not allowed to be educated?

Fearing that black literacy would prove a threat to the slave system — which relied on slaves’ dependence on masters — whites in many colonies instituted laws forbidding slaves to learn to read or write and making it a crime for others to teach them.

How did slaves educate themselves?

Many slaves did learn to read through Christian instruction, but only those whose owners allowed them to attend. Some slave owners would only encourage literacy for slaves because they needed someone to run errands for them and other small reasons. They did not encourage slaves to learn to write.