Reading Statistics

DATA 98% of households in the United States have at least one television set and 34% have two. A.C. Nielsen Co. the average American watches 3 hours and 46 minutes of TV each day. (That's more than 52 days of nonstop TV-watching per year.) By the age of 65, the average American will have spent nearly nine years glued to the tube. While 59% of Americans can name The Three Stooges, only 17% can name three Supreme Court Justices.

DATA Time spent reading for personal interest and playing games or using a computer for leisure varied greatly by age. Individuals age 75 and over averaged 1.4 hours of reading per weekend day and 0.2 hour (12 minutes) playing games or using a computer for leisure. Conversely, individuals ages 15 to 19 read for an average of 0.1 hour (7 minutes) per weekend day and spent 1.0 hour playing games or using a computer. (United States Department of Labor: 2006 Report)

DATA The average reading ability of youth confined in correctional institutions is at the fourth-grade level. U.S. Department of Juvenile Justice – 2001 Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania report that “only 12% of formerly incarcerated youth had a high school diploma or GED by young adulthood…only about 30% were in either school or a job 1 year after their release [and] delinquent youth are 7 times more likely to have a history of unemployment and welfare dependence as an adult.” (NDTAC, 2006)

DATA The Criminal Justice Policy Council studied 26,000 inmates who were released from prison in 1997 and 1998 and also found that young, uneducated prisoners were 37% less likely to return to prison if they learned to read while incarcerated. (2006)

DATA 15% of the U.S. population dropped out of school before graduation because they fell so far behind in school that they lost hope of ever catching up. (Adult Basic Education, 2000).

DATA “43% of people with the lowest literacy skills live in poverty; 17% of people with the lowest literacy skills receive food stamps; and 70% of people with the lowest literacy skills have no full or part-time job.” (National Institute for Literacy, 2006)

Maryland Task Force (1997) A task force, (elementary-grades teachers, administrators, curriculum coordinators, a media specialist and representatives of higher education institutions) gathered to: –develop and disseminate a Resource Paper on Reading Achievement –to design and recommend a comprehensive professional development system for pre-service and in-service education –target ways and means to inform policymakers, practitioners and parents about how to implement best practices for reading in schools.