A R T I C L E S

Workplace Literacy: A Descriptive Investigation

Gary Green

This study sought to determine the literacy level of the manufacturing and retail personnel in firms that employ 150 or more people in the Oklahoma City metroplex. The number of employees tested was 11 6. Using the Adult Basic Learning Examination, Level Three, for analysis, the examinees scored an 11.4 grade level in vocabulary, a 10.9 grade level in reuding, a 10.3 grade level in spelling, an 8.4 grade level in language, a 9.4 grade level in number operations, and an 11.3 grade level in problem solving. Although examinees reported having an average of 12.6years of education, they scored a mean of 10.3. Analysis of individual test scores revealed four examinees in the illiterate range and forty in the functionally illiterate range, a 38 percent rate of illiteracy.

Most Americans place the issue of illiteracy in the category of problems relating to developing or underdeveloped nations of the world. However, the US. Department of Education estimates that 27 million American adults are functional illiterates who are unable to read, write, or calculate at levels required to deal with basic daily living tasks (Torrence and Torrence, 1987). Jonathan Kozol, author of Illiterate America, says at least 60 million adults have inadequate basic skills (Kozol, 1985). Such facts should burden our national conscience, and they most definitely do burden our productivity, competitiveness, and economic survival.

Unless it is curtailed in the near future, illiteracy in the United States will cease to be merely a national shame. It has all the possibilities of becoming the key factor in our global economic decline. A high-tech econ- omy cannot flourish without a high-tech work force to support it.

In this century the United States has progressed from a largely agrarian economic base, which could function with a relatively high illiteracy rate, to our present information age in which illiteracy may deal a death blow to individuals as well as whole economies. Americans have not totally ignored these changes with respect to educational endeavors. In a vigorous literacy campaign during the Great Depression, various organizations devoted time

HUMAN RESOURCE DEVELOPMENT QUARTERLY. vol. 1. no 2. Summer 1591 @Jos~y-B lss Inc.. Publishen 121

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and effort to the task of teaching reading and writing to adults to make them more employable. The next major effort to lower our illiteracy rate came in the 1950s when the dawning of the Space Age generated new interest in America’s general educational record. Another focus on literacy came in the 1960s when federal funds were allocated to various adult literacy activities, including the Right to Read effort.

Once again the time has come to take a closer look at our literacy statistics and how they are affecting our nation. Work force illiteracy is still a pervasive problem for business and industry. The productive and com- petitive edge is lost when large numbers of the employable population lack the essential skills to qualify for technical jobs or to meet requirements for promotion or job changes. The problem is real and recognized and has been under much review.

A study of the literature produces a deluge of statistics based primarily on Bureau of Census data, school dropout rates, and profiles of the immi- grant and refugee population. Adult functional illiterates are found in every neighborhood and in every region of the country. Highest rates are found in central cities and rural areas. The Department of Education reports that 27 million, or one in five, Americans are functionally illiterate and another 45 million are marginally illiterate. The numbers are increasing by 2.3 mil- lion per year. The Census Bureau, on the other hand, estimates 30 million illiterate adults (Torrence and Torrence, 1987). The two bureaucracies use slightly different techniques to determine illiteracy; thus the discrepancy. Whatever the exact numbers, the facts are evident. The United States has significant numbers of people in the work force (or potential work force) who do not meet minimum standards for the majority of today’s jobs.

Chall, Heron, and Hilferty (1987) propose three basic stages of illiteracy that categorize an individual’s functional level: (1) A person is illiterate if he or she cannot read beyond a fourth-grade level; (2) a person is func- tionally literate if his or her reading level is between fourth- and eighth- grade levels; and ( 3 ) a person is literate if he or she has attained an upper secondary reading level that requires advanced linguistic and cognitive skills. Like most other researchers involved in literacy standards, Chall, Heron, and Hilferty (1987) relate their definition of literacy directly to reading skills.

According to the dictionary, reading is the understanding of the mean- ing of letters or symbols. Another researcher, Valentine (1986), takes the same view but inserts the environment of the individual as another key variable. He states: “General literacy can be expressed solely in terms of an individual’s reading and writing ability without considering the broader social context, while functional literacy must be expressed as an individual’s reading and writing ability in relation to the reading and writing tasks imposed by, or existing in, the environment in which that individual resides and seeks to function” (p. 109). To embrace Valentine’s definition

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of functional literacy, we must consider the almost infinite variety of demands of the work environment. Using his definition, we may assume that a person who grades apples but cannot read the Sunday paper is as functionally literate as the teacher who grades English compositions.

Each of these general viewpoints about what literacy is or is not has its own narrow validity. However, a realistic definition of literacy for the worker competing in the average American workplace must include basic reading, writing, listening, speaking, and computation skills. There are, after all, very few apple grading jobs left in our country’s economic syscem.

This study reports literacy levels, as defined by the broader concept of reading plus other skills, of the factory and general retail worker population in the greater Oklahoma City metroplex. This class of workplace was cho- sen as a mid-level work environment in which employees with varying degrees of literacy could function. The workplaces in the survey population represent both high-tech and unskilled workers. Obviously, high-tech oper- ations would have few illiterate employees just as workplaces hiring low- paid unskilled labor would not attract highly literate employees. The researchers sought to obtain a cross-sectional view of the average worker and his or her level of literacy. This study was deemed necessary because relatively little research has been reported in this area.

A high correlation exists between illiteracy and low income, unemployed, non-English speaking, and uneducated populations in the United States. Is the problem also significant in the ranks of the middle-class employed population? If it is, the educational system must be aware of it in order to address the problem, and business must be aware to protect its investment. The Business Council for Effective Literacy Newsletter (1986) states that adult illiteracy in the workplace costs billions each year in low productivity, absenteeism, uneven product quality, and lost management and supervisory time. Given the negative correlations berween illiteracy and productivity, one could assume that raising literacy levels would increase productivity levels. With these concepts in mind, the researchers developed a project to determine percentages of illiterate workers and identify specific areas of weakness.

Sampling, Data Collection, and Analysis To obtain a sample of workers, data from the Oklahoma City Chamber of Commerce were used to identify businesses in the area that employed 150 people or more. Only manufacturing and retail operations were chosen for sampling. At the time, there were 68 retail and manufacturing firms in the Oklahoma City metroplex employng 150 people or more. The smallest busi- ness employed 185 workers, and the largest operation employed 6,500 workers.

The firms were divided into three categories: small firms with 185 to 500 employees, medium firms with 500 to 1,000 employees, and large

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firms with 1,000 to 6,500 employees. Most businesses fell into the small and medium categories, with only 12 in the large category. To ensure that each group was appropriately represented, a stratified random sample was drawn. The small- and medium-sized groups were placed in sets of 5 businesses, which resulted in 6 sets for the small group and 5 sets for the medium. Once this arrangement was accomplished, 1 business was ran- domly drawn from each set for a total of 11 businesses. Because the large employers accounted for much of the population, all 12 businesses were represented by randomly drawing 10 percent of each firm's employees. The sample consisted of 41 1 randomly drawn employees from a population of 53,864 people.

A detailed letter outlining the research procedure was mailed to each company in the sample. Each was informed that this activity was strictly confidential and that neither the company nor the employee would be identified in any manner during the research activity or discussion of the study results. Four firms categorized as large agreed to participate, as did 3 firms from the small-to-medium grouping. This provided a total test sample of 116 employees. Repeated requests over a six-month period failed to elicit participation from any additional firms.

There were several obstacles to gaining more participation in the study. In some cases the chief executive officer did not want to deal with the local labor union. In one case, the company was involved in a recent labor dispute and did not want to implement any activity that would provoke the union members. In other cases, the union denied management's request to participate in the literacy study for fear that test results might be used in personnel actions such as promotion and job assignments. The cost of employees being absent from their work stations for a period of four hours was also significant. In some cases, management did not feel a commitment to the research and was unwilling to bear the cost of employee absence. However, the companies that chose to participate gave full cooperation and did everything possible to provide test facilities, arrange for the ran- dom selection, and ensure that employees were scheduled for work release and attended the literacy testing sessions. As a result of extended contact with employees of participating firms, the researchers developed a strong conviction that the sample of 116 was valid and would not significantly change by testing the remainder of the sample.

The researchers reviewed several grade level tests and chose the Adult Basic Learning Examination (ABLE), Level 3 (Karlsen and Gardner, 1986). ABLE is a battery of tests designed to measure the level of educational achievement among adults. The examination consists of items with adult content, and it may be used to assess the achievement level of adults who have had varying amounts of formal schooling. ABLE was developed to determine the general educational level of adults who have not completed twelve years of schooling and to evaluate efforts to raise the educational

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level of these adults. The content of each of the subtests in Level 3 of ABLE is outlined below.

1. Vocabulary. The vocabulary test is designed to assess knowledge and understanding of words that are frequently encountered by adults in their work or other daily activities.

2. Reading Comprehension. The reading comprehension test is designed to measure the examinee’s comprehension of written material. The reading passages include material of a functional nature (signs, advertisements, letters, and so on) and material of an educational nature.

3. Spelling. Spelling ability is measured by a thirty-item test. Spelling words were selected to represent words adults need in written communica- tion and those words with the most common phonetic and structural prin- ciples of spelling.

4. Language. The language test is organized into two parts: (1) capitali- zation and punctuation conventions and (2) applied grammar.

5. Number Operations. The functions measured by number operations include reading and writing numerals, interpreting fractions, factorization, ratio, proportion, percent, equations, and using‘ zero as an operator. The examinee is also asked to use addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division with whole numbers, fractions, and decimals to compute answers to number problems an average adult is likely to encounter.

6. Problem Solving. The problem solving test assesses the examinee’s ability to determine an outcome, to record and retrieve information, to measure, and to use geometric concepts. It also assesses the examinee’s ability to predict or verify statistics and estimate outcomes.

The ABLE Level 3 Form E has a reliability coefficient of .90. In addition, the correlation between the corresponding subtest of ABLE and the Stanford Achievement Test series is .80. The validity of ABLE is based on a set of objectives that relate to fundamental skills necessary for an adult to function in today’s society.

Special training is not necessary to administer the ABLE test; however, standard examination procedures were used during the testing. To ensure accurate and reliable results, the examiner was supplied with an explicit set of instructions relating to test procedures. Even though there is no time limit for ABLE, suggested time lines were used to allow up to four hours for test completion. The testing was done over a six-month period. A Univer- sity of Oklahoma faculty member, graduate research assistant, or both were present at each session to monitor testing procedures.

Findings Mean item scores were calculated for age, educational level, income, and the ABLE categories. The average age was 39 years. The average educational level of those taking the test was 12.6 years for the employee and 12.9

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years for his or her spouse. The mean income was $23,875.89. Table 1 outlines ABLE mean grade level results. The total scale score is an average of the subtest grade equivalency scores.

The researchers were not able to test two illiterate participants. They were removed from the testing activity and two others were randomly selected from within the company participating in the testing. Using the Chall, Heron, and Hilferty (1987) standard for literacy, an analysis of the raw data showed that four examinees scored in the illiterate range. Forty examinees scored a grade level of fourth to eighth grade, which places them in the functionally illiterate group. These results mean that 38 percent of the sample lack basic skills and thus have difficulty with daily living and work tasks.

There were significant differences in the areas of sex, income, and race. Table 2 outlines gender differences in the mean scores of vocabulary, number, and problem-solving tests. Males scored significantly higher on three of the six tests.

Table 3 outlines differences by income groups. The lowest income group scored significantly lower on vocabulary.

Table 1. ABLE Mean Grade Level Results

Mean Grade Standard Variable N Level Deviation

Vocabulary 113 11.46 2.403 Reading 113 10.97 2.86 Spelling 113 10.45 2.95 Language 113 8.51 3.17 Number operations 113 9.52 2.79 Problem solving 113 11.32 2.45 Total score 113 10.26 2.26

Table 2. Significant Gender Differences

Mean Grade Standard Variable Level Deviation F Probability

Vocabulary Male Female

Number Male Female

Male Female

Problem solving

4.09 .0475 11.9 2.16 10.8 2.58

11.86 .0010 10.5 2.40 8.3 2.85

12.11 ,0009 12.1 1.86 10.1 2.86

Workplace Literacy: A Descriptive lnvestigation 127

Table 4 outlines the literacy levels of Anglos and non-Anglos. Non- Anglos scored significantly lower in all ABLE categories.

Discussion and Implications This analysis presents both negative and positive results. If the Chall, Heron, and Hilferty (1987) standard of literacy is applied to these figures, then one can assume strong evidence of advanced literacy in the group as a whole. From the mean scores, it would appear that the tested workers have linguistic and cognitive skills well beyond the eighth-grade level, which is the designated point for total literacy. The overall ABLE mean grade level score was 10.3. In fact, all ABLE categories showed results above the 8.0 grade level.

A closer examination reveals, however, three negatives in this apparently

Table 3. Significant Differences in Vocabulary by Income

Income Group Mean Grade Level Standard Deviation F Probability

$20,000 9.8 2.82 5.31 ,0073 $20,000-$29,999 11.50 2.26 $30,000+ 12.26 1.96

Table 4. Significant Differences in Literacy by Race

Variable Mean Grade Level Standard Deviation F Probability

Vocabulary 24.80 .0001 Anglo 12.34 1.51 Non-Anglo 9.76 2.83

Anglo 1 1.80 2.07 Non-Anglo 8.76 3.15

Anglo 10.85 2.52 Non-Anglo 9.17 3.07

Anglo 8.90 2.77 Non- Anglo 6.05 1.97

Anglo 10.22 2.60 Non-Anglo 8.24 2.78

Anglo 12.17 1.72 Non-Anglo 9.60 2.93

Reading comprehension 23.18 .0001

Spelling 6.15 ,0157

Language 20.48 .0001

Number operations 8.86 .0041

Problem solving 21.84 ,0001

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positive report. First, the mean scores are averages, and workers of course do not function as averages but as individuals. Four workers out of 116 were in fact illiterate, and 40 were functionally illiterate, While the average looks acceptable, the results show that 44 workers out of 116 in the group are in some category of illiteracy. This is not acceptable in an economy that seeks to be among the leaders of the world.

Another disturbing fact is that, although the workers reported an aver- age of 12.6 years of education, the average grade-equivalency score earned in the testing was only 10.3 years (see “Total score,” Table 1). Does this mean that a high school education really means a tenth-grade education in many cases? A third point of concern is that the language and number operations scores were marginal even though they were about 8.0. These areas contain some of the most basic literacy skills.

Other items of interest in the study were the differences in gender, income, and race. Males scored significantly higher in all categories of ABLE, including the traditionally female-dominated area of language arts. The research also indicated that people with a lower knowledge base ten- ded to be in lower income positions. Another element that correlates with other regional and national studies is the issue of test scores by race. Non- Anglos tended to score significantly lower and were underrepresented in the upper-level income brackets.

The results of this study suggest that there are definite indications of illiteracy, functional illiteracy, and marginal illiteracy in the workplace. Workplaces could certainly be more efficient and productive if this were not the case. Literacy is not a matter that can be dealt with effectively in terms of averages. It is a matter of identifylng weak points in individuals and working toward solutions. Education and business will both serve better and be better served if these facts are addressed.

References

Business Council for Effective Literacy Newsletter. (1986, September). Adult func- tional illiteracy: On the verge of crisis. Business Council for Effective Literacy News- letter, p. 2.

Chall, J., Heron, E., & Hilferty, A. (1987, November). Adult literacy: New and enduring problems. Phi Delta Kappan, 190-194.

Karlsen, B., & Gardner. E. (1986). Adult basic learning examination (2nd ed.). San Diego, CA: Harcourc Brace Jovanovich.

Kozol, J. (1985). Zlliterate America. New York: New American Library. Torrence, D., & Torrence, J. A. (1987, August). Training in the face of illiteracy.

Valentine, T. (1986). Adult functional literacy as a goal of instruction. Forum, 2, Training and Development Journal, 41 (8), 44-48.

109- 110.

Gary Green is associate professor and Kellogg Research Associate, Educational Leadership and Policy Studies, University of Oklahoma, Norman. B