In the 1700s
In 1765, John Adams wrote, “a native of America, especially of New England, who cannot read and write is as rare a phenomenon as a comet.” Jacob Duche, the chaplain of Congress in 1772, said of his countrymen, “Almost every man is a reader.” Daniel Webster observed, “A youth of fifteen, of either sex, who cannot read and write, is very seldom to be found.”

In the 1800s In the 1800s, Pierre Samuel Dupont, an influential French citizen who helped Thomas Jefferson negotiate for the Louisiana Purchase, came to America and surveyed education here. He found that most young Americans could read, write, and “cipher” (do arithmetic), and that Americans of all ages could—and did—read. He estimated that fewer than four Americans in a thousand were unable to write neatly and legibly. By 1852, before the first public school was created in Massachusetts, the literacy rate for most men and women was over 90 percent.

In the 1900s In 1993, the Educational Testing Service published the results of its 1992 adult literacy survey in America. The survey used a 26,000-member representative sample of 190 million Americans over 16 years old who had attended public school for an average of 12.4 years. The results showed that 42 million Americans over the age of 16 couldn’t read, and that some of the group couldn’t even write their names or fill in height, weight, and birth dates on forms. It further stated that 50 million Americans couldn’t recognize printed words on a fourthor fifth-grade reading level; consequently, they could not write simple messages or letters.

In the new millennium In 2002, New York State’s Education Department issued its second annual report that included public-school students’ math and reading scores. The report found that 65% of elementary school students, 90% of intermediatelevel students, and 84% of high school students failed to meet minimum New York State math and reading standards. In each case, that is well over half of the student population. Those results are mirrored in schools across our nation.