New Literacies

The U.S. is far behind on 21st century civic literacy

Henry Milner defines civic literacy as the knowledge and capacity to make sense out of the political world, which is the foundation of an effective democracy [Civic Literacy (2002), Boston, University Press of New England]. He did a comparative study of civic literacy in 15 OECD countries and found that strong reading skills, low dependency on television for information, and relative income equality are strong indicators of civic literacy. If civic literacy is measured using these among other indicators, northern European countries receive the highest scores and the United States the lowest.

Richard Neuman's research as presented in "American Democracy at Risk" (Phi Delta Kappan, January 2008) notes that civic literacy among Americans 18-29 declined significantly between 1964 and 2000. He faults the "Back to Basics" movement of the 1970s and aspects of No Child Left Behind (NCLB), which focus on basic math and reading skills at the expense of history, social studies, and current events.