Reading Ages
More from yesterday's Guardian.
The main headline was "12m workers have reading age of children." This turned out to mean that plenty of them could read perfectly adequately, having the reading age of 11-year-olds. It would have sounded quite different if the headline has read "50% of children have reading age of adults," but it would have been just as true.
Behind the Guardian headline there is an implication that there is such a thing as an adult reading age, which everybody should attain. Reading ages are based on the average reading ability of children of different ages, so by definition half of the eleven-year-olds must be below the eleven-year-old level, and if anyone has worked out an adult reading age, half the adults should be below it. There is no point in comparing different groups.
The main headline was "12m workers have reading age of children." This turned out to mean that plenty of them could read perfectly adequately, having the reading age of 11-year-olds. It would have sounded quite different if the headline has read "50% of children have reading age of adults," but it would have been just as true.
Behind the Guardian headline there is an implication that there is such a thing as an adult reading age, which everybody should attain. Reading ages are based on the average reading ability of children of different ages, so by definition half of the eleven-year-olds must be below the eleven-year-old level, and if anyone has worked out an adult reading age, half the adults should be below it. There is no point in comparing different groups.
posted by libed_david at 10:15 AM
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