edCircuit note: Austin Dickson wrote this article for Literacy Action, the Atlanta adult education nonprofit, in 2015. His four arguments about adult literacy and poverty are unchanged below, and an update after his article brings the national figures forward to the newest federal data. Literacy Action ceased operations in 2023, according to its nonprofit profile, with its final adult education classes ending in July of that year.
Adult literacy is often overlooked, but it’s a social issue that helps to explain issues of intergenerational poverty, outcomes for youth, and the global divide between rich and poor.
Consider these consequences of adult illiteracy:
It’s a Root Cause of Poverty
As of 2014, there were 45 million Americans living in poverty. Of those individuals, 75% of adults were low literate. It can be clearly stated that if you’re poor, you’re not necessarily low literate, but if you’re low literate, you’re very likely to be poor. Those with even a high school diploma earn nearly twice as much income over their lifetime than those without. Those of us who work in literacy organizations see our work as one broad poverty-fighting effort. Our organization, Literacy Action, focuses on improving the lives of individuals throughout the Atlanta region and the Southeastern U.S.
It’s Cyclical
The educational level of a mother is the most indicative variable in predicting a child’s educational outcomes. Low literate women are four times more likely to have children before turning 19. About 90% of students who come to our center are parents, so we work hard not just to put books in their hands, but teach and empower them to read to their children, create a learning environment at home, and connect with their children’s schools.
It’s Correlated with Corrections
In the U.S. prison population – which is the highest prison population in the world – nearly 75% of state inmates don’t have a high school diploma. Correspondingly, high school dropout rates from African American and Hispanic males are disproportionately higher than Whites and Asians; the prison population also reflects this disparity. The more adults that enter Literacy Action classrooms mean there are fewer adults that we’ll see caught in the revolving door of the justice system.
It Creates Global Economic and Gender Gaps
The 10 countries with the highest (over 50%) non-literacy rates – South Sudan, Mali, Afghanistan, Niger, Guinea, Sierra Leone, Chad, Burkina Faso, Senegal, and Benin – have a combined Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of $114 billion annually. This economic output is equivalent to the economy of Columbus, Ohio. Literacy is the bedrock of economic development in our world. Sadly, more than two-thirds of the world’s 1.1 billion adults who are non-literate are female. Though Literacy Action focuses on the Atlanta area – not the world – we have hosted senior government officials from other countries to take our program models and implement them in some of the most desperate areas of our planet.
Adult literacy in 2026: what the newest data show and what schools can do
Adult literacy in the United States has moved in the wrong direction since this article was written. The newest national measure is the Program for the International Assessment of Adult Competencies (PIAAC), an international study of working-age adults aged 16 to 65 that tests literacy, numeracy and problem solving. In results released by the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) in December 2024, the share of U.S. adults scoring at Level 1 or below in literacy rose from 19 percent in 2017 to 28 percent in 2023, and the average U.S. literacy score fell 12 points, from 271 to 258. The United States tied for 14th of 31 participating countries and economies, which NCES describes as on par with the international average. NCES Commissioner Peggy G. Carr summarized the pattern: “Over time, we’re seeing more Americans clustered at the bottom levels of proficiency.”
The figures need careful handling. PIAAC is a sample survey that reports adults in skill levels, and Level 1 or below is its lowest reported band, so the 28 percent describes adults with the weakest measured skills on the assessment, and the result is best reported in those terms. The NCES highlights report (NCES 2024-202) also notes that the share of adults at lower skill levels has grown since the 2012/14 round in both literacy and numeracy, so the 2023 result continues a trend rather than appearing out of nowhere.
The link to income still holds
As Dickson argues above, low literacy and poverty travel together. Later work puts a rough size on that link. A 2020 study by Gallup economist Jonathan Rothwell for the Barbara Bush Foundation for Family Literacy estimated that the country could be losing up to $2.2 trillion a year in income because of low adult literacy. The same release reports average annual earnings of $34,000 for adults at the lowest literacy levels, $48,000 for adults reading at a third- to fifth-grade level and $63,000 for adults reading at about a sixth-grade level. The $2.2 trillion figure is a model estimate, not a measured loss: it depends on assumptions about how much earnings would rise if skills rose, and it was published before the 2023 PIAAC results. It is best quoted as a sense of scale.
Who pays for adult literacy classes
Most publicly funded adult literacy instruction runs through the Adult Education and Family Literacy Act (AEFLA), which is Title II of the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act. According to the U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Career, Technical, and Adult Education, these state grants pay for adult education, literacy, English language acquisition, workplace literacy, family literacy, integrated education and training, and integrated English literacy and civics education. Participation is limited to adults and out-of-school youth aged 16 and older. The federal appropriation was $715,455,000 in each of fiscal years 2023, 2024 and 2025, up from $581,955,000 in 2016 and 2017. Level funding in dollars buys a little less instruction each year as costs rise, at the same time as the 2023 results point to a larger group of adults who could use it.
What schools and districts can do
Dickson’s second point, that a parent’s education shapes a child’s, is the one most directly in a school’s reach. Schools do not run adult literacy programs as a rule, but they meet the parents who would benefit every day, and several practical steps follow.
- Write for every family. Notices, permission forms, report cards and portal messages written in plain language reach more parents. A district can check the reading level of its most important documents before they go out and offer a phone call or a meeting as an alternative to a form.
- Know the local adult education provider. Every state distributes AEFLA funds to local programs. A counselor, social worker or family liaison who can name the nearest program, its schedule and its cost can make a referral during the conversation in which a parent mentions a need.
- Use the building. Hosting adult classes or family literacy evenings in a school removes a trip for parents who already come there to collect their children.
- Plan for students who leave. Because out-of-school youth aged 16 and older qualify for AEFLA programs, a district’s re-engagement plan for students who leave without a diploma can include adult education alongside credit recovery.
Literacy Action no longer operates, but the approach Dickson describes, teaching parents to read while helping them read with their children and connect with their schools, remains a sound model for any district that wants its family engagement work to reach the adults who need it most.
Subscribe to edCircuit to stay up to date on all of our shows, podcasts, news, and thought leadership articles.
Related reading
More on Literacy and Reading
