Skip to Main Content

Five Key Literacy Skills for Success and Moving PA Forward: Basic Literacy

Explains the PA Forward Initiative and the purpose of the PA Forward Star Library Program. It focuses on how the Madigan Library participates and has become a Gold Star Library

Basic Literacy

Basic Literacy Banner
We envision a Pennsylvania with one of the highest Literacy Rates in the country, a trained and skilled workforce, and a growing economy, tax base, and population.

Best Practices Display

Display of historic photos of PCT various schools over the years

Herbie Goes to College

Picture of Herbie in Library on Library Facebook page

Why Basic Literacy is Important

Here are some reasons why BASIC LITERACY is a PA Forward priority:

  • Basic literacy is foundational. It is more than just learning to read and write; literacy and basic knowledge cannot be clearly separated from each other because literacy is a precondition as well as an outcome of basic knowledge and continues to develop during the whole lifetime.
  • More than 36 million adults in the United States cannot read, write, or do basic math above the third-grade level.
  • Only 45% of parents read to their preschoolers on a daily basis.
  • Children of parents with low literacy levels have a 72% chance of being at the lowest reading levels themselves and are more likely to get poor grades, have behavioral issues, be high school drop outs.
  • Eighty-five percent of all juveniles in the court system are functionally illiterate.
  • Forty-three percent of adults with the lowest literacy levels live in poverty.
  • Each year, low literacy costs the United States over $225 billion in non-productivity in the workforce, crime, and loss of tax revenue due to unemployment.
  • Pennsylvania jobs requiring a postsecondary education are predicted to increase to 63%, while jobs requiring a high school diploma will decline to 37%.
  • Each year, $232 billion in health care costs is linked to low adult literacy skills.

 

College Resources

College Resources display table

Madigan Library PA Forward Display at Open House

PA Forward Table Display at Open House

VR Studio Display

Display of materials on Virtual Reality