What qualifies as being literate in the United States? It all depends on your measurement. According to the Program for the International Assessment of Adult Competencies (PIAAC), literacy is defined as, “understanding, evaluating, using and engaging with written texts to participate in society, to achieve one’s goals, and to develop one’s knowledge and potential.” This seems quite broad, yet is used to show the Literacy Gap Map on the Barbara Bush Foundation for Family Literacy site. It is here that the map details where 36 million of U.S. population doesn’t meet the threshold for even basic literacy. However, there is no description of basic literacy.

Then there is the Flesch-Kincaid Score, which determines the grade level that someone is capable of reading based on sentence length and the amount of syllables within the words. The mathematical formula is thus: FKRA = (0.39 x ASL) + (11.8 x ASW) – 15.59. Using this method, it is determined that The New York Times is at a college age reading level, which would only meet the most elite of readers. Whereas, the BBC is more at a 6th grade reading level (readable.com).

You may, also, recall that during President Obama’s second term there was high interest in Cuba and its ability to raise their literacy rates to 99%. Cuba’s success was highlighted, the State Department loosened tensions, and the administration eventually promoted “educational” tourism to the communist island. The problem is that we don’t really know the reading level of the 99% of “literate” Cubans.