To be shocked that the national average reading age is 9-11

Wasn't the much-cited fact at one point that the reading age required for The Sun was one year lower than that required for The Beano or Dandy (children's comics, for those who are unfamiliar with them)?

Mastermind, as mentioned by PP, is an interesting case in point. It calls itself 'TV's toughest quiz', which is clearly just silliness - as Only Connect and University Challenge, to name just two, are manifestly much tougher.

The two Mastermind rounds are starkly set at two very different levels: the specialist subject round is indeed often tough for the typical person (presumably, that's the whole point); but the general knowledge round often features laughably simple Tipping Point-style questions.

I agree that the pressure and the TV cameras are obviously a big factor; although, interestingly, the performance level of the editions featuring celebrities - who are well used to TV cameras and lighting - is usually significantly lower than the editions featuring ordinary people for whom it's probably their first/only ever time on the telly.

I find The 1% Club scary, assuming that the percentage levels given are accurate. Not even so much the very early questions, as you're obviously always going to get some people with learning difficulties, underprivileged, academically challenged, poor eyesight, not reading the question properly etc. - although you clearly also have to counter that with the guess factor, where the cliché monkey jabbing at one of two buttons would unknowingly accidentally get the right one half the time.

It's the 70, 80, 85, 90% questions that frequently surrprise me far more, as they often seem so straightforward and uncomplicated, regardless of average individual ability. My 12yo DS loves to play along, and frequently (not always) gets the later questions quickly. Yes, he is bright... but he's also only 12, and it's supposedly (unless I've misunderstood?) based around and aimed at adults.

The culture of many people not actually reading at all these days must play a large part in it; distraction too, as there are so many media and other things vying for our attention.

I sometimes enjoy Enid Blyton books as a guilty pleasure - Famous Five and Five Find-Outers rather than Noddy (as if that makes it much loftier!!).

Whilst there was obviously a level of assumed privilege and access to books and education in her writing, they reflected a time when people's 'world' was so much smaller and boundaried and far more local. It was much easier to be able to focus on a particular task, book, hobby or specialism, if you put your mind to it.

Nowadays, although the knowledge and learning opportunities made accessible by the Internet are myriad, they are so myriad that you can easily feel like a very tiny little fish in an infinitely enormous pond. How long would it take you just to read the archive of Chat threads on MN, let alone the rest of this one site, or all discussion fora, or to consume the content of the entire WWW? Literally thousands of lifetimes.

Whilst it may seem surprising that so many people happily boast about never reading a book or being rubbish at something quite basic, I think it's partly defence mechanism, but partly a result of living in an age where the entire world is at your fingertips and 'overwhelming' is about as gross an understatement as there could be.

We used to have a lovely but daft old dog in the family, who would get bewildered by the different options that he wanted to grasp - but obviously couldn't - all at the same time. Several people there to be made a fuss of by, lots of nice-smelling food and treats, balls to chase, toys to play with, interesting and curious sights and sounds to investigate etc. So much rabbit-in-the-headlights sensory overload and so many options that his frequent response was to choose none of them and just to flap around and wee on the carpet instead!

Although humans are undoubtedly far more sophisticated and multi-faceted than dogs will ever be, I can very clearly see the parallels in our lives, experiences, challenges and responses (granted not actually just wetting ourselves as adults!) - in the face of such a massive, boundless and bewildering world. With literally millions of years' worth of reading available to 'complete', I can very well see how many people just don't have any notion where to start, and thus don't ever start at all.

Sorry, that ended up very long and rambling!

My nearly 16 year old ds probably has this reading age. He was diagnosed with dyslexia at 9. He isn't thick, just struggles with reading/writing. Its hard to get him to read a lot cause it hurts his eyes he says but his eyes are fine. I also believe my dad is dyslexic too. So there are people like that who bring the average down.

What I don't understand is, if this is the 'national average' reading age for everyone, including adults, how is it measured as a reading age of 9-11?

At some point, someone must have conducted tests to establish what was the 'expected' reading age for different ages up to adult, and then what an adult would be expected to be able to read. If most adults are no longer reading at the 'adult' standard, is it correct still to say the level they are reading at is 'age 9-11' or has what was formerly a reading age of 9-11 become the new 'adult' reading age?

And how are they testing these adults? Are they accounting for people whose first language isn't English, for example - they might be very advanced readers in their first language, but less competent in English.

We’re talking about literacy standard. How does meeting the reading standard of the ks2 tests in English and maths mean a person is not functional? What in everyday life won’t they be able to do.

Reading age stops at ‘17+’ according to the NGRT scale (standardised reading tests).

Finland has one of the highest literacy rates in the world, has done for years, they start school aged 7. They also don't do homework in primary or sit any exams until they are leaving school as their main focus on happy children, not league tables.

It doesn't necessarily mean people have had a poor education.
The number of people for whom English is their second (or third, fourth etc) language - they may be degree educated in their first language but have very poor written English.

Communication in some workplaces has become very challenging due to poor English & lack of a common language. Important information & Instructions often have to be translated into several languages.

I’m surprised that you’re surprised.

How can somebody who can read and answer KS 2 SATS papers not be at a functioning level of literacy?

That someone is a ten year old currently in education, saturated in teaching every day, being taught in order to get them to pass these tests.

If you take that level of literacy, comprehension, and social and emotional maturity, without further development, and look at the adult it creates... there's your functionally illiterate adult.

I'm curious as to how reading age correlates to English GCSE levels.

65% of candidates (from what Google tells me) pass GCSE with a 4 or above. What's the reading age of someone with a grade 4 at GCSE?

Apparently the reading age metric only goes up to 16.

I administer reading age tests in a secondary school and have done so for over a decade. The stated reading age is just the scale. It goes up to 16 years 6 month on my test and boy its hard to get the top score. I have a masters degree in history and I am a rabid reader for pleasure and I found it hard!
The reason the average is low is because it includes children and adults who have very low reading scores. The reason they have low scores in my experience is that that don't read anything for pleasure. This limits their vocabulary.. Obviously some SEND impacts more than others but its not a direct relationship, many very good readers in my current school are ASD and SEMH students ,which often include children with behavioural difficulties.
There is a big difference between being taught to read and actually reading a lot and improving your knowledge of vocabulary and general knowledge. A lot of children stop reading regularly in around year 5 and 6 so their reading age remains at that level which scores as 10ish on my tests in secondary school. Boys stop more often than girls.
The significant minority of children in my school who read a lot for pleasure always do well in their exams. They can read the class materials and of course the exam papers. Few if any secondary schools actually have space to do reading for pleasure on the timetable despite its importance. This is why I always tell parents how important their role is in reading. I fear few listen as reading is not particularly championed in our society by those who hold power.

I'm not surprised, reading is just one pastime we can do.
Books are mostly competing with streaming services and gaming.
I think 25 years ago the type of entertainment that was actually available to children, teenagers and adults were books or various model building kits (incl. Lego) and toys. TV consisted of a fewer channels and scheduled programs, - not readily available on demand. Unless you had Video tapes!
These days it's games consoles, YouTube videos and and gaming apps that keep us entertained. All of which are available in seconds to us.

I love books and I collect them, but even I believe the physical book is going to be nishe and specialist in 30-50 years.

I absolutely love my e-reader for everyday reading! Books are cheaper, less clutter and some geners and foreign language books are easier to obtain!

Sadly this.

There was a TV series a few years ago where they took adults who couldn't read and taught them.

They were from a variety of back grounds including an ex English teacher, who, like @ForeverDelayedEpiphany had lost the ability to read. I think that was due to a stroke but it can happen to anyone.

I worked in one school that had a 'Do Now'. When students entered the room they had to start on the 'Do Now' task which lasted for 5 mins.

I was teaching computer science so mine was always, "log on to your computer" and then "silent reading".

All students had to have a reading book on them from home or the library. 5 mins does not sound much but 5 mins 5 times a day adds up.

I think that's pretty much the definition of functional literacy. You can read at a level high enough to understand the cooking instructions on a packet, or a letter from your electric supplier. But that also your language is quite "low-level", you perhaps don't have an extensive vocabulary and struggle with interpreting text which isn't straightforward.

How can somebody who can read and answer KS 2 SATS papers not be at a functioning level
of literacy?

All of those concepts are expectations for 10 year olds too. Scroll down in each, the questions get harder.36 questions in 30 minutes is the expectation for the arithmetic. 99% of 600 and 43% of 900 are percentages examples. Below is a reasoning example.

35% of the 680 pupils at a school have a pet dog.
159 of the pupils who have a pet dog are boys.
How many of the pupils who have a pet dog are girls?
Show your method

https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/664dc7a9bd01f5ed32794027/STA248817e_2024_ks2_mathematics_Paper1_arithmetic.pdf

https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/664dc7b6f34f9b5a56adcc33/STA248818e_2024_ks2_mathematics_Paper2_reasoning.pdf

assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/664dc7c14f29e1d07fadcc6f/STA248819e_2024_ks2_mathematics_Paper3_reasoning.pdf

I can’t remember being taught how to read at school, and from my children’s and relatives experiences, most of the learning to read came from home.
If children aren’t receiving that support at home for whatever reason, they’re not going to be able to improve their literacy and will remain “stunted”.
Yes, some people are just unintelligent or illiterate, but they might be excellent at other skills.

I had a reading age of almost double my age when I was in primary school, but I was awful at maths. My husband was (and still is) terrible at reading and spelling, but fantastic at maths and science.

@L1ghtP0ur

If you'll reread your post that I quoted in bold you'll see why I'm struggling to understand what you're saying. It doesn't make sense. Perhaps you can rewrite it.

Have you worked with adults with low literacy skills? I've taught adults with a reading age of 10 and, as I've said earlier in this thread, just because they can be taught to answer papers like these doesn't mean that they are functioning in society at an acceptable level. Lessons on deciphering newspaper articles and identifying bias are particularly illuminating.

You are mistaking passing literacy tests while in school at ten years old with being functionally literate as an adult. They are not the same thing. If someone's literacy is stunted at a ten year old's reading level, this is not a good thing.

Michael Rosen launched his manifesto for reading last year which I try to implement with my Grand children. Books and reading were very important in my house but 2 of my children became readers and one tries now and again but they all had the same base. Although the one who isn't bothered had a class of 39 kids in primary school.

I've a friend who was very popular in prison some time ago - because he regularly helped many, many people to read their letters and wrote their responses for them. Most of the other inmates were not able to read at all.

I am not at all surprised, when I consider all the adults I have known who definitely read worse as an adult, than I did aged 8 or so... I have also helped a lot of people read forms; read job applications; read court or police letters; any letters. Saddened, because it makes life so much harder, but not surprised.

There is massive variation throughout the UK, right from barely being able to read through to literary wonders! The thing is, being able to read to 9 to 11 standard will suffice for many day to day purposes. I worry more about poor maths and arithmetic skills, not understanding percentages, interest rates and that sort of thing.

It’s not that hard to understand. Define poor literacy. I’m not sure reading to the level of a KS2 SATS paper is indicative of poor literacy given the texts and questions. A KS1 paper maybe but the op wasn’t talking about 6 year olds.

@L1ghtP0ur

If a 10 year olds level isn’t poor literacy no an adult at the same standard does not have literacy.

What?

Agree but it's easy to see how this happens. How many parents make sure that their children see them regularly reading a book?

I don't mean reading a book to a child. I mean mum sitting down with a cuppa and reading her own book.

How many kids see that? Honestly. 😢

I know one friend who tries. She makes a point of using actual library books not her Kindle screen to do it.

No wonder so many kids don't read outside of what they are obliged to in class or take the joy of reading with them into adulthood.