Majority of 2,000 Oregon Residents Fail Literacy Survey
Only 18% of Oregon residents can decipher a bus schedule and barely two in five can figure the correct change from a $3 restaurant meal, according to results of a literacy survey the governor released Tuesday.
Just 35% of those surveyed could determine the correct amount of medicine to give a child by using a dosage chart and the child’s age and weight.
The survey, commissioned by the Oregon Progress Board, was based on interviews with 2,000 residents of the state, ages 16 to 65, who were selected at random.
The panel based its gauging of literacy skills on ordinary items, including advertisements, menus, checkbooks, pay stubs and newspaper articles.
Gov. Barbara Roberts said she found it disturbing that many of those surveyed were not able to handle ordinary tasks of daily life.
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