Why Literacy?

Literacy is the ability to identify, understand, interpret, create, compute, and communicate using visual, audible, and digital materials across disciplines and in any context.

The ability to read, write, and communicate connects people to one another and empowers them to achieve things they never thought possible. Communication and connection are the basis of who we are and how we live together and interact with the world.

The Problem
Our Solution
Our Impact

The Problem

It's astonishing that in this day and age, there are still millions of people from every corner of the world who are denied access to literacy education. Sadly, it's true.

12%

global population

Roughly 12 percent of the world's population is considered functionally illiterate, with only basic or below-basic literacy levels in their native languages.

781

million people

781 million people worldwide still cannot read or write.

126

million youths

126 million youths are illiterate.

source: UIS, 2014

Our Solution

years

For the past 60 years we have provided teachers and leaders with the resources and expertise to support and inspire their students and each other.

Setting standards & leadership

We have set the standards and agendas for literacy instruction and evaluation, and we've advocated for the cause of literacy before leaders at all levels.

128

countries

We've built a global community of literacy practitioners that spreads this transformative power across 128 countries.

Our Impact

We've got the credentials, the conviction, and the chops...
And we won't stop until literacy is a fundamental, inalienable, human right worldwide.

We have developed and managed dozens of global projects addressing literacy issues across the developing world from Macedonia to Nigeria, Ghana, Zambia, Indonesia, and Bangladesh.

Our research journals, publications, advocacy, professional development, and standards for literacy educators have shaped and refined the instructional skills of tens of thousands of educators and, through their professional efforts, brought the gifts of literacy to millions of learners in all walks of life.

Together with our affiliates, we advocate before legislative and regulatory bodies for the resources and professional development needed to enhance student comprehension skills while raising research-based concerns about the pedagogical limitations of high-stakes testing.

Help Us Make This the Age of Literacy

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PO Box 8139
Newark, DE 19714-8139
800.336.7323 (U.S. and Canada)
302.731.1600 (all other countries)
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Why Literacy?

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