Low literacy is a particularly significant problem among persons over age 65, the majority of whom score below basic competency levels [ 2].
About 90 million adults scored poorly on the 2003 National Assessment of Adult Literacy, and the majority of persons over age 65 scored below basic competency literacy levels [ 2].
As a consequence, staff-patient ratios in the programme varied greatly across the province, while the presence of doctors in treatment sites meant that professional nurses were performing tasks way below their competency levels.
According to the National Assessment of Educational Progress, he says, "today, fully 67% of American fourth-graders can't read at the fourth-grade proficiency level; and 33% score below the basic competency level".
Annex 3 (left) gives examples, in various fields of mathematics, of the problems presented under the items A, B, C, and D. The degree of difficulty of the problems was below the average competency of a fifth year secondary student.
But with students who scored in Level 2 -- which is still below the city's competency standard -- the attendance numbers vary widely from district to district.
All else being equal, students who were one SD below the mean biology competency were 1.5 times more likely to report that a groupmate limited participation than students at the mean biology competency.
Thus, students who were two SDs below the mean biology competency reported a level of comfort being oneself that was half of an SD lower than the average comfort in the class.
On average, the objective competence within the intervention group improved from below to above the base competency threshold on the Cognitive Therapy Scale whilst the control group remained below.
Below, we describe the group's approach to competency development, present the competencies, and discuss implications and next steps.
