A literacy index for the mailbag

Abstract

Aliteracy index for predicting the educational level of the writers of public mail was developed on 162 letters sent to the editor of the Boston Herald. Accuracy of predicted educational level with actual educational level is 66.7% for grammar school educated, 69.2% for high school educated, and 79.8% for college educated. Coding instructions and directions for scoring are included in the text. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2025 APA, all rights reserved)