The 8th grade level is close to correct. But first lets look at what an 8th grade level means. That puts someone in the 50th percentile of the 8th grade. The upper levels of the average 8th grade class will be reading at the 50th percentile of the average 12th gradeclass and the lower levels of the average will be reading at the 50th percentile of the average 4th grade class. That is the average class, should there be gifted students in the class the upper range will be greater & should their be students with learning problems the lower range will be greater.
Some newspapers are usually printed at a 4th grade reading level.
The 50th percentile will put a student in the lower 'C' range, barring grade inflation.
Something I came across in the latter '80s: The only common factor among students who scored well on the PSAT was the families ate supper as a family, at the table, with the TV off.
The following is politically incorrect, though true.
"If whites & Asians are the A students with average grades if 90, Blacks & Hispanics are C & D students with grades between 67 & 72. (Edwin S. Rubenstein, "A Stupid American? Look Again," VDARE.com December 22, 2005;
http://www.vdare.com/rubenstein/015222_ndhtm.
"If we adjust the mean ... scores for US adults under the age 65 to exclude all foreign-born adults as well as native born Blacks & Hispanics, ,the the mean ... would rise to 288, ranking the US 2d & 5th in the world". Rubenstein, from above, forced these stats out of the Educational Testing Service.
"Mexicans tend to have less than 8 years of education, & many have only 3 or 4 years. Quite a few actually have zero". (Joyce Howard Price, "Imigration, Poverty Linked", Washington Time, Nov 6, 2005.
www.washingtontimes.com/functions
Yet some immigrant children perform exceedinly well. Though Korea was held in colonial captivity by Japan for generations & suffered 3 years of one of the bloodiest wars of the 20th centruy, South Korea has the 2d highest IQ in the world. (Steven A. Cammarota, "Immigrants at Mid-Decade: A Snapshot of America's Foreign Born Population in 2005", Backgrounder, Center for Immigration Studies (Dec 2005 ), p. 2).
www.cfis.org no direct link provided.
Everything from "The following is politically incorrect .... is taken from State of Emergency: The Third World Invasion and Conquest of America, by Pat Buchanan. starting p. 34, but the whole book is a good read. Everything is well cited & linked, I found out that Buchanan is more than a pompous egotistical blowhard. I still don't want to listen to him, but I will read his books.
I'll scan this book again & check a couple of other sources to see if I can answer your actual question. But again, I would say the 8th grade statistic is accurate, if anything it may be high, because their are so many more illegal aliens in the US than when I first heard the 8th grade rating.
