Target 4.6: Universal literacy and numeracy
By 2030, ensure that all youth and a substantial proportion of adults, both men and women, achieve literacy and numeracy
Owners voting their values help. Others must carry most of it.
Why shareholder democracy is helpful
Youth and adult literacy and numeracy are delivered by public schools and adult-education programs. The products of education publishers and edtech firms, however, shape how reading and mathematics are taught. UNESCO's GEM Report 2023/4 found that only 7 percent of UK edtech companies had conducted randomized controlled trials. It cited an EdTech Genome Project review of some 7,000 teaching tools, 85 percent of which were either a poor fit for the classrooms using them or implemented incorrectly. It warned that commercial interests can clash with equity and quality goals. Publisher conduct has demonstrably affected literacy. Reporting exposed discredited cueing-based reading programs such as Heinemann's Units of Study and the Fountas and Pinnell curriculum. At least 26 US states then passed reading-instruction laws from 2022 onward, and at least 15 banned cueing. Publishers issued revised editions claiming alignment with reading science. Owners of listed education publishers can press for evidence-aligned products, though we found no shareholder resolution or investor campaign on literacy outcomes. The lever operates at the margin of an outcome public systems deliver.
How this was scoredHelpful
Helpful. Owners voting their values help. Others must carry most of it.
We have not yet written down the two answers behind this rating. Recording them on every item, so a reader can check the reasoning and not only the conclusion, is work in progress.
Every rating is the higher of two answers, one for what companies do and one for what they spend to stop the outcome, because the same vote reaches both. See the full method.
Sources
No shareholder advocacy found yet
We looked and found nothing that met our standard, which is a source we opened and confirmed. No shareholder advocacy located on literacy or numeracy outcomes, evidence standards for edtech products, or the conduct of education publishers. The rationale already states that no shareholder resolution or investor campaign on literacy outcomes was found, and the resolution databases we opened confirm it. The pressure that changed publisher behaviour on cueing-based reading programs came from journalism and state legislation, neither of which counts as advocacy through ownership.
How this rating was made
Every item on every one of our maps is read against one question: how far does this depend on the people who own companies voting their values? We answer it twice, once for what companies do and once for what they spend to stop the outcome, and take whichever answer is higher, since the same vote reaches both. The score carries its reasoning and its sources so that a reader can check it rather than take it.
- Pivotal. Owners voting their values can deliver most of the outcome.
- Necessary. Owners remove an obstacle nothing else removes, and others must also act.
- Helpful. Owners voting their values help, and others carry most of it.
- Independent. This moves without owners. Other levers carry it.
The advocacy record on this page holds only what a source we opened says happened. Where we searched and found nothing, the page says so rather than leaving a silence. Where a campaign names a filer the source does not name, it says that too. Ratings are ours; the list of subjects is UN Sustainable Development Goals's, and we link to their original.
How we score dependency, in full.