BEACHWOOD, OH – Russian American Beverly Goldstein completely missed how the U.S. Department of Education (USDOE) defines “literacy” when she and her Russian American husband, attorney Michael Goldstein, claimed 66 percent of Cleveland’s adults are “illiterate” and “can’t read.” Had either Goldstein read how “literacy” is measured by the federal government she’s seeking a seat in the U.S. Congress to write, amend, repeal and vote on legislation both would have known their comments were “illiterate.”
U.S. Rep. Marcia Fudge chose not to respond to Goldstein’s disrespectful comments because she knows the USDOE measures three types of literacy in adults between the ages of 16 and 65 based on school enrollment at all levels, test scores and academic attainments.
The three literacy types are prose, document and quantitative. The three literacy definitions below were cut and pasted as written from the USDOE’s website.
“Prose literacy refers to the knowledge and skills needed to search, comprehend, and use information from continuous texts. Adults at the Below Basic level, rated 0 to 209, range from being nonliterate in English to being able to locate easily identifiable information in short, commonplace prose texts.
Document literacy refers to the knowledge and skills needed to search, comprehend, and use information from noncontinuous texts in various formats. Adults at the Below Basic level, rated 0 to 204, range from being nonliterate in English to being able to locate easily identifiable information and follow instructions in simple documents (e.g., charts or forms).
Quantitative literacy refers to the knowledge and skills required to identify and perform computations, either alone or sequentially, using numbers embedded in printed materials. Adults at the Below Basic level, rated 0 to 234, range from being nonliterate in English to being able to locate numbers and use them to perform simple quantitative operations (primarily addition) when the mathematical information is very concrete and familiar. At the Basic level, rated 235 to 289, adults are able to locate easily identifiable quantitative information and use it to solve simple, one-step problems when the arithmetic operation is specified or easily inferred.”
The Goldstein’s have interestingly inserted images of black 11th Congressional District residents into her campaign. The approach she’s taken in her discussions with and about black “inner city” residents is that of a “I know what’s best for for black people liberal Jew,” although she claims to be a Donald Trump conservative.
Goldstein tweeted on September 26th after the Cuyahoga county council voted to allow transgender people to use public restrooms that matched their gender identity. She blamed the outcome on the lack of “LITERATE inner-city church-attending Black voters.” Goldstein observed that only 66 percent of inner city Cleveland was literate.
The USDOE’s statistics on US literacy just for black citizens of the USA shines even more light on the illiteracy of Goldstein’s comments.

Historically, black people or the Descendants of Slaves were impacted by laws that made it illegal to teach them literacy skills. The modern day contrast is in Israel’s treatment of Ethiopians and Sudanese immigrants. They refuse to allow them to be educated; and in May 2012 tried to burn them out of their homes and businesses.
Neither Goldstein’s Russian ancestors were in Ohiowhen the general assembly in 1802 enacted “black codes” to restrict opportunities to free blacks. After the end of the Civil War in 1865 President Abraham Lincoln sought to completely empower freed Slaves as citizens, but was prevented by an assassination. But even before and after the Civil War the percentage of black literate citizens was growing.

The graph shows the percentage of freed Slaves and their descendants who could not read, write or compute in any language between 1870 and 1979. Even at the close of slavery in 1865 the percentage of literate Slaves was nearly 21 percent. Each decade after slavery the percentage of literate blacks grew until there were only 1.6 percent of black people in the entire nation who could not read, write or compute in any language by 1979.
Goldstein has attained the educational level of PhD or “doctor of philosophy” in “audiology.” In her area of knowledge she’s “trained to diagnose, manage and treat hearing or balance problems for individuals from birth through adulthood.” That’s the “audiology.org” definition.
But what it appears from her and Michael’s published “literacy” comments is that neither demonstrated “document literacy” when they failed to “search, comprehend, and use information from noncontinuous texts in various formats” to come up with commercials about literacy.
What the video and visual messages Goldstein created and shared demonstrates only her illiterate Russian understanding of what the word “literate” means in academic terms.