[evultrole]

There are a lot of problems with the way you approach this.

19% of Americans cannot read well enough to fill out a job application correctly.

The organization for economic cooperation and development found that 50% of U.S. adults can't read a book written at an 8th grade level, which is a statistic which obviously requires the estimate of "average American reading at a 7th or 8th grade level" be questioned heavily.

I've seen many estimates that the average high school student reads at a 6th grade level, and only 15% of the country is at an undergraduate level despite 30% of people having a degree.

I don't know where you get the idea that "grade level" relates to grades completed, but the average American is likely at a 5th grade reading level.

[Mvandenbergh]

Well, I'll admit to not being an expert on the American school system with which I only had a few years of contact. If that really is the case, that grade level of reading ability and number of grades completed is not linked then that is certainly an indictment of the American system of education. I'm happy to amend my claim that 10th graders can read the New Yorker to say that by American academic standards, they should be able to but often are not.

It doesn't change the fact that the CEFR framework is not intended either to measure native proficiency nor to assess the difficulty of a written text.

I'm not disputing that the New Yorker is written at a higher level than the average American cares to read, just disputing the use of CEFR framework to assess the text.