Literacy Programs Responding to Communities in Crisis

First Data Released
from 2003 National Assessment
of Adult Literacy

In December 2005, The National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) released the first data from the 2003 National Assessment of Adult Literacy (NAAL). A 28-page report entitled A First Look at the Literacy of Americas Adults in the 21st Century is now available online in pdf format. http://nces.ed.gov/pubsearch/pubsinfo.asp?pubid=2006470

A First Look presents key results of the 2003 NAAL, including changes in adult literacy since 1992 and performance by gender, race/ethnicity, age, language spoken before starting school, educational attainment, and employment status. Also available on the NCES website, a 43-page companion report, Key Concepts and Features of the 2003 National Assessment of Adult Literacy, describes the assessments key features and major data types. http://nces.ed.gov/pubsearch/pubsinfo.asp?pubid=2006471

The 2003 NAAL measures the English literacy of America’s adults (people age 16 and older living in households and prisons). NAAL builds on the previous national assessment of literacy completed in 1992. The 2003 assessment defines literacy as using printed and written information to function in society, to achieve ones goals, and to develop ones knowledge and potential. Results are reported in terms of scale score averages and literacy levels on three literacy scales: prose, document, and quantitative. The literacy levels were described as below basic, basic, intermediate, and proficient. An additional component comprising 5 percent of the adult population included the 2 percent who could not be tested because they could not communicate in English or Spanish, and 3 percent who took an alternative assessment because they were unable to complete a minimum number of simple literacy screening questions.

Results showed that the average quantitative literacy scores of adults increased 8 points between 1992 and 2003, though average prose and document literacy did not differ significantly from 1992. Among Blacks, average prose literacy scores increased by 6 points and average document literacy scores rose by 8 points. The average prose literacy scores of Hispanics fell 18 points, while average document literacy scores decreased by 14 points. Average prose and document literacy scores among Whites did not change significantly.

The Office of Vocational & Adult Education, U.S. Department of Education, has released a fact sheet in response to the 2003 NAAL, entitled Proven Methods: Helping Adults Become Literate. This 2-page pdf document is available online. http://www.ed.gov/nclb/methods/reading/adultliteracy.html