Today, the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) released the
National Assessment of Adult Literacy: Indirect County and State
Estimates of the Percentage of Adults at the Lowest Literacy Level for
1992 and 2003, which provides estimates on the percentage of adults -
for all states and counties in the U.S. - who lack basic prose literacy
skills.  The study provides data for 2003 and 1992. This new data is
currently the only available snapshot of adult literacy rates for
individual states and counties. 

 

To produce this study, NCES gathered data from the 2003 National
Assessment of Adult Literacy (NAAL), a nationally representative sample
of more than 19,000 Americans age 16 and older, and the 2000 Census,
which provided "predictor variables" such as education and income. 

 

NAAL data were correlated with the predictor variables to see if there
was a pattern among them. From this information, a model was
established.  Using the model, estimates were predicted for areas where
there were not sufficient assessment data.  The same approach was also
applied to the 1992 National Adult Literacy Survey (NALS), so changes
from 1992 to 2003 can be examined. 

 

The report is accompanied by an interactive web tool, which shows the
percentage of adults lacking Basic Prose Literacy Skills for all states
and counties. In addition to allowing users to view adult literacy
percentages for any given state, the web tool also allows for
comparisons to be made between two states, two counties in the same
state, two counties in different states, across years for a state, and
across years for a county. 

 

The report can be found at:

http://nces.ed.gov/pubsearch/pubsinfo.asp?pubid=2009482 

 

The Interactive Web Tool can be accessed at:

http://nces.ed.gov/naal/estimates/index.aspx 

 

 

 

Thank you

 

Jaleh Behroozi Soroui

 

 

 

 

Nell Eckersley

ALIES/ASISTS Program Operations Coordinator,

Literacy Assistance Center

Moderator,
NIFL Technology and Literacy Discussion List

tel: 212.803.3316

fax: 212.785.3685

nelle at lacnyc.org 

P please don't print this e-mail unless you really need to

 

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