The National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) just released
Literacy
in Everyday Life, the most recent publication of the 2003 National
Assessment of Adult Literacy (NAAL).  This report provides extensive
information on the literacy of American adults age 16 and older and
changes
in their performance since 1992.  Furthermore, it examines the
relationship
between literacy and several demographic variables including education,
occupation, and income.

 

Findings include the following:

 

*         Women have closed the gap with men in Quantitative literacy.
They
are doing better than men in Document and Prose literacy. 

*         Younger and older adults have lower literacy than adults in
other
age groups.  

*         Median weekly earnings increased with each level of literacy. 

*         At each higher level of Prose literacy, more adults were
employed
full time.  

*         Approximately 51 percent of adults with Below Basic Document
literacy and 43 percent with Below Basic Quantitative literacy believed
their job opportunities were limited a lot by their lack of computer
skills.


*         The percentage of parents who never helped their school-age
child
with homework declined at each higher Prose literacy level. 

*         Approximately half of US citizens of voting age with Below
Basic
Prose and Document literacy reported voting in the presidential election
of
2000 compared with 84 percent of citizens with Proficient Prose and
Document
literacy. 
 

To download, view and print the publication as a PDF file, please visit:

http://nces.ed.gov/pubsearch/pubsinfo.asp?pubid=2007480 

 

Jaleh Behroozi Soroui

Education Statistics Services Institute 

American Institutes for Research 

1990 K Street, NW Suite 500 

Washington, DC 20006

Phone: 202/403-6958

email: jsoroui at air.org