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. 

 

 

Full results are available at:

http://nces.ed.gov/naal/

 

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

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

 

 

 

 

Gail J. Price

Multimedia Specialist

National Center for Family Literacy

325 W. Main Street, Suite 300

Louisville, KY 40202

gprice at famlit.org

502 584-1133, ext. 112

 

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