NCJ Number
144980
Date Published
1993
Length
171 pages
Annotation
The National Adult Literacy Survey (NALS) profiled the English literacy of adults in the U.S. based on their performance across a wide array of tasks that reflected the types of written materials and demands for reading and writing skills encountered in daily activities. Respondents included a national sample of 13,600 individuals aged 16 and older, 1,000 adults in each of 12 selected States, and 1,100 inmates from 80 Federal and State prisons.
Abstract
The findings showed that between 21 percent and 23 percent (40 to 44 million) of American adults demonstrated skills in the lowest level of prose, document, and quantitative proficiencies. Factors related to poor performance included recent immigration, incompletion of high school education, visual impairment, and physical or mental conditions that prevented full participation in school, employment, housework, or other activities. Another 25 percent to 28 percent of respondents demonstrated limited skills in the next higher level of proficiency, but were generally unable to perform more challenging reading and problemsolving tasks. The literacy proficiency of young adults assessed in 1992 were lower than the proficiencies of those assessed in a 1985 survey. Black, Native American, Hispanic, and Asian/Pacific Islander respondents were more likely than white adults to perform in the lowest two levels of proficiency. Incarcerated adults were much more likely to perform in the lower levels and, compared to the general population, were younger, less well educated, and from minority groups. 13 tables, 26 figures, and 4 appendixes