A r c h i v e d I n f o r m a t i o n

How Literate Are American Adults?

A measure of adult literacy used to be signing your name, completing 5 years of school, or scoring at a particular level on a reading test. But a recent report from OERI's National Center for Education Statistics on the National Adult Literacy Survey (NALS), Adult Literacy in America, describes adult literacy at five levels in terms of the types of literacy skills needed to use various kinds of printed and written information in our society:

Prose literacy--understanding and using information from texts that include editorials, news stories, poems, and fiction;
Document literacy--locating and using information contained in materials that include job applications, transportation schedules, maps, and tables;
Quantitative literacy--applying arithmetic operations, either alone or sequentially, using numbers embedded in printed materials such as restaurant checks, order forms, and loan advertisements.

The report also analyzes connections between literacy skills and social and economic variables such as voting, reading practices, employment, and earnings. Based on interviews in 1992 with more than 26,000 adults aged 16 and older, this report indicates that:

21 to 23 percent--or the equivalent of 40 to 44 million American adults--demonstrated skills in the lowest of five survey assessment levels. At this level, many, but not all, could perform simple routine tasks involving brief and uncomplicated texts and documents, such as totaling an entry on a deposit slip, locating the time or place of a meeting on a form, and identifying a piece of specific information in a brief news article.
Only 18 to 21 percent--34 to 40 million--performed in the two highest levels.
Older adults are more likely than middle-aged or younger adults to demonstrate limited literacy skills. For example, adults over 65 have average literacy scores that range from 56 to 61 points (or more than one level) below those of 40- to 54-year-olds, in part because older adults tend to have completed fewer years of schooling.
Participants aged 21 to 25 had average scores that were 11 to 14 points lower than the scores of 21- to 25-year-olds assessed in 1985. This decrease may in large part reflect the dramatic increase in young, foreign-born Hispanic adults, many of whom are learning English as a second language. Nevertheless, young people are more literate than older adults, and literacy most likely will increase as younger, more educated generations replace their parents and grandparents.

Although the survey showed that almost half the individuals scored in the two lowest levels, they did not necessarily see themselves as being "at risk." In fact, 66 to 75 percent of the adults scoring at the lowest level and 93 to 97 percent in the second lowest level described themselves as being able to read or write English "well" or "very well."

While earlier large-scale U.S. Department of Education studies explored the literacy of young adults and job seekers, this survey, mandated by Congress in 1988, was the first since 1975 to provide accurate and detailed information on the skills of the adult population as a whole.

The 1992 results are based on household interviews with nearly 13,600 individuals aged 16 and older for the national data; surveys of approximately 1,000 additional adults in each of 12 states for state-level results; and interviews with 1,100 inmates from 80 federal and state prisons.

In addition to completing literacy tasks, participants answered questions about their demographic characteristics, educational backgrounds, reading practices, labor market experiences, and more. These background data make it possible, for the first time, to understand how literacy and personal characteristics interconnect. While NALS was initiated to fill the need for accurate and detailed information on English literacy skills, the background questionnaire was also administered in Spanish. Some questionnaire results:

Nearly half (41 to 44 percent) of all adults in the lowest level on each literacy scale were living in poverty, compared with only 4 to 8 percent of those in the two highest proficiency levels.
Adults in prison are far more likely than those in the general population to perform at the lowest two literacy levels--an average of about 70 percent as opposed to slightly less than 50 percent.
Roughly half of the adults in the lowest level said they voted in the past 5 years, compared to about 75 percent of those in level 4 and just under 90 percent in level 5.

Adult Literacy In America, the first in a series of reports, offers an overview of the results of the National Adult Literacy Survey. It is available for $12, stock #065-000-00588-3, from GPO. Additional reports to be released over the next year will provide a more detailed look at particular issues including: literacy in the work force, literacy and education, literacy among older adults, literacy in the prison population, and literacy and cultural diversity. For more information about the survey content or upcoming reports, contact Andrew Kolstad, NCES, at 202-219-1779.

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