National Adult Literacy Survey

[Pages:100]ADULT LITERACY

in America

A First Look at the Findings of the

National Adult Literacy Survey

38 42

18 21

12

U.S. Department of Education Office of Educational Research and Improvement

NCES 1993?275

NATIONAL CENTER FOR EDUCATION STATISTICS

April 2002 Third Edition

Adult Literacy in America

A First Look at the Findings of the National Adult Literacy Survey

Irwin S. Kirsch Ann Jungeblut Lynn Jenkins Andrew Kolstad

U.S. Department of Education Office of Educational Research and Improvement

NCES 1993-275

U.S. Department of Education Richard W. Riley Secretary

Office of Educational Research and Improvement Sharon P. Robinson Assistant Secretary

National Center for Education Statistics Emerson J. Elliott Commissioner

National Center for Education Statistics "The purpose of the Center shall be to collect, analyze, and disseminate statistics and other data related to education in the United States and in other nations." -- Section 406(b) of the General Education Provisions Act, as amended (20 U.S.C. 1221e-1).

APRIL 2002

Contact: Andrew Kolstad, 202-502-7374

Ordering Information For information on the price of single copies or bulk quantities of this book, call the U.S. Government Printing Office Order Desk at 202-783-3238. The GPO stock number for this book is 065-000-00588-3 For more information,

write to: Education Information Branch Office of Educational Research and Improvement U.S. Department of Education 555 New Jersey Avenue, N.W. Washington, D.C. 20208-5641 or call: 1-800-424-1616 (in the Washington, D.C. metropolitan area, call 202-219-1651), or FAX 202-219-1970.

THIRD EDITION

The work upon which this publication is based was performed for the National Center for Education Statistics, Office of Educational Research and Improvement, by Educational Testing Service. Educational Testing Service is an equal opportunity, affirmative action employer. Educational Testing Service, ETS, and are registered trademarks of Educational Testing Service.

CONTENTS

Acknowledgments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ix Preface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xi Executive Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xv

The Literacy Skills of America's Adults . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xvi Literacy and Social and Economic Characteristics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xix Reflections on the Results . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xx Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 Defining and Measuring Literacy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 Conducting the Survey . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 Reporting the Results . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8 About This Report . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12 A Note on Interpretations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13 Section I: The Prose, Document, and Quantitative Literacies of America's Adults . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15 Results for the Total Population . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16 Trends in the Literacy Skills of Young Adults . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22 Results by Level of Education . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25 Results by Parents' Level of Education . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28 Results by Age . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30 Results by Race/Ethnicity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32

Educational Attainment and Racial/Ethnic Differences . . . . . . . . 34 Age and Racial/Ethnic Differences . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38 Country of Birth and Racial/Ethnic Differences . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40 Results by Type of Illness, Disability, or Impairment . . . . . . . . . . . . 42 Results by Region . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45 Results by Sex . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46 Results for the Prison Population . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46 Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50

Contents . . . . . . iii

Section II: The Connection Between Adults' Literacy Skills and Their Social and Economic Characteristics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53 Literacy and Voting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53 Literacy and Reading Practices . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54 Frequency of Newspaper Reading . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55 Aspects of Newspaper Reading . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56 Reliance on Print and Nonprint Sources of Information . . . . . . . 59 Literacy and Economic Status . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60 Poverty Status . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60 Sources of Nonwage Income and Support . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61 Literacy and Employment, Earnings, and Occupations . . . . . . . . . . . 62 Employment Status . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62 Weeks Worked . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64 Earnings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65 Occupations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66 Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68

Section III: Interpreting the Literacy Scales . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69 Building the Literacy Tasks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69 Defining the Literacy Levels . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71 Interpreting the Literacy Levels . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73 Prose Literacy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73 Document Literacy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84 Quantitative Literacy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93 Estimating Performance Across the Literacy Levels . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101 Missing Responses to Literacy Tasks. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103 Performance in the Lowest Literacy Level . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105 Population Diversity within the Lowest Literacy Level . . . . . . . . . . . 108

Appendix A -- Overview of Procedures. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113 Sampling . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113 Weighting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115 Background Questionnaires . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 116 Literacy Assessment Booklets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 118 Survey Design: BIB Spiralling. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 120 Training the Data Collection Staff . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 121

iv . . . . . . Contents

Administering the Data Collection Instruments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 122 Response Rates . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 123 Data Collection Quality Control . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 124 Scoring the Literacy Exercise Booklets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 125 Data Entry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 126 Editing and Quality Control . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 126 Scaling . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 126 Overview of Linking the National Adult Literacy Survey (NALS)

Scales to the Young Adult Literacy Survey (YALS) Scales . . . . . . . 127 Statistical Procedures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 128 Appendix B . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 131 Definitions of All Subpopulations and Variables Reported . . . . . . . 131 Data Tables . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 137 Participants . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 173 About the Authors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 176

Contents . . . . . . v

Figures and Tables

Table 1 Figure 1 Figure 2 Figure 1.1 Table 1.1 Table 1.2 Table 1.3

Figure 1.2 Figure 1.3 Figure 1.4 Figure 1.5 Table 1.4 Figure 1.6 Table 1.5 Figure 1.7 Table 1.6 Figure 1.8

Table 1.7 Figure 1.9 Table 1.8

The National Adult Literacy Survey Sample . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7

Difficulty Values of Selected Tasks Along the Prose, Document, and Quantitative Literacy Scales . . . . . . . . . . . 10

Description of the Prose, Document, and Quantitative Literacy Levels . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11

Literacy Levels and Average Literacy Proficiencies for the Total Population . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17

Percentages of Adults with Selected Characteristics, Prose Level 1 and Total Populations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18

Percentages of Adults Who Reported Not Being Able to Read or Write English Well, by Literacy Level . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20

Percentages of Adults Who Reported Getting A Lot of Help from Family Members or Friends With Various Types of Everyday Literacy Tasks, by Literacy Level . . . . . . . . . . 21

Average Literacy Proficiencies of Young Adults, 1985 and 1992 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24

Literacy Levels and Average Literacy Proficiencies, by Highest Level of Education Completed . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26

Average Literacy Proficiencies, by Level of Education Attained by Adults and Their Parents . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29

Average Literacy Proficiencies, by Age . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31

Average Years of Schooling, by Age . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32

Literacy Levels and Average Literacy Proficiencies, by Race/Ethnicity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33

Average Years of Schooling, by Race/Ethnicity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35

Average Literacy Proficiencies, by Highest Level of Education Completed and Race/Ethnicity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36

Differences in Average Literacy Proficiencies Between Various Racial/Ethnic Groups, Overall and by Level of Education . . . . . . 37

Differences Between Adults in Various Racial/Ethnic Groups in Average Literacy Proficiencies and Average Years of Schooling, by Age . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39

Percentages of Adults Born in the United States and in Other Countries, by Race/Ethnicity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40

Average Literacy Proficiencies, by Country of Birth and Race/Ethnicity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41

Percentages of Adults Who Reported Having a Physical, Mental, or Other Health Condition . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43

vi . . . . . . Contents

Figure 1.10 Literacy Levels and Average Literacy Proficiencies, by Type of Physical, Mental, or Other Health Condition, Compared with the Total Population . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44

Figure 1.11 Literacy Levels and Average Literacy Proficiencies, by Region and Sex . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47

Table 1.9 Percentages of Adults Born in Other Countries or Territories, and Average Years of Schooling, by Region . . . . . . . . 48

Table 1.10 Percentages of Adults in Various Demographic Groups, Prison and Total Populations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49

Figure 1.12 Literacy Levels and Average Literacy Proficiencies for the Prison and Total Populations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51

Figure 2.1 Percentages of Adults Who Voted in a National or State Election in the Past Five Years, by Literacy Level . . . . . . . . 54

Figure 2.2 Percentages of Adults Who Read the Newspaper, by Literacy Level . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55

Figure 2.3 Among Adults Who Read the Newspaper at Least Once a Week, Percentages Who Read Certain Parts, by Literacy Level . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57

Table 2.1

Among Adults Who Read the Newspaper at Least Once a Week, Average Literacy Proficiencies, by Newspaper Reading Practices . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58

Figure 2.4 Percentages of Adults Who Get Information About Current Events from Various Sources, by Literacy Level . . . . . . . 59

Figure 2.5 Percentages of Adults in Poverty, by Literacy Level . . . . . . . . . . . 61

Figure 2.6 Percentages of Adults Who Received Certain Types of Nonwage Income or Support in the Past 12 Months, by Literacy Level . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62

Figure 2.7 Percentages of Adults In and Out of the Labor Force, by Literacy Level . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63

Table 2.2 Average Literacy Proficiencies, by Labor Force Status . . . . . . . . . 64

Figure 2.8 Average Number of Weeks Worked in the Past 12 Months, by Literacy Level . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65

Figure 2.9 Median Weekly Wages, by Literacy Level . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66

Figure 2.10 Percentages of Adults in Certain Occupational Categories, by Literacy Level . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67

Figure 3.1 Probabilities of Successful Performance on Two Prose Tasks by Individuals at Selected Points on the Prose Scale . . . . . 72

Figure 3.2 Average Probabilities of Successful Performance by Individuals with Selected Proficiency Scores on the Tasks in Each Literacy Level . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 102

Contents . . . . . . vii

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