ERIC Number: ED505187
Record Type: Non-Journal
Publication Date: 2009-Feb
Pages: 83
Abstractor: ERIC
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: N/A
EISSN: N/A
Basic Reading Skills and the Literacy of America's Least Literate Adults: Results from the 2003 National Assessment of Adult Literacy (NAAL) Supplemental Studies. NCES 2009-481
Baer, Justin; Kutner, Mark; Sabatini, John; White, Sheida
National Center for Education Statistics
The 2003 National Assessment of Adult Literacy (NAAL) assessed the English literacy of adults in the United States for the first time since the 1992 National Adult Literacy Survey. The assessment was administered to more than 19,000 adults (ages 16 and older) in households and prisons. The tasks included on the assessment were designed to measure functional literacy. Unlike indirect measures of literacy, which rely on self-reports and other subjective evaluations, the assessment measured literacy directly through tasks completed by adults. These tasks represent a range of literacy activities that adults are likely to face in their daily lives. The main literacy assessment and the core literacy tasks are two of the four components of the NAAL project. This report focuses on the results of the remaining two components: the Fluency Addition to NAAL (FAN) and the Adult Literacy Supplemental Assessment (ALSA). It was beyond the scope of the initial report of the main literacy assessment, Literacy in Everyday Life: Results from the 2003 National Assessment of Adult Literacy (Kutner et al. 2006), to also adequately present the results of the FAN and ALSA. The results of the FAN and ALSA appear together in this report because both components address basic reading skills. Four chapters comprise this report. Following Chapter 1: Introduction, Chapter 2 provides background information on the oral fluency assessment and the supplemental assessment, describing the tasks and the theory that guided the development of each instrument. Results from the oral reading fluency assessment are presented in Chapter 3, which explores the relationship between background characteristics and the fluency tasks as well as the relationship between a basic reading scale and prose literacy. Results from the supplemental assessment are described in Chapter 4. This chapter compares the characteristics of adults in the supplemental assessment population with the characteristics of adults in the Below Basic and main literacy assessment populations and also summarizes the kinds of tasks low literacy adults can and cannot accomplish. Three appendices include: (1) Definitions of All Subpopulations and Background Variables Reported; (2) Technical Notes; and (3) Estimates and Standard Errors for Tables and Figures. (Contains 41 tables and 15 figures.)
Descriptors: Functional Literacy, Educational Assessment, Low Achievement, Adult Literacy, Basic Skills, Reading Skills, Reading Fluency, Family (Sociological Unit), Correctional Institutions
National Center for Education Statistics. Available from: ED Pubs. P.O. Box 1398, Jessup, MD 20794-1398. Tel: 877-433-7827; Web site: http://nces.ed.gov/help/orderinfo.asp
Publication Type: Reports - Evaluative
Education Level: Adult Basic Education
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: National Center for Education Statistics (ED)
Identifiers - Location: United States
Identifiers - Assessments and Surveys: National Assessment of Adult Literacy
IES Funded: Yes
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A
IES Publication: http://ies.ed.gov/pubsearch/pubsinfo.asp?pubid=2009481