FROM NCES:
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/
~Nicolle
steffen_n@cde.state.co.us