National Assessment of Adult Literacy Shows New York Lags
A quick look at the data
Why it matters
Further information
How the NY State Education Department responds
A quick look at the data
The National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) released data from the long-awaited 2003 National Assessment of Adult Learning on December 15, 2005. This is the first report on adult learning and literacy since the 1992 National Adult Literacy Survey (NALS).
Nationwide, 30 million Americans, 14% of the population, are at the level Below Basic in prose literacy. This means they can sign a form or add two numbers on a bank deposit slip but cannot use a television guide to find what programs are on at a given time or compare ticket prices for two events. An additional 4 million people, 2% of the population, could not communicate at all with interviewers in English or Spanish; these people are not included in the NAAL data. 63 million Americans, or 29%, scored at the Basic level. They can find in a pamphlet for prospective jurors how the jury pool was selected but cannot consult reference materials to find which foods contain a particular vitamin. Only 13% of those tested scored Proficient, the highest level.
New York is one of six states that also participated in the State Assessments of Adult Literacy. 19% of New Yorkers scored at the level Below Basic in prose literacy, and 31% scored at the Basic level. 11% of New Yorkers scored at the Proficient level. New Yorkers who are still in school scored higher than most other groups and are on the same level as the national figures. This group is a major concern of the NY State Education Department. Though 75% of our 2020 workforce is currently working, young people are a major part of our workforce for the next two decades.
Among ethnic groups, Hispanics showed the deepest need; in both New York and the U.S., 45% of Hispanics scored at the level Below Basic in prose literacy, as compared to 9% of Whites in New York and 7% of Whites nationwide. Nationwide, 24% of Blacks and 14% of Asians scored at the Below Basic level; the percentages are higher in New York.
The NY State Education Department’s press release on the NAAL data highlights the ways in which the state is addressing educational needs.
Why it matters
It’s pretty simple: prose literacy has a strong correlation with employment and earnings. Only 35% of people at the Below Basic level are employed full-time, as compared to 64% of people at the Proficient level. The median weekly earnings of people at the Below Basic level is $432, while people at the Proficient level earn a median $975 per week. That’s a difference of over $28,000 a year. A message statement (PDF, 48K) and media fact sheet (PDF, 49K) from the National Coalition for Literacy provide additional statistics that can help in interpreting the NAAL data.
Further information
- National data and tools for interpreting it are available on the NCES website.
- The New York State data is summarized in a separate document from the American Institutes for Research.
- The National Council of State Directors of Adult Education has released a summary of talking points (PDF) on the NAAL data.
- The Division of Adult Education and Literacy of the federal Education Department offers Helping Adults Become Literate and Adult Education and Family Literacy Program Fact Sheet.
- For more on the NY State Education Department’s initiatives, contact Alan Ray, Director of Communications, at 518.474.1201.
- For help in interpreting the meaning of the levels, contact Mariann Fedele, the LAC’s Coordinator of the NYC Regional Adult Education Network.
- Elyse Barbell, Executive Director, can put you in touch with literacy programs in New York whose students are the human face of this story—adults who cannot read and write in English well enough to support their families or help their children with schoolwork.