Basic Reading Skills and the Literacy of America's Least Literate Adults. Results from the 2003 National Assessment of Adult Literacy (NAAL) Supplemental Studies

摘要

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.