Literacy in Everyday Life Results From the 2003 National Assessment

Abstract

The 2003 National Assessment of Adult Literacy (NAAL) assessed the English liter- acy 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 house- holds or prisons. Unlike indirect measures of litera- cy, which rely on self-reports and other subjective evaluations, the assessment measured literacy direct- ly through tasks completed by adults. These tasks represent a range of literacy activities that adults are likely to face in their daily lives.