Adult Education English As a First Language: Can U.S. Adults Read? by Tom Sticht

How Well Can U.S. Adults Read? Government-Centered vs. Learner-Centered Estimates
Monday, February 23, 2004
Tom Sticht

The 1992 National Assessment of Adult Literacy (NALS) tested a representative sample of adults 16 years of age and older on three tests of literacy: Prose, Document, and Quantitative. Scores on each test were divided into five levels of literacy, with Level 1 being the lowest level and Levels 4 and 5 the highest levels. Results on the three types of tests were very similar so only the data for the Prose test are used here.

Using the Prose test, some 21 percent (40+ million) of U. S. adults were placed in Level 1 and 27 percent (50+ million) in Level 2. These two lower levels included almost half (47-48 percent) of the adults in the U. S. and this was the basis for a Press Release of 8 September 1993 from the U. S. Department of Education with the headline LITERACY LEVELS DEFICIENT FOR 90 MILLION U. S. ADULTS.

Interestingly, the Press Release went on to say, "…most of these adults describe themselves as being able to read or write English "well" or "very well." The Press Release goes on to quote Secretary of Education Richard W. Riley making the extraordinary statement: "It paints a picture of a society in which the vast majority of Americans do not know that they do not have the skills they need to earn a living in our increasingly technological society and international marketplace."

Over the decade from 1992 up to the present, numerous reports using the data for adults on the Prose, Document and Quantitative tests have appeared and the NALS methodology was also used in developing the International Adult Literacy Survey (IALS) which was eventually administered in over 20 nations. For the U. S. a subset of the NALS data for 16 to 65 year olds were used in the IALS. Like the NALS, the IALS used the three literacy tests as their primary means of literacy assessment, and they also used self-ratings of how well adults thought they read. And again, as with the NALS, the IALS research has lead to many reports about the percentages of adults in various nations with "deficient" literacy skills using the test data, but almost no attention has been given to the self-rating data presented in the technical reports.

The present paper brings together data from analyses of the respondents to the Prose test in various reports from the NALS and IALS in a summary manner regarding how well adults in the U.S. think they read. These data reveal some interesting and important differences among adults in the U.S. in their beliefs about their reading skills. The data are summarized below in a number of questions and answers.

Q1: How many adults 16 years of age and above in the U. S. think they read English "well" or "very well?" A1: 93 percent thought they read "well" or "very well’ while 7 percent (13.4 million) thought their reading was deficient. This differs greatly from the government’s estimate of 90 million adults with deficient reading skills based on its standardized tests.

Q2: How many adults 16-65 years of age think their reading skills meet their DAILY needs for reading "moderately well" "good," or "excellently"? A2: 94 percent "moderately," "good," or "excellently;" 87 percent "good" or "excellently."

:Q3: How many adults 16-65 years of age think their reading skills meet their main JOB needs "moderately well," "good," or "excellently"? A3: 94 percent "moderately," "good," or "excellently;" 87 percent "good" or "excellently."

Q4: How many adults 16-65 years of age think their reading skills "are not at all limiting" "somewhat limiting" or "greatly limiting" of their job opportunities? A4: 87 percent "not at all limiting," 9 percent "somewhat limiting," 4 percent "greatly limiting."

Q5: How many adults aged 16-59 who were White, Black, or Hispanic thought they read English "well" or "very well?" A5: Whites, 98 percent, Blacks, 94 percent, Hispanics, 68 percent.

Q6: How many adults aged 60 years or age or higher who were White, Black, or Hispanic thought they read English "well" or "very well?" A6: Whites, 95, Blacks, 83, Hispanics, 54 percent.

Q7: How many prison inmates thought they read English "well" or "very well." A7: 88 percent.

Q8: How many adults age 16 years or higher said they got "a lot" or "some/none" help with completing literacy forms of some sort? A8: 12 percent "a lot," 88 percent "some/none."

Clearly, the government’s test-based estimates of adult reading/literacy skills differ considerably from the adult population’s experience-based estimates of their reading/literacy skills.

http://www.educationnews.org/howwellcanu.htm