National Adult Literacy Assessment of 19,000 U.S. Adults and Prisoners, 2003

19,000 adults aged 16 and older participated in this direct assessment of English literacy, conducted in homes and prisons across the 50 states and District of Columbia. The National Assessment of Adult Literacy (NAAL) 2003 study collected data on reading skills, general literacy, relationships, demographics, and background characteristics. Weighted response rates were 62.1% for households and 88.3% for prison inmates.

Use Cases

• Analyze relationships between demographic characteristics and general literacy scores.
• Model reading skills based on background characteristics collected from the assessment.
• Compare literacy outcomes between household and prison inmate populations using weighted response rates.
• Investigate correlations between background characteristics and specific literacy domains.

Strengths

• Large sample size of 19,000 assessed adults.
• Nationally representative coverage across 50 states and the District of Columbia.
• Includes distinct population samples from households and prisons with documented response rates (62.1% and 88.3%).

Limitations

• Data is from a single cross-sectional year (2003) and is temporally stale.
• No column-level metadata or sample data is provided to understand specific variables.
• Household response rate of 62.1% may introduce non-response bias.

Provenance

Source

Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics (NCES).

Collection Method

Direct assessment conducted in homes and prisons.

Time Range

2003.

Freshness

Last updated 2023-08-13, but underlying data is from 2003.

Geography

United States (50 states and District of Columbia).