NAAL 2003: National Assessment of Adult Literacy in the United States

National Assessment of Adult Literacy 2003 (NAAL 2003) is a cross-sectional study of English literacy among American adults aged 16 and older. The assessment collected data from approximately 19,000 adults in households and prisons across all 50 states and the District of Columbia. Key statistics produced include reading skills, general literacy relationships, demographics, and background characteristics.

Use Cases

• Modeling literacy skill levels based on demographic and background characteristics mentioned in the description.
• Analyzing correlations between literacy and demographic factors like age or location.
• Comparing literacy outcomes between household and prison inmate populations sampled in the study.
• Investigating the relationship between general literacy and reading skills as key statistics.

Strengths

• Data collected from a large, nationally representative sample of approximately 19,000 adults.
• Includes a specific sub-population with a high response rate of 88.3% for prison inmates.
• Covers all 50 U.S. states and the District of Columbia, providing broad geographic coverage.

Limitations

• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Last update date is unknown; freshness unverified.
• The license is listed as 'closed', which may restrict usage.

Provenance

Source

National Assessment of Adult Literacy (NAAL) program, likely administered by the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES).

Collection Method

Direct assessment conducted in homes and prisons.

Time Range

2003

Freshness

Data collection occurred in 2003; the dataset is a historical snapshot.

Geography

United States (50 states and District of Columbia)