@article{RDM,
      recid = {14621},
      author = {National Center for Education Statistics, National  Assessment of Adult Literacy (NAAL) and National Adult  Literacy Survey (NALS)},
      title = {NCES National Assessment of Adult Literacy (NAAL) and  National Adult Literacy Survey (NALS)},
      publisher = {University of Chicago},
      address = {2025},
      number = {RDM},
      abstract = {The 2003 National Assessment of Adult Literacy is a  nationally representative assessment of English literacy  among American adults age 16 and older. Sponsored by the  National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), NAAL is  the nation's most comprehensive measure of adult literacy  since the 1992 National Adult Literacy Survey (NALS). NAAL  not only provides information on adults' literacy  performance but also on related background characteristics  that are of interest to researchers, practitioners,  policymakers, and the general public.

In 2003, over 19,000  adults participated in the national and state-level  assessments, representing the entire population of U.S.  adults who are age 16 and older, most in their homes and  some in prisons from the 50 states and the District of  Columbia. Approximately 1,200 inmates of federal and state  prisons were assessed in order to provide separate  estimates of literacy for the incarcerated  population.

NAAL includes a number of components that  capture the breadth of adult literacy in the United  States:

Background Questionnaire—helps identify the  relationships between adult literacy and select demographic  and background characteristics;
Prison Component—assesses  the literacy skills of adults in federal and state  prisons;
State Assessment of Adult Literacy (SAAL)—gives  statewide estimates of literacy for states participating in  the state-level assessment;
Health Literacy  Component—introduces the first-ever national assessment of  adults' ability to use their literacy skills in  understanding health-related materials and forms;
Fluency  Addition to NAAL (FAN)—measures basic reading skills by  assessing adults' ability to decode, recognize words, and  read with fluency; and
Adult Literacy Supplemental  Assessment (ALSA)—provides information on the ability of  the least-literate adults to identify letters and numbers  and to comprehend simple prose and documents.
This U.S.  Department of Education's National Center for Education  Statistics has released the household and prison public-use  data files for the 2003 National Assessment of Adult  Literacy and the 1992 National Adult Literacy Survey. The  accompanying 2003 National Assessment of Adult Literacy  Public-Use Data File User's Guide PDF File (1.7 MB)  explains how the data was collected and how it can be  analyzed and includes codebooks for the datasets as well as  instructions for using AM Software to analyze the  data.

Restricted use files are available with a complete  set of the variables collected on the NAAL. Users must  apply for an NCES license to access restricted data.},
      url = {http://knowledge.uchicago.edu/record/14621},
}