Literacy - Race, Ethnicity, & Immigration

What did the 2003 National Assessment of Adult Literacy find with regard to literacy, and race/ethnicity? First, here are the statistics:

Performance in 2003

• Prose: Whites had the highest scores followed by Asians/Pacific Islanders, Blacks, and Hispanics
• Document: Whites and Asians/Pacific Islanders had the highest scores followed by Blacks and Hispanics
• Quantitative: Whites had the highest scores followed by Asians/Pacific Islanders, and both Blacks and Hispanics

Changes between 1992 and 2003

• White Adults

·       Up 9 points in quantitative

• Black Adults

·       Up 6 points in prose, 8 points in document, and 16 points in quantitative

• Hispanic Adults

·       Down 18 points in prose and 14 points in document

• Asian/Pacific Islander Adults

·       Up 16 points in prose

While the population percentage of Black and White Americans did not change significantly between 1992 and 2003, the percentage of Asians/Pacific Islanders rose by 2%, and Hispanics by 4%.

The NAAL did not measure Native American’s in its study, but

data from the National Congress of American Indians indicates that American Indians and Alaska Natives are affected in disproportionately large numbers compared to all other groups. They are at an educational disadvantage at every stage of schooling through high school and their high school dropout rate is higher than all other groups as well (National Commission on Adult Literacy).

The Immigration Issue

Why do we see such low literacy skills in the Hispanic population, where Hispanics account for 39% of Americans with Below Basic literacy skills? [1]As the Report of the National Literacy Commission states, “currently, one-third of foreign-born adults, and 44 percent of Hispanic Americans, do not have a high school diploma” (By 2030, the Hispanic share of the population is expected to rise to 20%).

Every year, almost two million immigrants come to the United States from all over the world to seek job opportunities and better lives for their families…But low literacy levels, as well as a lack of high school education and English language skills, severely hinder up to one million of these immigrants in their attempts to earn family-sustaining wages (National Commission of Adult Literacy).

For more information, please visit:

The National Assessment of Adult Literacy.
Report of The National Commission of Adult Literacy 

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[1] Although the NAAL text analysis was always in English, the questions administered could be asked in English or Spanish.