Today (January 8,2009), the NationalCenter for Education Statistics (NCES) released the

National Assessment of Adult Literacy: Indirect County and State

Estimates of the Percentage of Adults at the Lowest Literacy Level for

1992 and 2003, which provides estimates on the percentage of adults -

for all states and counties in the U.S. - who lack basic prose literacy

skills.  The study provides data for 2003 and 1992. This new data is

currently the only available snapshot of adult literacy rates for

individual states and counties.

To produce this study, NCES gathered data from the 2003 National

Assessment of Adult Literacy (NAAL), a nationally representative sample

of more than 19,000 Americans age 16 and older, and the 2000 Census,

which provided "predictor variables" such as education and income.

NAAL data were correlated with the predictor variables to see if there

was a pattern among them. From this information, a model was

established.  Using the model, estimates were predicted for areas where

there were not sufficient assessment data.  The same approach was also

applied to the 1992 National Adult Literacy Survey (NALS), so changes

from 1992 to 2003 can be examined.

The report is accompanied by an interactive web tool, which shows the

percentage of adults lacking Basic Prose Literacy Skills for all states

and counties. In addition to allowing users to view adult literacy

percentages for any given state, the web tool also allows for

comparisons to be made between two states, two counties in the same

state, two counties in different states, across years for a state, and

across years for a county.

The report can be found at:

http://nces.ed.gov/pubsearch/pubsinfo.asp?pubid=2009482

The Interactive Web Tool can be accessed at:

http://nces.ed.gov/naal/estimates/index.aspx