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Responsible organization(s)
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NCES
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Statistics Canada (the international coordinating body), working with a steering
group that included NCES
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Goals
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To provide data on English literacy of American adults
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To provide data on internationally comparable literacy of adults in participating
countries
|
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Fundamental nature of assessment
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Uses texts in their original form that are typically encountered in everyday life
of adults in the United States
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Uses texts that have been identified as suitable for use across countries. Thus,
they may have been modified or simplified for comparability
|
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Domains assessed
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Prose, document, and quantitative literacy; includes the first-ever health literacy
measure
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Prose and document literacy, numeracy
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Sample size (completed exercises)
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19,714
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3,420 in the United States
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Ages in sample
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16 and older (no upper limit)
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16-65
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Target population
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Adults age 16 and older residing in households and prisons
1
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Adults 16-65 years old residing in households and group quarters (e.g., halfway
houses or homeless shelters)
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Block/booklet design
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Each respondent receives three 15-minute blocks, and each block contains a few items
from each of the three scales (prose, document, and quantitative), including health
related items
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Each respondent receives two 30-minute blocks, and each block contains items from
either prose/document literacy, or numeracy
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Scoring
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Partial-credit scoring (22 new items; 5 items from 1992)
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Correct or incorrect
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1 NAAL
provides a measure of the literacy skills of the prison population separately from
the overall population.
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