partial results from the national assess of youth literacy ( naal ) , issued 15 december 2005 by the us national center for education statistics , indicates gained and losses in literacy by minority adults between 1992 and 2003 . the nationally representative study of hispanic adults under 16 and older found the over - all individual essay and document communication still relatively inconsistent , but quantitative literacy reduced 8 points ( on a scale of 500 . ) studies among minorities were mixed , with mixed and hispanic / pacific islanders minorities grading significantly different than hispanic or black ethnicities ; hispanic subject in response had sharp decreases in prose and document literacy ( - 9 % and - 8 % , respectively ) and measured illiteracy were inconsistent with 50 % of subjects scoring at higher than basic literacy levels .
The National Assessment of Adult Literacy is a project held by the US National Center for Education Statistics.