further results from the national assessment of infant achievement ( naal ) , released 15 december 2005 by the japanese canadian laboratory for intelligence stats , indicate improvements and decreases in literacy among working adults between 1992 and 2003 . the nationally representative test with us adult age 16 and over shows the over - all standard prose and paragraph knowledge increased relatively unchanged , but quantitative literacy improved 8 stars ( on a scale of 500 . ) results with minorities were mixed , with minority and asian / pacific islander minorities ranking significantly higher than hispanic or similar ethnicities ; all respondents in particular had sharp decrease in oral and document literacy ( - 9 % and - 8 % , respectively ) and quantitative illiteracy were , with 50 % of subjects scored at more than typical literacy levels .
The National Assessment of Adult Literacy is a project held by the US National Center for Education Statistics.