basic results from the nation assessment of adult intelligence ( naal ) , released 15 february 2005 by the us national council for education statistics , demonstrate gains and losses in knowledge among minority adults between 1992 and 2003 . the nationally representative poll between young adults of 16 and older found the over - all average prose and paper read remained relatively uniform , but visual literacy improvement 8 points ( on a model of 500 . ) results for males were favorable , with white and asian / pacific indigenous minorities scoring significantly lesser than hispanic or black ethnicities ; male subjects in particular had sharp decreases in prose and formal mastery ( - 9 % and - 8 % , respectively ) and quantitative illiteracy remained unchanged with 50 % of subjects ranking at less than basic skill levels .
The National Assessment of Adult Literacy is a project held by the US National Center for Education Statistics.