detailed records from the national assessment of infant teaching ( naal ) , reported 15 december 2005 by the us national center for education measurements , identify gains and losses in achievement against minority adults between 1992 and 2003 . the internationally representative study among us adult age 16 and older found the over - all individual prose and document comprehension remained fairly untouched , but quantitative ability improved 8 points ( on a scale of 500 . ) results among minorities were mixed , with white and asian / channel islander minorities scoring severely better than hispanic or blacks ethnicities ; black subjects in comparison had sharp decreases in english and document comprehension ( - 9 % and - 8 % , both ) and document illiteracy remained unchanged with 50 % of people graded at less than basics literacy tests .
The National Assessment of Adult Literacy is a project held by the US National Center for Education Statistics.