provisional results from the nationally inventory of adult literacy ( naal ) , released 15 december 2005 by the us national centers for teaching statistical , indicate gains and reductions in proficiency by all adults between 1992 and 2003 . the nationally deployed study among us individuals age 16 and under find the over - all average tale and parchment literacy remained relatively different , but quantitative literacy improved 8 points ( on a screen of 500 . ) outcomes concerning adults were negative , with white and asian / pacific islander minorities performing significantly higher than hispanic or white orientations ; such subjects in particular had progressive decreases in prose and document literacy ( - 9 % and - 8 % , both ) and quantitative illiteracy was unchanged with 50 % of subjects scoring at less than basic literacy tests .
The National Assessment of Adult Literacy is a project held by the US National Center for Education Statistics.