Interesting Links

American Adults

2019 Report by the U.S. Department of Education: "Data Point: Adult Literacy in the United States"

• Uses 2014 data

• Link to PDF on U.S. government website

Highlights of PIAAC 2017 U.S. Results (Program for the International Assessment of Adult Competencies)

• Uses data from 2012, 2014, and 2017

• PIAAC Data Explorer (United States results)

• Link to report on National Center for Education Statistics website

• Archived version of page

Adult Literacy: Fast Facts by the Nation Center for Education Statistics

• Uses data from 2012, 2014, and 2017

• Fast facts version of NCES data for easy reference

OECD Skills Studies: Additional Results from the Survey of Adult Skills

• Report of Survey by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development

• "The Survey of Adult Skills (PIAAC) assesses the proficiency of adults from the age of 16 to 65 years in literacy, numeracy and problem solving in technology-rich environments"

• U.S. has slightly better literacy than the global average

• U.S. has much worse numeracy proficiency than the global average

• Link to PDF on oecd.org

OECD United States Profile: Education GPS

• Lots of OECD U.S. information in one place with links to reports

• Link to page

ADULT LITERACY in America by the National Center for Education Statistics

• April 2002 report, Uses data from 1992

• "Twenty-one to 23 percent — or some 40 to 44 million of the 191 million adults in this country — demonstrated skills in the lowest level of prose, document, and quantitative proficiencies (Level 1)"

• Link to report [PDF]

"A First Look at the Literacy of America’s Adults in the 21st Century" by the National Center for Education Statistics

• Uses 1992 and 2003 data

• "Only 31 percent of college graduates have “proficient” prose literacy"

• Link to report [PDF]

U.S. PIAAC Skills Map: State and County Indicators of Adult Literacy and Numeracy

• Interactive map with state and county-specific data

• Link to map

The following two maps show the percentage of people in each country or score at or below Level 1 for Literacy and Numeracy. Screenshots taken on October 16, 2021 at https://nces.ed.gov/surveys/piaac/skillsmap/

American Children

NAEP Long-Term Trend Assessment Results: Reading and Mathematics

• 2020 data for reading and math

• Measures 8 and 13-year-olds

• Link to page on nationsreportcard.gov

• Archived version of page (October 16, 2021)

Results from the 2019 Mathematics and Reading Assessments at Grade 12

• Uses 2019 data

• Measures Grade 12

• Link to PDF on nationsreportcard.gov

Nation's Report Card: ​HOW DID U.S. STUDENTS PERFORM ON THE MOST RECENT ASSESSMENTS?

• Quick overview of recent assessments of American students

• Link to page

• Link to archive

• Picture below for reference. Notice the numbers indicate the percent of students who are proficient. The rest are NOT proficient.