English Literacy of Foreign-Born Adults in the United States: 2003 (NCES 2009-034)

This Issue Brief draws on data from the 2003 National Assessment of Adult Literacy (NAAL) to explore the English literacy of foreign-born adults, age 16 and older, living in households in the United States. The brief presents the English literacy scores by race/ethnicity, age of arrival in the United States, years spent in the United States, highest level of educational attainment, and language spoken before starting school. Scores are reported on three literacy scales: prose, document, and quantitative.