Age, Education, and Literacy Skills of Adult Mississippians

This study examined the literacy skills of 1791 black and white Mississippi residents aged 16 to 75, with varying levels of education. Using a new literacy test developed by the Educational Testing Service (ETS), three kinds of literacy were assessed: prose literacy, document literacy, and quantitative literacy. Results revealed that very few Mississippians were totally illiterate, but that the level of literacy was associated with education, age, and race. Within age groups, educated persons scored higher than less educated persons. However, both highly-educated and little-educated older persons scored lower on all three measures of literacy than equally educated younger persons.