ASSIGNMENT

Assignment 2



Assignment 2

CHATPER 4: QUNATITAIVE FINDINGS

I analyze both quantitative and qualitative data in order to study the effects of earning a GED in prison. The quantitative data I employ in this chapter is helpful in allowing me to examine the literacy scores of prisoners who have received a GED in prison versus prisoners who are high school dropouts without the degree. In Chapter 4, I use interviews to shed light on the quantitative findings of this chapter. The data set I use, the National Assessment of Adult Literacy (NAAL), does not record data regarding recidivism and employment history post-release. Given this, in my quantitative analysis I examine the relationship between literacy and the GED earned in prison. Studying literacy, rather than recidivism and employment outcomes, allows me to judge the capacity of GED programs to improve the skills of the prison population. The NAAL data allows me to study a larger sample of prisoners than I was able to examine in the interviews I conducted.

Additionally, the data contains detailed information on literacy test scores and allows me to control for a rich list of demographic and behavioral variables The data I employ come from the NAAL, which aims to measure the English literacy of adults in the United States. The NAAL was first administered in 1992 and only collected information from “household samples.” However, the second NAAL included both adults living in households (99 percent of the sample weighted) and a separate sample of adults housed in federal and state prisons (1 percent of the sample weighted). The literacy assessments and interviews were conducted on laptop computers with computer-assisted personal interviewing systems (CAPI) in households for the nonprison/ household population and were conducted in prison classrooms and libraries for the prison population.

Each respondent had to answer a 35-minute background questionnaire followed by seven literacy tasks (DOE 2003). The prison background questionnaire was meant to collect contextualizing data about the prisoners' backgrounds and experiences in prison. The NAAL aims to measure three main forms of literacy: prose, document, and quantitative. These dimensions of literacy are described in greater detail below. The prison population surveyed came from state and federal adult correctional facilities in Alaska, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Rhode Island and Vermont. 107 different prisons agreed to participate, and of the 1,298 randomly selected inmates from these prisons, 1,125 inmates completed at least one of the literacy measure scales. The prison sample had a final response rate of 87.2% (DOE 2003).

The National Assessment of Adult Literacy Survey data is a particularly unique and helpful quantitative data set because the majority of data from studies conducted in prison are sealed after the study has been completed. Because prisoners are considered a protected group, their privacy is stringently protected. Often, participation in prison studies is dependent upon the study data being sealed post-completion. Survey data involving prisoners is rarely made fully available to the public in its raw form. However, the NAAL prison sample is relatively large and is made available ...