Adult Education

Six percent of people in their early 20's read below the 4th-grade level, the federally funded study found, and 5 percent cannot perform such "routine or uncomplicated tasks" as filling out a job application or totaling two entries on a bank-deposit slip.

Most people who took adult-education classes in 1981 did so for job-related reasons, and nearly half took their additional courses in the fields of business, health, or engineering, according to a new report from the National Center for Education Statistics (nces).

And, the study shows, more people took adult-education classes in 1981 than in 1978, when the last such survey was done.