Bridges and Barriers: Examining Skill Proficiencies Among Black Adults in the United States

• In Event: Examining U.S. Inequalities Using Program for the International Assessment of Adult Competencies Data

Abstract

Objectives or purposes
Based on a long history of institutional racism and the heterogeneity of Black adults in the U.S., exploring relationships between contextual factors and assessed information processing skill proficiencies is necessary for advancing educational equity. Therefore, this study’s purpose was to explore how associations between information processing proficiencies, demographic characteristics, education, employment, health, social trust, civic engagement, and political efficacy differ within the Black adult population in the U.S. by information processing skill levels.

Theoretical Framework
Although some K-12 educational spaces are shifting to “frame linguistic, literate, and cultural pluralism as a part of schooling for positive social transformation and revitalization,” educational policies and programs for adults are often not sites for “sustaining the cultural ways of being of communities of color” (Ferlazzo, 2017, para 4). Rhodes’ 2018 review of the literature on culturally responsive teaching in adult education found that while adult educators know the importance of understanding the identities and experiences of learners to “enhance teaching practices and curricular design,” there is little research which supports related policies and practices (p. 39).

Methods & Data Source
This exploratory secondary analysis of the 2012/2014/2017 Program for International Assessment of Adult Competencies (PIAAC), U.S. Restricted-Use File (RUF) data (National Center for Education Statistics, 2019) examines differences in information processing skill proficiencies (low, mid, vs. high levels) of Black adults in the U.S. (ages 16-74) by larger categories of key demographic and personal characteristics (see Table 1). We conducted a series of weighted descriptive statistics followed by a bivariate significance test for all combinations of the information-processing skill levels. The STATA command --- mlogit in REPEST macro was used to run simple multinomial logistic regressions with the three proficiency levels as the outcomes and each variable of interest as the predictor.

Results
Our findings (see Tables 2-4) indicate that most Black adults in the U.S. sample have mid-to-high levels of information processing skills in literacy, numeracy, and digital problem solving. Black adults with more advanced skills in the sample are younger, have fewer children, have more educated parents, and are more likely to speak English as a home language than those participants who were in the low information processing group. Black adults with higher literacy and numeracy skills are also more likely to be employed, work in careers in STEM, have higher incomes, and report higher self-rated health, social trust, and political efficacy when compared to low skill individuals. Notedly, we found that higher skills were related to a decreased likelihood of receiving the flu shot.

Scientific or scholarly significance of the study or work
If culturally sustaining policies and practices are based on supporting and advancing the plurality of identities, experiences, skills, and practices of Black adults (Alim & Paris, 2017; Rosa & Flores, 2017), then supporting scholars, policy makers, and practitioners of adult education understandings potential bridges and barriers in information skill proficiency within the Black adult population is paramount to providing and supporting equitable policies and programs.

Authors

• Leah Katherine Saal, Loyola University Maryland
  Presenting Author

• Takashi Yamashita, University of Maryland - Baltimore County
  Presenting Author

• Ramon Goings, University of Maryland - Baltimore County
  Presenting Author