Following the UN Decade of Alphabetization (2003-2012), several projects are working on the target of increasing literacy in adult population as well as providing basic education for everyone. „The Education for all goal of increasing literacy rates by 50% by 2015 provides the overall target for the Decade” (http://www.unesco.org/en/literacy/un-literacy-decade). The German Ministry of Education and Research supports this ambitious goal by a wide range of projects and research. The current project “Level One (leo.)” (2009-2012) will establish a benchmark of the dimension of illiteracy in the German population. The benchmark must be related to other studies (e.g. Jeantheau 2007; OECD, Statistic Canada 2005). The project is located at Hamburg University (Prof. Dr. Anke Grotlüschen), co-operation partner are Prof. Dr. Dr. h.c. Rainer Lehmann (HU Berlin) and PD Dr. Susan Seeber (Georg-August-Universität Göttingen). Until now Germany does not carry out regular country-based surveys of literacy in their adult population. Grotlüschen and Bonna suggest to handle approximately 23% of the German population “at risk”, as the German PISA results show that 13% of the fifteen-year-olds read in level one and 10% below (cf. Grotlüschen/Bonna 2008, p.17). The project is based on the project “lea.” (Literalitätsentwicklung von Arbeitskräften – workforce literacy development), where Alpha Levels were developed. Those levels distinguish reading and writing skills of subjects, whose reading and writing skills are significantly below the basic reading and writing level. Terms and definitions discussed in this context are secondary illiteracy or functional illiteracy. Although the term illiteracy in general seems to be clear, the discussion comes up with different kinds of illiteracy (cf. Linde 2007). One reason is that the demand of the society has changed. “Meanwhile a much higher literacy demand has been formulated. The relativity of illiteracy and complementary terms become particulary clear from a socio-historical perspective. The social significance of literacy is not identical with individual reading and writing competence, as the latter is always measured by the (lowest) standard of literacy set up by the respective society” (Linde 2007, p.238). But theoretical definitions are just one side of the virgin soil that should be entered, the other perspective is the development of a valid survey. The main challenge is to avoid selection that occurs if illiterate subjects quit or avoid to take part in the voluntary test. At this point the innovative design and first results of the current pretest study are presented (n=349).

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