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What’s the adult L&N story?

What’s the adult L&N story?. The results from international assessments of adult literacy and numeracy skills Juliette Mendelovits CEET 17th Annual National Conference Friday 1 November 2013 Monash Conference Centre, Melbourne. A literacy deficit.

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What’s the adult L&N story?

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  1. What’s the adult L&N story? The results from international assessments of adult literacy and numeracy skills Juliette Mendelovits CEET 17th Annual National Conference Friday 1 November 2013 Monash Conference Centre, Melbourne

  2. A literacy deficit • Half of all adults in Tasmania cannot read or write properly, and many of their children are following in their footsteps as badly needed school reforms are frustrated. Sarah Dingle investigates. • A report by the Australian Bureau of Statistics for 2011-2012 shows half of all Tasmanians aged 15 to 74 are functionally illiterate, and more than half are functionally innumerate—meaning they don’t have the skills needed to get by in the modern world, like filling out forms, or reading the instructions on their prescription. • ABC Radio National, Background Briefing, Sunday 22 September 2013

  3. What’s behind the headlines?

  4. Tasmanian 'illiteracy' and 'innumeracy' levels 15 to 74 year olds 2006 - ALLS Document literacy Numeracy 2011-12 PIAAC Literacy Numeracy

  5. Australian 'illiteracy' and 'innumeracy' levels Document literacy Numeracy Literacy Numeracy

  6. According to ALLs [and PIAAC?] About 50% of Australian adults are functionally illiterate and innumerate Howcan this be true?

  7. What does ‘below Level 3’ mean? • According to the international ALLS reports, Level 3 is • ‘a suitable minimum level for coping with the increasing demands of the emerging knowledge society and information economy’

  8. A Level 2 literacy item from PIAAC Level 2 literacy description (226 to 275 points) At this level, the medium of texts may be digital or printed, and texts may comprise continuous, non-continuous, or mixed types. Tasks at this level require respondents to make matches between the text and information, and may require paraphrasing or low-level inferences. Some competing pieces of information may be present. Some tasks require the respondent to • cycle through or integrate two or more pieces of information based on criteria; • compare and contrast or reason about information requested in the question; or • navigate within digital texts to access and identify information from various parts of a document.

  9. A Level 3 numeracy item from PIAAC Level 3 numeracy description (276 to 325 points) Tasks at this level require the respondent to understand mathematical information that may be less explicit, embedded in contexts that are not always familiar and represented in more complex ways. Tasks require several steps and may involve the choice of problem-solving strategies and relevant processes. Tasks tend to require the application of number sense and spatial sense; recognising and working with mathematical relationships, patterns, and proportions expressed in verbal or numerical form; and interpretation and basic analysis of data and statistics in texts, tables and graphs.

  10. PIAAC: an overview • The Programme for the International Assessment of Adult Competencies (PIAAC) • An international survey of adults 16-64 years of age (15 to 74 year olds in Australia) • Commissioned by the OECD, implemented internationally by a consortium led by Educational Testing Service (ETS) (USA) • Administered in Australia by the ABS • Measures the domains of • literacy (reading) • numeracy • problem solving in technology-rich environments (PSTRE) • Modes of administration • paper and pen • computer • Administered in 25 OECD countries (including Australia) and sub-national entities in 2011-12 • Comparable with the results of the Adult Literacy and Life Skills Survey ??

  11. Results from PIAACMeans for Australia and selected participating countries Level 2: 226 to 275 points Level 3:276 to 325 points

  12. Results from PIAAC% at each literacy level for Australia and selected participating countries

  13. Construction of the literacy and numeracy reporting Scales

  14. Items and test-takersare placed on the same scale | | X| | X| 2 XX| XX|7 XX| XXX|34 XXX|19 XXXX|23 1 XXXXXX|12 XXXXXX| XXXXX|11 22 XXXXXX|26 27 33 XXXXXXX|10 14 30 32 XXXXXXX|2 5 20 0 XXXXXXXX|1 4 6 21 29 XXXXXXXXXX|8 16 XXXXXXX|9 31 XXXXXXXXX|3 XXXXXXXX|18 25 XXXXXXXX|13 -1 XXXXXXX|15 XXXXXXXX| XXXXXX| XXXXXXX| XXXX|24 XXXX| -2 XXXXX| XXX|28 XX|17 XX| XX| X| -3 X| X| X| | HighAchievers Difficult items Low Achievers Easy items

  15. Relationship between difficulty of assessment items and proficiency of adults

  16. Anchoring of tests • The Rasch model derives comparable scores for two different assessments via the inclusion of 'anchor' items. • Anchoring can be used: • across test forms (e.g. Rotated designs) • across populations (e.g. Different countries) • across time (e.g. Different Adult literacy cycles – ALLS and PIAAC)

  17. Example of anchoring between two populations of different ability Different tests Common items Same Scale!

  18. A map of item difficulty and test-takers’ proficiency

  19. Once items and adultsare placed on the samescale, proficiency levels are defined | | X| | X| 2 XX| XX|7 XX| XXX|34 XXX|19 XXXX|23 1 XXXXXX|12 XXXXXX| XXXXX|11 22 XXXXXX|26 27 33 XXXXXXX|10 14 30 32 XXXXXXX|2 5 20 0 XXXXXXXX|1 4 6 21 29 XXXXXXXXXX|8 16 XXXXXXX|9 31 XXXXXXXXX|3 XXXXXXXX|18 25 XXXXXXXX|13 -1 XXXXXXX|15 XXXXXXXX| XXXXXX| XXXXXXX| XXXX|24 XXXX| -2 XXXXX| XXX|28 XX|17 XX| XX| X| -3 X| X| X| | Level 5 PIAAC literacy Level 4 • Tasks at this level often require respondents to perform multiple-step operations to integrate, interpret, or synthesise information from complex or lengthy continuous, non-continuous, mixed, or multiple type texts. ... Level 4 Level 3 PIAAC literacy Level 2 ... Tasks at this level require respondents to make matches between the text and information, and may require paraphrasing or low-level inferences. Some competing pieces of information may be present. . ... Level 2 PIAAC literacy Level 1 • Most of the tasks at this level require the respondent to read relatively short digital or print continuous, non-continuous, or mixed texts to locate a single piece of information. ... Level 1 Below Level 1

  20. Described literacy levels from PIAAC Level 2 • ... Tasks at this level require respondents to make matches between the text and information, and may require paraphrasing or low-level inferences. Some competing pieces of information may be present. . ...

  21. What does Piaac tell us about the distribution of Australians’ skills?

  22. Sex and skillsAustralians aged 15 to 74

  23. Employment and skillsAustralians aged 15 to 74

  24. So what about the headlines?

  25. How can all of this be true? PISA According to PISA About 15% of Australian 15-year-olds are below the required standard of reading and maths ALLS According to NAPLAN about 6% of Australian Year 9 students are below the required standard of literacy and numeracy NAPLAN According to ALLS about 50% of Australian adults are below the minimum standard of literacy and numeracy

  26. Comparability of scales? • A project sponsored by the Victorian Department of Education and Early Childhood Development and the Australian Council for Education Research • Preliminary findings: • Literacy

  27. Questions?

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