EDUCATION INDICATORS: An International Perspective

Technical Notes for Indicator 10

Below is a description of the three literacy scales in the International Adult Literacy Survey and the tasks required at each proficiency level. This description is taken directly from the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development and Statistics Canada, Literacy, Economy, and Society: Results of the first International Adult Literacy Survey, 1995, pages 30-49.

Prose literacy includes text from newspapers, magazines, and brochures accompanied by one or more questions or directives asking the reader to perform specific tasks. These tasks represent three major aspects of information-processing: locating, integrating, and generating. Locating tasks require the reader to find information in the text based on conditions or features specified in the question or directive. Integrating tasks ask the reader to pull together two or more pieces of information in the text. In the generating tasks, readers must produce a written response by processing information from the text and also by making text-based inferences or drawing on their own background knowledge.

Prose Level 1 (Difficulty values 0-225). Most of the tasks at this level require the reader to locate and match a single piece of information in the text that is identical or synonymous to the information given in the directive. If a plausible incorrect answer is present in the text, it tends not to be near the correct information.

Prose Level 2 (Difficulty values 226-275). Tasks at this level tend to require the reader to locate one or more pieces of information in the text, but several distracters may be present, or low-level inferences may be required. Tasks at this level also begin to ask readers to integrate two or more pieces of information, or to compare and contrast information.

Prose Level 3 (Difficulty values 276-325). Tasks at this level tend to direct readers to search texts to match information that require low-level inferences or that meet specified conditions. Sometimes the reader is required to identify several pieces of information that are located in different sentences or paragraphs rather than in a single sentence. Readers may also be asked to integrate or to compare and contrast information across paragraphs or sections of text.

Prose Level 4 (Difficulty values 326-375). These tasks require readers to perform multiple-feature matching or to provide several responses where the requested information must be identified through text-based inferences. Tasks at this level may also require the reader to integrate or contrast pieces of information, sometimes presented in relatively lengthy texts. Typically, these texts contain more distracting information and the inference that is requested is more abstract.

Prose Level 5 (Difficulty values 376-500). Some tasks at this level require the reader to search for information in dense text that contains a number of plausible distracters. Some require readers to make high-level inferences or use specialized knowledge.

Document literacy involves using materials such as tables, schedules, charts, graphs, maps, and forms. Questions or directives associated with the various document tasks are basically of four types: locating, cycling, integrating, and generating. Locating, integrating, and generating refer to the same skills in document literacy as in prose literacy. Cycling tasks require the reader to locate and match one or more features of information, but differ from locating tasks because they require the reader to engage in a series of feature matches to satisfy conditions given in the question.

Document Level 1 (Difficulty values 0-225). Most of the tasks at this level require the reader to locate a piece of information based on a literal match. Distracting information, if present, is typically located away from the correct answer. Some tasks may direct the reader to enter personal information onto a form.

Document Level 2 (Difficulty values 226-275). Document tasks at this level are a bit more varied. While some still require the reader to match on a single feature, more distracting information may be present or the match may require a low-level inference. Some tasks at this level may require the reader to enter information onto a form or to cycle through information in a document.

Document Level 3 (Difficulty values 276-325). Tasks at this level appear to be most varied. Some require the reader to make literal or synonymous matches, but usually the matches require the reader to take conditional information into account or to match on multiple features of information.

Document Level 4 (Difficulty values 326-375). Tasks at this level, like those in the previous levels, ask the reader to match on multiple features of information, to cycle through documents, and to integrate information; frequently, however, these tasks require the reader to make higher order inferences to arrive at the correct answer. Sometimes conditional information is present in the document, which must be taken into account by the reader.

Document Level 5 (Difficulty values 376-500). Tasks at this level require the reader to search through complex displays of information that contain multiple distracters, to make high-level inferences, process conditional information, or use specialized knowledge.

Quantitative literacy involves using numbers and arithmetic operations to complete a task. These numbers often must be located and extracted from different types of documents that contain similar but irrelevant information, be inferred from printed directions, or undergo multiple operations.

Quantitative Level 1 (Difficulty values 0-225). Although no quantitative tasks used in the International Adult Literacy Survay (IALS) fall below the score value of 225, experience suggests that such tasks would require the reader to perform a single, relatively simple operation (usually addition) for which either the numbers are already entered onto the given document and the operation is stipulated, or the numbers are provided and the operation does not require the reader to borrow.

Quantitative Level 2 (Difficulty values 226-275). Tasks at this level typically require readers to perform a single arithmetic operation (frequently addition or subtraction) using numbers that are easily located in the text or document. The operation to be performed may be easily inferred from the wording of the question or the format of the material (for example, a bank deposit form or an order form).

Quantitative Level 3 (Difficulty values 276-325). Tasks at this level typically require the reader to perform a single operation. However, the operations become more variedsome multiplication and division tasks are found in this level. Sometimes two or more numbers are needed to solve the problem and the numbers are frequently embedded in more complex displays. While semantic relation terms such as "how many" or "calculate the difference" are often used, some of the tasks require the reader to make higher order inferences to determine the appropriate operation.

Quantitative Level 4 (Difficulty values 326-375). With one exception, the tasks at this level require the reader to perform a single arithmetic operation where typically either the quantities or the operation are not easily determined. That is, for most of the tasks at this level, the question or directive does not provide a semantic relation term such as "how many" or "calculate the difference" to help the reader.

Quantitative Level 5 (Difficulty values 376-500). These tasks require readers to perform multiple operations sequentially; they must pull out the features of the problem from the material provided or rely on background knowledge to determine the quantities or operations needed.