1 IASSIST, 2003 T. Scott Murray Statistics Canada May, 2003 Literacy and Numeracy: How does it add up?

2 Literacy and numeracy: Skills as modes of adult behavior: Literacy is defined as the ability to understand and employ printed information in daily activities - at home, at work and in the community – to achieve one’s goals and to develop one’s knowledge and potential IALS measured two forms of reading literacy: Prose literacy: the knowledge and skills needed to understand and use information from texts including editorials, news stories, brochures and instructional materials. Document literacy: the knowledge and skills required to locate and use information contained in various formats, including job applications, payroll forms, transportation schedules, maps, tables and charts.

3 Literacy and numeracy: Skills and as modes of adult behavior (Cont’d): Numeracy is defined as the knowledge and skills required to effectively manage the mathematical demands of diverse situations The IALS study measured a sub-domain of numeracy: Quantitative literacy – the knowledge and skills required to apply arithmetic operations, either alone or sequentially, to numbers embedded in printed materials, such as balancing a cheque book, figuring out a tip, completing an order form or determining the amount of interest on a loan from an advertisement.

4 Determinants of the Relative Difficulty of Adult Reading Tasks Relative task difficulty depends upon: Characteristics of Text Readability e.g. Vocabulary Sentence length Processes/Characteristics of the Task Type of Match Locate Cycle Integrate Generate Plausibility of distractors Type of information Formulate variables Type of calculation Operation specificity

5 Lifelong Learning... Learning is a lifelong process by which individuals acquire knowledge and skills that they use to adapt to the changing environment and for personal and societal benefit. Lifewide Lifelong

6 Birth Childhood Youth Adult Older Adult Retirement FamilySchoolingWorkParenting Lifelong: Key Stages

7 Looking across the lifecycle: what have we learned?

8 Children

9 Outcomes - Not Risk Development across ages Development across outcomes: learning and behaviour

10 Vulnerability Vulnerable children have poor outcomes for their age which jeopardize their future development. The NLSCY index of vulnerability sets thresholds for learning and behaviour outcomes. A child is considered vulnerable if one or more learning or behaviour outcome is below the threshold. Children may experience short episodes or prolonged periods of vulnerability.

11 Behaviour and Learning Results from the Vulnerability Index illustrate that % of Canadian children aged 0-11 have no identifiable behaviour or learning problems. 27.6% have at least one identifiable learning or behavioural problem. 1.2 million children between the ages 0-11 nationwide were vulnerable in Source: NLSCY, Cycle 2 At least one Learning or Behavioural Problem 72.4% 27.6% No Problems Vulnerability Status Percentage of children aged 0-11

12 Vulnerable % 56.2% 71.9% 28.9% 28.1% 14.9% 15.7% 13.2% Vulnerability Is Not a Permanent State for Most Children Newly Vulnerable Positive Development Resilient Long term Vulnerable Not Vulnerable

13 Children with persistent low learning scores have characteristics associated with disadvantage Source : NLSCY, , ,

14 Children Who are Read to More Often Have Advanced Scores on the PPVT X² analysis - p <.001 NLSCY cycle 3 data, 4-6 year olds Score of delayed, = advanced 26% 6% 18% 10% Advanced Delayed

15 Provincial Differences in Mathematics Scores Source: Vulnerable Children, J. D. Willms, UNB

16 The profile for Quebec shows that the high average level of reading performance achieved by Quebec students is not attributable to students in a few elite schools. Instead, Quebec’s success rests with it outstanding performance among schools serving students of average SES. There are a few schools of very low SES, and these tend to have relatively low school performance. School Profile for Quebec Source: J. D. Willms, UNB

17 The analysis of socioeconomic gradients (Figure 3) indicated that Ontario students scored well below their counterparts in Quebec and Alberta, across the full range of SES. The school profile above shows that the SES intake of most schools in Ontario is above the OECD mean. However, the majority of Ontario’s schools scored below the regression line, indicating that they were not performing as well as other Canadian schools with comparable student intake. Thus, Ontario’s relatively low overall performance is not attributable to a few low SES schools with low performance. Rather, it is associated with a more general pattern of slightly lower than expected performance among the majority of its schools. School Profile for Ontario Source: J. D. Willms, UNB

18 School Profile for Alberta The relatively high performance of Alberta students is partially owing to its relatively high level of SES. The results in Tables 1 and 2 indicated that its mean score after adjusting for SES was about 535, similar to the Canadian average. This is reflected in its school profile as well. Most of the schools in Alberta serve a relatively advantaged population. Among these schools there are many that are performing well above norms, but there are others that have relatively low performance, given their SES intake. Source: J. D. Willms, UNB

19 Youth

20 Out of 38 countries, only 6 scored significantly higher than Canada in Math and only 5 in Science -- TIMMS Grade 8 –Each of the provinces exceed the international average in Math and Science –Significant improvement in Math and Science from 1995 –No gender difference in Math –In 1999, advantage in Science favoured boys –Quebec students excel in Math, significantly higher than Canadian average –Alberta students excel in Science, significantly higher than Canadian average

21 Source:Programme for International Student Assessment, Canada rates near the top of the world in READING literacy

22 17% of Canadian 15-year-olds are at level 5 Reading performance and less than 10% are at or below Level 1-- PISA

23 Socio-economic Gradients of G8 Countries and Finland, PISA READING

24 Factors important to PISA reading performance –Number of books at home –Participation in cultural activities –Cultural or academic interactions with parents –Even when we control for SES –From YITS: parental education expectations Home Environment Individual Characteristics –Gender –Reading enjoyment –Student career expectations –From YITS: Student education expectations

25 More variation in student reading performance within than between schools Variation of performance between schools Variation of performance within schools Variation explained by institutional structures

Reading achievement Proportion of population Public Private Public The apparent private school advantage After controlling for parental SES-private school advantage disappears

27 Effects on PSE attendance associated with youth’s age, sex, parental education, and literacy scores: International Adult Literacy Study, 1994 Source: J. D. Willms, UNB Odds Ratio Age of respondent (years) 1.46 Respondent is female 1.81 At least one parent completed university 1.81 Prose Literacy Score at Levels 1 or Prose literacy Score at Level Prose literacy Score at Level Respondent’s quantitative literacy score is high relative to his or her prose literacy score 1.45

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30 Document literacy levels among low educated adults Per cent of population aged who have not completed upper secondary education but who score at Levels 3 and 4/5 on the document scale, Countries are ranked by the proportion of the population without upper secondary graduation who are at Levels 3 and 4/5 Source: International Adult Literacy Survey,

31 When comparing Youth (16-25) to older generation (46-55) Level 1 Level 2Level 3Level 3/4

32 Earnings and literacy proficiency, controlling for education and labour force experience Countries are ranked by the magnitude of the effect parameter associated with educational attainment.

33 Odds of participating in employer-sponsored adult education and training, by document literacy levels and by extent of literacy engagement at work, population aged 25-65, Likelihood of receiving employer support for training Countries are ranked by the odds of the 4 th quartile. The statistical difference to the United States is computed for the 4 th quartile. Note: Statistical difference is significant at p <.05. Source: International Adult Literacy Survey, Adult Education Participation in North America: International Perspectives.

34 Likelihood of receiving employer support for training Odds of participating in employer-sponsored adult education and training, by document literacy levels and by extent of literacy engagement at work, population aged 25-65, Countries are ranked by the odds of the 4 th quartile. The statistical difference to the United States is computed for the 4 th quartile. Note: Statistical difference is significant at p <.05. Source: International Adult Literacy Survey, Adult Education Participation in North America: International Perspectives.

35 Prose Literacy by Age: Canada

36 A reconciliation of PISA and IALS scales: Percentile distributions and Levels Percentiles Level 5 Level 4 Level 3 Level 4 Level Level Level 2 Level 1 Below Level Mean Prose IALSPISA Mean Level 1

37 Percentage at Proficiency Levels for Canada: on IALS Scales Pisa 2000: Age 15 IALS 1994: Age IALS 1994: Age Levels 3 and 4/5 Levels 1 and 2 Percentage

38 What we will soon know From YITS/PISA:How PSE access and persistence are conditioned on literacy skill? From IALS/ALL:How rapidly are skill profiles evolving? From ALL Level 1 Study:What are the component reading skills of level 1 respondents From WES-SkillHow literacy interacts with firm characteristics From ALL:Tools for individuals diagnosis and PDQ locator test and full test placement From ALL:Small area estimates for CSDS + FEDS

39 Library use is highly conditioned on literacy i.e. non-users have very low skills There is little difference in literacy between occasional library users and frequent library users