Literacy What can the data tell us? Myles Burleigh Acting Director National Centre for Education and...
Transcript of Literacy What can the data tell us? Myles Burleigh Acting Director National Centre for Education and...
LiteracyWhat can the data tell us?
Myles BurleighActing DirectorNational Centre for Education and Training Statistics
Half of all adults in Tasmania cannot read properly
-ABC Radio National
Almost half the country is functionally illiterate
-ABC Local Radio
Illiteracy rates: Australia’s national shame
-The Guardian Australia
44% of Australians don’t have enough reading and writing skills to function effectively day
to day…it’s our hidden epidemic
-Today Tonight
Is this really what the data tells us?
Program for the International Assessment of Adult Competencies
• Run in 25 countries• Co-ordinated by OECD• Follows Survey of Aspects of Literacy in 1996 and Adult
Literacy and Lifeskills Survey 2006• Conducted October 2011 to March 2012• Funded by then Australian Government Department of
Education, Employment and Workplace Relations• 8700 randomly selected persons aged 15-74 completed
the survey• Measured three domains: literacy, numeracy, and
“problem solving in technical-rich environments”• Scores for each skill derived on a scale from 0-500
Distribution of scores
0 20 40 60 80 100 120 140 160 180 200 220 240 260 280 300 320 340 360 380 400 420 440 460 480 5000
100000
200000
300000
400000
500000
600000
700000
800000
Below level 1
Level 1
Level 2Level 3
Level 4
Level 5
Levels
Proportion at each literacy skill level
BelowLevel 1
Level 1 Level 2 Level 3 Level 4 Level 5
%
0
10
20
30
40 44% of Australians aged 15-74 are below level 3
This is about 7.4 million people
Is this really what the data tells us?
Proportion below Level 3, by State or Territory
49% of Tasmanians are below level 3
47% of South Australians and Western Australians are below level 3
Are people below level 3 unable to function in today’s economy?
Incapable of functioning effectively?
Of people below level 3:• 58% are employed (67% of males)• 11% have a Bachelor Degree or higher• 38% have a Certificate III or higher• 22% of those who are employed work in a
highly skilled occupation• 38% read books at least once a week in their
everyday life• 79% read newspapers or magazines at least
once a week• 9% of those working full time have wages in the
top quintile
What do the levels mean?
OECD:
• The levels are purely descriptive and are intended to aid
interpretation and understanding
• Are not “standards” or “benchmarks” in the sense of defining
levels of proficiency appropriate for particular purposes (e.g.
fully participating in a modern economy)
• Describe the attributes of the tasks that adults with particular
proficiency scores can typically successfully complete.
What do the levels mean?
• At level 2:• Make matches between the text and information• May require paraphrasing or low-level inferences• Some competing pieces of information may be present.• May need to cycle through or integrate two or more pieces of
information• May need to compare and contrast or reason about information
requested in the question;• May involve needing to navigate within digital texts to access-and-
identify information from various parts of a document
• At level 3:• Texts dense or lengthy• May require respondent to understand rhetorical structures• Tasks require the respondent to identify, interpret, or evaluate one
or more pieces of information• Often require varying levels of inference• May require respondent to construct meaning across larger
chunks of text or perform multi-step operations in order to identify and formulate responses
• Respondent may need to disregard irrelevant or inappropriate content to answer accurately
• Competing information is often present
What does the data tell us?
PIAAC is not a simplistic measure that draws a line between the illiterate and the literate … rather, it assesses across continua of literacy and numeracy, measuring adults’ ability to engage with a broad range of literacy and numeracy tasks typically encountered in the 21st century
- ACER
Distribution of scores
0 20 40 60 80 100 120 140 160 180 200 220 240 260 280 300 320 340 360 380 400 420 440 460 480 5000
100000
200000
300000
400000
500000
600000
700000
800000
Illiterate Literate
Poorer Literacy Better Literacy
Half of all adults in Tasmania cannot read properly
-ABC Radio National
Almost half the country is functionally illiterate
-ABC Radio Central West
Illiteracy rates: Australia’s national shame
-The Guardian Australia
44% of Australians don’t have enough reading and writing skills to function effectively day
to day…it’s our hidden epidemic
-Today Tonight
But literacy skills are important
Literacy skills make a big difference
Proportion with a Bachelor degree or higher by level
Literacy skills make a big difference
Proportion working in a skill level 1 occupation by level, employed persons
Literacy skills make a big difference
Unemployment rate by level
Literacy skills make a big difference
Proportion with wages/salaries in top quintile (top 20%) by level
Conclusions
• Literacy is a continuum, not an absolute• PIAAC should not be seen as setting any minimum required
level of literacy• Being “below level 3” does not mean you cannot function
successfully in society• But literacy does make a big difference to outcomes – the
better your literacy, the better your outcomes• Focussing on “below level 3” may make the problem seem too
big – there are 7.4 million people below level 3, but only around 600,000 below level 1
How to access PIAAC data
• www.abs.gov.au – search for PIAAC, or use the catalogue number 4228.0
• A heap of data is available in Excel spreadsheets – national, state specific, etc
Other data on literacy
• PIAAC tells us about literacy for persons aged 15-
74• PISA tells us about literacy for 15 year olds• PIRLS tells us about reading for children in Year 4• NAPLAN looks at literacy for students in Year 3, 5,
7, and 9
NAPLAN
• NAPLAN has limited information about student
background such as household income, or other
background or socio-economic characteristics• It doesn’t need to – this information is already collected
in the Census of Population and Housing• We can use statistical data integration to link the two
datasets together (without identifying information like
name or address)• Released yesterday (28 July) using Tasmanian
Government schools data
There is a strong relationship between socio-economic status and
NAPLAN scores
NAPLAN
Proportion below National Minimum Standard for Reading, by Labour Force Status of Parents
NAPLAN
Proportion below National Minimum Standard for Reading, by Occupation of father
NAPLAN
Proportion below National Minimum Standard for Reading, by Weekly Household income
NAPLAN
Proportion below National Minimum Standard for Reading, by tenure and landlord type
NAPLAN
Proportion below National Minimum Standard for Reading, by type of internet connection
NAPLAN scores and outcomes
NAPLAN
Proportion not enrolled at school in 2011, by Year 9 NAPLAN reading score in 2008
NAPLAN
Proportion of early leavers not engaged in work or study in 2011, by Year 9 NAPLAN reading score in 2008
Other ABS data related to literacy
Other ABS data
Whether attended a library in last 12 months, by age and sex
Source: Attendance at Selected Cultural Venues and Events, 2009-2010
Other ABS data
Frequency of library attendance in last 12 months, those that attended a library
Source: Attendance at Selected Cultural Venues and Events, 2009-2010
Other ABS data
Library attendance by highest educational attainment
Source: Attendance at Selected Cultural Venues and Events, 2009-2010
Other ABS data
Proportion of children that read for pleasure
Source: Children’s Participation in Cultural and Leisure Activities, April 2009
Contact details
Myles BurleighActing DirectorNational Centre for Education and Training StatisticsAustralian Bureau of [email protected](02) 6252 6534