National Adult Language, Literacy and Numeracy Assessment Conference

Does 1 = 1? Mapping measures of adult literacy and numeracy

Does 1 = 1? Mapping measures of adult literacy and numeracy

Presenters: Michelle Circelli, Senior Research Officer, National Centre for Vocational Education Research

Friday, 10 May 2013

Breakout Session 3, 1.30 – 2:30pm

Language, literacy and numeracy are critical for greater workforce participation, productivity and social inclusion. Being able to measure changes in skill levels is important for getting a sense of how well language, literacy and numeracy programs are working for learners.

The federal government uses the Adult Literacy and Life Skills (ALLS) survey to monitor progress against the National Skills and Workforce Development Agreement. Furthermore, the next iteration of the ALLS will be used to measure the success of the 2012-2022 National Foundation Skills Strategy for Adults. Data from the ALLS and its successor is obtained every five to 10 years though and is a relatively coarse summary of the literacy and numeracy skills of the population.

The Australian Core Skills Framework (ACSF) is also used to provide information on adults’ literacy and numeracy skills in a range of contexts. In contrast to the ALLS, the ACSF provides information about learner progress at the individual level and can be obtained at far more frequent intervals. Both the ALLS and ACSF however have five performance levels and it is sometimes assumed that these levels are equivalent. But are they? To address this, an on-line survey was undertaken to examine the issue of equivalence. This session will report on the findings from the survey and the potential implications for practitioners and policy-makers alike.

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