2013 International Survey of Adult Skills

Fall WebinarOctober 30, 2013

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Agenda

Welcome: Sharon Bush, LFN President, Grand Victoria Foundation

LFN Update: Kim Scott, LFN Executive Director2014 LFN SymposiumNational Results and Equity Collaborative Attendance Awareness Month

New Member Spotlight: Joe Welsh, Administration Manager ,Community Impact

United Way of Allegheny County

Featured Presentation: 2013 International Survey of Adult SkillsEugene Owen, PIAAC National Project Manager, National Center for Education Statistics

Respondents:Gail Spangenberg, President & Founder, Council for Advancement of Adult LiteracyJeff Carter, Board Member, National Coalition for Literacy

Closing: Sharon

2014 LFN Symposium

Save the Date!February 17-18, 2014

The Symposium will be held once again in partnership with Literacy Powerline and the National Center for Family Literacy and will take place at the Renaissance Washington, DC Downtown Hotel, in the heart of Penn Quarter.

National Results and Equity Collaborative

Initiative adopted by LFN in 2013

Working in partnership with Choice Neighborhoods, Campaign for Grade-Level Reading, Center for the Study of Social Policy, Coalition for Community Schools, Promise Neighborhoods Institute, Results Leadership Group and United Way Worldwide.

This initiative will enable us to: tap into the a growing collective knowledge base, tools and technical

assistance to support evidence-based strategies proven to lead to results; recognize the importance of investing in community capacity – the

necessary skills and knowledge – to do the results work; define a set of common and powerful results and measures to which

communities and initiatives add their unique indicators of progress, resulting in a common language about what the most important results are for children, families and communities, and agreement about what indicators are strong predictors of progress; and

measure progress and results with common tools that that can translate among different approaches to strategy development, aggregate and geo-map data (population level and individual), connect peers across the country and help coalitions and leaders keep track of collective action in ways that demonstrate both the costs and benefits of improved results.

Attendance Awareness Month

Attendance Awareness Month Partnership Results

The Literacy Funders Network received a huge thank you for participating in Attendance Awareness Month as a national partner. This was the first time for this effort and the results exceeded everyone’s wildest dreams. Consider the numbers:

• 1,318 people from 49 states and the District of Columbia joined the Attendance Awareness listserv• 249 schools and communities from 42 states and the District of Columbia pinned events and activities on the Community Action Map• 155 news articles, blogs and commentary pieces appeared in media outlets in 28 states• At least four governors and 20 mayors issued proclamations• The Count Us In! toolkit was downloaded 13,200 times, and the banners and flyers, 14,700 times.• The parting message on Sept. 30 was sent to 189,000 Facebook and Twitter accounts at the same moment, courtesy of the folks who participated in our Thunderclap. The message was simple: #SchoolEveryDay = School Success!

Member Spotlight

Joe WelshAdministration Manager, Community Impact

United Way of Allegheny County

 www.uwac.org

Roles:

Funder Implementer Intermediary Focuses:

Education Income Health Call to Action:

Give - Advocate - Volunteer

Allies for Children

Allegheny CountyEarly Literacy Team

Establish a common language & messagingLeverage existing resourcesProvide shared learning opportunities

• Best Practices, Networking & Collaboration

Create High-Level BrandingMeasure & Report Data

Contact Information

Joe WelshAdministration Manager, Community ImpactUnited Way of Allegheny County

Tel. (412) 456-6740 |  joe.welsh@uwac.org

Featured Presentation

Highlights from the Program for the International Assessment of Adult

Competencies (PIAAC), 2012

Eugene OwenPIAAC National Project ManagerNational Center for Education Statistics (NCES)Washington, DCOctober 30, 2013

What is PIAAC?

International large-scale assessment administered in 2011-12 in 23 countries

16- to 65-year-olds, non-institutionalized, residing in the country, irrespective of nationality, citizenship, or language status

Laptop computer or paper-and-pencil: In the U.S., 80% took the computer tests and 15% took the paper-

and-pencil tests. Assessment subjects:

Literacy, Numeracy, and Problem Solving in Technology-Rich Environments

Conducted in English in the U.S.: Background survey in English or Spanish. About 4% could not

complete the questionnaire because of language difficulties or learning or mental disabilities, and 1% could not complete it for other reasons.

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Participating countries

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2012 2015

AustraliaAustriaBelgiumCanadaCyprusCzech RepublicDenmarkEstoniaFinlandFranceGermanyIreland

ItalyJapan Korea, Rep ofNetherlandsNorwayPolandSlovak RepublicSpainSwedenUnited Kingdom United States

ChileGreece IndonesiaIsraelLithuaniaNew ZealandSingaporeSloveniaTurkey

What PIAAC reports

Average Scores: Reported on a scale of 0-500 for all domains.

Proficiency Levels: Reported as the percentages of adults scoring at six performance levels in literacy andnumeracy and at four performance levels in problem solving in technology-rich environments.

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Literacy proficiency levels

Locate single piece of information in familiar texts.

Read relatively short digital, print or mixed texts to locate single text.

Make matches between text and information that may require low level para-phrasing and drawing low-level inferences.

Identify, interpret, or evaluate one or more pieces of information and often require varying levels of inference.

Perform multiple-step operations to integrate, interpret, or synthesize information from complex texts, and may require complex inferences.

Integrate information across multiple, dense texts; construct syntheses, ideas or points of view; or evaluate evidence based arguments.

Below Level 1

Level 1Level 2

Level 3

Level 4

Level 5

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Literacy example item

Below Level 1: Election results

The stimulus is a report of the results of a union election. It consists of several brief paragraphs and a simple table identifying the three candidates and the number of votes they received. The test taker is asked to identify which candidate received the fewest votes. To do this, the test taker must simply compare the number of votes that each candidate received. The word “votes” appears only in the question and in the table. Therefore, the task consists of recognizing this direct relationship between the two to infer the answer.

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Literacy example item

Level 4: Library search

The stimulus displays the results of a bibliographic search from a simulated library website. The test taker is asked to identify a book suggesting that the claims made both for and against genetically modified foods are unreliable. To do this, the test taker needs to read the title and description of each book included in the search results. Many pieces of distracting information are present. The necessary information must be inferred from the statement that the author “describes how both sides in this hotly contested debate have manufactured propaganda, tried to dupe the public and . . . [text ends].”

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U.S. PIAAC Findings

U.S. average literacy score (270) lower than the international average (273)

Lower than in 12 countries:Japan, Finland, Netherlands, Australia, Sweden, Norway, Estonia, Flanders-Belgium, Czech Republic, Slovak Republic, Canada, Republic of Korea

Not significantly different than in 5 countries:England and Northern Ireland- U.K., Denmark, Germany, Austria, Cyprus

Higher than in 5 countries:Poland, Ireland, France, Spain, Italy

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Below level 1 range: 0-175Level 1 range: 176-225Level 2 range: 226-275Level 3 range: 276-375Level 4/5 range: 376-500

Median

Seven countries had higher percentages of adults reaching the highest proficiency level (4/5) in literacy

Median

Higher proportion of U.S. adults at the bottom levels of literacy

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U.S. average numeracy score (253) lower than the international average (269)

Lower than in 18 countries:Japan, Finland, Flanders-Belgium, Netherlands, Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Slovak Republic, Czech Republic, Austria, Estonia, Germany, Australia, Canada,Cyprus, Republic of Korea, England and Northern Ireland- U.K., Poland

Not significantly different than in 2 countries:Ireland, France

Higher than in 2 countries:Italy, Spain

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Fifteen countries had higher percentages of adults reaching the highest proficiency level (4/5) in numeracy

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Below level 1 range: 0-175Level 1 range: 176-225Level 2 range: 226-275Level 3 range: 276-375Level 4/5 range: 376-500

Median

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Higher proportion of U.S. adults at the bottom levels of numeracy

U.S. average problem solving in technology-rich environments score (277) lower than the international average (283)Lower than in 14 countries:Japan, Finland, Australia, Sweden, Norway, Netherlands, Austria, Denmark, Czech Republic, Republic of Korea, Germany, Canada, Slovak Republic, Flanders-Belgium

Not significantly different than in 4 countries:England and Northern Ireland- U.K., Estonia, Ireland, Poland

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Eight countries had higher percentages reaching the highest proficiency level (3) in problem solving in technology-rich environments

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Below level 1 range: 0-240Level 1 range: 241-290Level 2 range: 291-340Level 3 range: 341-500

Median

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Higher proportion of U.S. adults at the bottom levels of problem solving in technology-rich environments

Only oldest U.S. adults outperformed the international average in literacy

29*p < .05. U.S. average score is significantly different from PIAAC international average.

55-6545-5435-4425-3416-24

55-6545-5435-4425-3416-24

PIAA

C in

tern

ation

al a

vera

ge

0 50 100 150 200 250 300

263*266

273*275*

272*

255268

279284

279

Least educated adults below the international average in literacy

30*p < .05. U.S. average score is significantly different from PIAAC international average.

Graduate or professional degree

Bachelor's degree

Associate's degree

High school credential

Below high school

Graduate or professional degree

Bachelor's degree

Associate's degree

High school credential

Below high school

Unite

d St

ates

PIAA

C in

tern

ation

al a

vera

ge

0 50 100 150 200 250 300 350

310

298

283

262*

230*

307

298

285

271

246

Employed adults in the U.S. had lower average literacy scores than their peers internationally

31*p < .05. U.S. average score is significantly different from PIAAC international average.

Employed

Unemployed

Out of the labor force

Employed

Unemployed

Out of the labor force

Unite

d St

ates

PIAA

C in

tern

ation

al a

vera

ge

0 50 100 150 200 250 300

274*

260

257

277

265

261

U.S. White adults had higher average literacy scores than either Black or Hispanic adults

32*p < .05. Average score is significantly different from White average.

White

Black

Hispanic

Other

0 50 100 150 200 250 300

283

244*

233*

272*

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U.S. gaps in literacy scores larger than international average by parental education and nativity status

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In literacy, U.S. gaps larger by educational attainment and skill level of job, but similar to international average by income and employment status

U.S. gaps in literacy scores similar to international average by gender, smaller by age, and larger by health status

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U.S. average literacy score in 2012 not significantly different from 2003, but lower than in 1994

36*p < .05. Average score is significantly different from PIAAC.

1994 2003 2012245

250

255

260

265

270

275

280

285

IALS:273*

ALL:268

PIAAC:270

U.S. average numeracy score in 2012 lower than in 2003

37*p < .05. Average score is significantly different from PIAAC.

2003 2012235

240

245

250

255

260

265

270

275

ALL:262*

PIAAC:253

U.S. PIAAC Findings Summary:

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U.S. PIAAC Findings Summary: Lower overall scores than international average in all

subjects Higher percentages of low performers than

internationally Larger gaps between less advantaged and more

advantaged peers in literacy and numeracy, but not in problem solving in technology-rich environments

Relatively lower performance of young adults and those with high school education or less

Relatively higher performance of older adults in literacy and problem solving in technology-rich environments

Release ScheduleReleased in October 2013 OECD PIAAC International Report (October 8th 2013) PIAAC International Technical Report: an authored report by OECD (October

8th 2013) NCES PIAAC National Report: “First Look” Report (October 18th 2013)

Will be Released between November 2013 to February 2014 OECD authored US country report (November 12, 2013) NCES PIAAC Web Portal Data Explorer (NCES) US National Technical Report (NCES) Public use data file (NCES) Restricted use data file (NCES) OECD Education and Skills Online (E & S Online)

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Time for the United States to Reskill? What the Survey of Adult Skills Says (An OECD authored report)

Funded by the Office of Vocational and Adult Education, U.S. Department of Education

Report will: Interpret the U.S. main findings Offer a detailed profile of low-skilled adults in the U.S. Identify policy implications and offer broad policy

recommendations for the U.S. Be released on November 12th in Washington, D.C.

More detailed information regarding this event will be posted at www.piaacgateway.com

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NCES PIAAC Web Portal Content

Literacy, numeracy, and problem-solving in technology-rich environments proficiency levels by: Country of birth Informal training Health status

Profile of the employed by: age, gender, whether they are born in the United States, education, industry of employment, occupation, and earnings

Profile of the unemployed by: age, gender, whether they are born in the United States, and education

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NCES PIAAC Data Explorer

Interactive online data tool that allows users to produce customized PIAAC reports

Data displayed and exported in a variety of formats, including: Tables Charts Maps

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Education and Skills (E&S)Online

What Is Education and Skills

Online

Uses and Benefits

Education and Skills

Online Components

What is Education & Skills Online

A joint initiative of the OECD and the European Union

An assessment tool designed to provide individual level results linked to PIAAC

Measures both cognitive and non-cognitive skills Downloadable on demand over the internet and

includes technical support Available in multiple languages/versions In the US it is available both in English and Spanish

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Education & Skills Online components

Background Questionnaire Cognitive Items:

Literacy Numeracy Problem-solving in Technology rich environment (optional) Reading Components (optional)

Optional Non-Cognitive Module Reporting Scores:

Proficiency levels Descriptive reports of strengths and weaknesses in the skill areas assessed Summary information for each of the non-cognitive areas Comparative information for both the cognitive and non-cognitive areas

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Uses and benefits of Education & Skills Online

Appropriate for use in both educational and workplace settings

Can be used to evaluate classes, programs or any group of respondents

Organizations will have access to their database for further analyses

Tests cover a wide range of skills and domains Individuals and organizations have flexibility to determine

which skills to assess

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For more information

Contact:Eugene Owen

NCES202-502-7422

Eugene.Owen@ed.gov

PIAACPIAAC at NCES:

http://nces.ed.gov/surveys/piaac/

http://piaacgateway.com/

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Respondents

Gail Spangenberg President & Founder Council for Advancement of Adult Literacygspangenberg@caalusa.org

www.caalusa.org

Jeff Carter Board MemberNational Coalition for Literacyjcarter@literacypolicy.org

http://literacypolicy.org/

Closing: Sharon Bush

Thank you for attending!Any further questions/comments

please contact Kim Scott

Phone: 315.857.6960Email: kim@literacypowerline.com

Website: funders.literacypowerline.com