From classroom assessment to IALS and PIAAC: Disconnected conceptions about measuring adult literacy
Abstract
The International Adult Literacy Survey has resulted in a reframing of the meaning of adult literacy and contributed to disconnected conceptions about literacy assessment in Canada and elsewhere. In the emerging IALS framework governments prioritize statistical measures and largely overlook the array of mostly qualitative evidence of learner progress. Programs are challenged to balance assessment methods that are meaningful to learners with policy expectations on raising literacy rates. This paper offers a brief analysis of how adult literacy assessment has been caught up in the IALS discourse that undercuts learner-centered assessment.
Keywords
adult literacy, assessment, IALS, performance measurement
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 4.0 License
Recommended Citation
Gardner, A.
(2011).
From classroom assessment to IALS and PIAAC: Disconnected conceptions about measuring adult literacy.
Adult Education Research Conference.
https://newprairiepress.org/aerc/2011/roundtables/8
From classroom assessment to IALS and PIAAC: Disconnected conceptions about measuring adult literacy
The International Adult Literacy Survey has resulted in a reframing of the meaning of adult literacy and contributed to disconnected conceptions about literacy assessment in Canada and elsewhere. In the emerging IALS framework governments prioritize statistical measures and largely overlook the array of mostly qualitative evidence of learner progress. Programs are challenged to balance assessment methods that are meaningful to learners with policy expectations on raising literacy rates. This paper offers a brief analysis of how adult literacy assessment has been caught up in the IALS discourse that undercuts learner-centered assessment.
