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 Statisticsmyles.burleigh@abs.gov.au(02) 6252 6534