commanderkai commanderkai:
QUICK! Into the Delorean!
"OTTAWA - The Canadian Council on Learning painted a discouraging picture of future literacy levels in a report released Thursday that predicts nearly half the Canadian population will have low literacy skills by 2031."
Yay for time machines. If Canada has low literacy in 2031, either world standards are way too high, or low means 98% instead of 99.
Let me try and explain it for those with low-literacy skills. The report is NOT about 'literacy', it is about literacy skills.
Literacy has a very simple definition: the ability to read and write.
Literacy skills is about functional competency... sorry, let me try again. Literacy skills is about how much you can do with your reading and writing skills.
From the report:
$1:
The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development
(OECD) defines the following five levels of literacy:
- Level 1—Very poor literacy skills.
An individual at this level may, for example, be unable to
determine from a package label the correct amount of medicine
to give a child. - Level 2—A capacity to deal only with simple, clear material
involving uncomplicated tasks. People at this level may develop
everyday coping skills, but their poor literacy skills make it hard to
conquer challenges such as learning new job skills. - Level 3—Adequate for coping with the demands of everyday
life and work in an advanced society. This roughly denotes
the skill level required for successful high school completion and
college entry. - Levels 4 and 5—Strong skills. Individuals at these levels can
process information of a complex and demanding nature.
$1:
Literacy levels are assessed on a scale of 500 and based on the completion of specific tasks. Some of these tasks are described in the table below.
Level....... Score Range..... Required Literacy Tasks
1........... 176 – 225 ...... Tasks at Level 1 require the ability to read relatively short text; to locate or enter a piece of information into that text; and to complete simple, one-step tasks such as counting, sorting dates or performing simple arithmetic.
2 .......... 226 – 275....... Tasks at this level require the ability to sort through “distractors” (plausible but incorrect pieces of information), to integrate two or more pieces of information, to compare and contrast information, and to interpret simple graphs.
3........... 276 – 325 ...... These tasks require the ability to integrate information from dense or lengthy text, to integrate multiple pieces of information, and to demonstrate an understanding of mathematical information represented in a range of different forms. Level 3 tasks typically involve a number of steps or processes in order to solve problems.
4 .......... 326 – 375 ...... Tasks at this level involve multiple steps to find solutions to abstract problems. Tasks require the ability to integrate and synthesize multiple pieces of information from lengthy or complex passages, and to make inferences from the information.
5 .......... 376 – 500 ...... Tasks at Level 5 require the ability to search for information in dense text that has a number of distractors, to make high-level inferences or use specialized background knowledge, and to understand complex representations of abstract formal and informal mathematical ideas.
So, anyone care to revise their comment?
Yes, I know the headline refers to the literacy rate but the actual text of the article makes it clear that they are writing about literacy skills. Apparently the editors of the Vancouver Sun and/or the reporter have some problems with their own literacy skills, or, more likely, they prefer the attention grabbing headline.
Literacy in Canada is about 99% of the population. This is not a rate. A rate measures something in relation to something else. For example: The birth rate in Canada in 2007 was 10.75 births/1,000 population.
CKA Super Elite 
CKA Super Elite 
