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Literacy and Numeracy for Adults website: Assessment for learning - Literacy and Numeracy for Adults
Information on:
- Background to the assessment tool
- Using the assessment tool
- Case studies of assessment tool use (Coming November)
- FAQs on the assessment tool
9 December 2009
Third trial underway
The third trial is now under way, thank you to all those who are participating. By now you should have received all booklets. Please return all booklets by Monday 31st August.
If you are having any issues please do not hesitate to contact Rachael Kearns: rachael.kearns@nzcer.org.nz or phone (04) 802 1430.
27 August 2009
The adult literacy and numeracy assessment tool is one of a number of major projects developed to ensure that New Zealand people and businesses are able to develop and use the skills needed in workplaces of the future. The strategy was developed in close partnership between government, business, unions and the Industry Training Federation.
NZCER has begun work on the development of an innovative computer-adaptive assessment tool for adult learners which responds to each learner’s input during assessment. The tool will provide rigorously tested literacy and numeracy assessment for national use which more accurately gauges the abilities and requirements of learners than existing standard tests. The tool will enable educators to make more precise evidence-based decisions to improve the teaching and learning of literacy and numeracy skills. Find out about the Adult Literacy and Numeracy Assessment Tool .
The contract with the Tertiary Education Commission is a major new project for NZCER and involves collaboration with the Australian Council for Educational Research and IT provider Fronde.
Adult Literacy and Numeracy Assessment Tool item trials
We are offering tertiary education organisations a chance to help trial assessment items for the Adult Literacy and Numeracy Assessment Tool.
Assessment items
NZCER are developing approximately 2500 literacy, writing and numeracy assessment items for the assessment tool. Each assessment item uses a New Zealand adult context and will be linked to the reading, writing, and number and measurement Learning Progressions.
However, to make sure the items are robust; there is a need to trial each of them. Each item will need to be trialled by a minimum of 150 learners.
Therefore, the TEC is asking organisations to volunteer learners for item trials in August 2009.
Let us know if you can help!
If your organisation has at least 20 learners who are studying at Levels 1-4 of the NQF, or equivalent, then we would like to hear from you.
The learners do not need to be studying any literacy or numeracy content, but they do need to be at the approximate level of the Learning Progressions.
Get in touch with us by completing the Expression of Interest form. Once completed please email to: rachael.kearns@nzcer.org.nz.
Trial overview
Each trial will involve a selection of items. These will be arranged into literacy, numeracy and writing booklets. Each booklet will contain at least 30 items and will take up to 45 minutes to complete. The bulk of the questions will be multi-choice.
Following feedback from initial trials, there will now be two types of booklet made available. These will be for learners who are at approximately levels 1-2 on the learning progressions, or for learners working at levels 3-6.
After completing the booklet, learners will also be asked to complete a feedback sheet. This will mainly involve selecting responses to a series of statements about the assessment items.
If you choose to trial both literacy and numeracy, it will require about an hour and a half for a learner to complete the literacy and numeracy booklets with the associated feedback sheets. The two booklets could be completed in one session or in two different sessions.
It will not be necessary to bring all learners together at the same time for the trial although learners will need to be supervised. Where appropriate the trials can be administered in normal classes. Learners are not expected to prepare.
The results of the trials will be confidential to NZCER and will only be used for calibration of items.
August trials
Over 6,000 learners will be needed to trial the numeracy items, over 7,000 to trial the literacy items, and 1,000 to trial the writing items during August.
By mid July NZCER will ask you to identify the groups of learners that you have arranged to be involved in the trials. This will include the number of learners, the qualifications that they are doing and their location.
You will be mailed the agreed number of booklets at the beginning of August with instructions for their administration.
What’s in it for you?
Organisations will be provided with individual assessment item results and an aggregation of the results for their learners. NZCER will also provide you with demographic details of the learners at an organisational level.
The information about assessment results will have some explanations about what the results mean (eg. learners took different assessments and they will not have all been of equal difficulty).
Learners are asked to write their names on their booklets. They do not need to do this if they do not want to. However, if there is no name on the booklet, NZCER will be unable to provide you with individual results as noted above.
By taking part in these trials you will know that you have contributed to the development of a tool that is important to the tertiary education sector and to New Zealand. The assessment tool will also play a part in increasing the skills of adult New Zealanders.
Funded by the Tertiary Education Commission
