I was speaking to a literacy program coordinator the other day who told me how she keeps some students off the books in order to work with them in her program. These stowaway learners are older, usually retired adults who want to develop their digital literacy. Keeping them off the books means she doesn’t register … Continue reading Keeping students off the books in LBS: Older adults who want to go online
Enrollment Data for LBS: Age of learners and perplexing suitability criteria
When I examined most of the data reports covering the past decade, I found that the percentage of learners in each age category has remained stable over the years, with one short-term blip. And the current suitability target covering 45-64 year olds is simply out of whack with program realities. I removed the 2012-2013 data … Continue reading Enrollment Data for LBS: Age of learners and perplexing suitability criteria
Enrollment data for LBS: The widening gender gap
The gender gap in LBS has doubled from 10% to 20% since LBS came under Employment Ontario (EO). The ratio of males to females was steady between 2005-2006 and 2011-2012 when there was a gap of about 10%. The dramatic change in the distribution of males and females occurred after LBS was formally systematized under … Continue reading Enrollment data for LBS: The widening gender gap
Taking a look at some data for the LBS program: A decade of enrollment numbers
I’ve managed to collect a few years of LBS data reports over the years, and have compiled what I have in order to see if there are any interesting trends. (I first did this here as part of a research project with AlphaPlus.) Categories in the reports include age, education levels, gender, employment status, source of … Continue reading Taking a look at some data for the LBS program: A decade of enrollment numbers
Using an international literacy testing spin-off to measure program performance in Ontario’s colleges and universities
The effort to use an adult literacy assessment spin-off in an education system has moved into the big leagues here in Ontario. The Higher Education Quality Council (HEQCO), an agency funded by the Ministry of Advanced Education and Skills Development (which also funds LBS), just announced the start of an ambitious testing project using Education … Continue reading Using an international literacy testing spin-off to measure program performance in Ontario’s colleges and universities
The “manifestly false” Level 3 threshold and its legacy in Canada
In my previous post about the ESEE I wrote about how the use of a threshold score to indicate one’s employability along with a normal range (200-300) is unsubstantiated, bewildering and very damaging to adult learners. The problematic use of threshold scores is not limited to the ESEE. Test developers may have simply carried on … Continue reading The “manifestly false” Level 3 threshold and its legacy in Canada
Messages of failure and not being “normal” are built into the ESEE
In a previous post, I wrote about the difficulty of the Essential Skills for Education and Employment (ESEE), an assessment being piloted as part of the Learner Gains Research Project (LGRP). The research involves 1800 learners who are to take the ESEE at the beginning and end of their time in a program to see if the … Continue reading Messages of failure and not being “normal” are built into the ESEE
Skills versus tasks: A false debate that obscures a perverse reading pedagogy (part 4 of 4)
In the previous post I looked at how the difference between a reading comprehension approach and an information-processing approach plays out in an example test question. This difference isn’t simply about test questions and testing approaches. It has a direct impact and a series of consequences on the LBS system as a whole, as the … Continue reading Skills versus tasks: A false debate that obscures a perverse reading pedagogy (part 4 of 4)
Skills versus tasks: A false debate that obscures a perverse reading pedagogy (part 3 of 4)
We can see the difference between the information processing technique---carried into the Essential Skills framework, the OALCF, spin-off tests like the ESEE and OALCF Milestones---and reading comprehension play out in test questions. While the text to be read could be quite similar in both approaches, adherence to either an information-processing model or a reading comprehension … Continue reading Skills versus tasks: A false debate that obscures a perverse reading pedagogy (part 3 of 4)
Skills versus tasks: A false debate that obscures a perverse reading pedagogy (part 2 of 4)
The literacy technique developed for use in international literacy testing, and then carried into programs, is a constructed reading method. It is a set of processes, referred to as constructs, developed for testing. The technique known as information-processing directs people to read and respond to texts in very particular ways. Those processes are put to use in all … Continue reading Skills versus tasks: A false debate that obscures a perverse reading pedagogy (part 2 of 4)
Fair Assessment Practices 