I had a couple of exchanges this week that touched on a similar topic, and that is the literacy technique that was developed for use in the international literacy test, and then carried into the Essential Skills framework, the OALCF, spin-off tests like the ESEE and OALCF Milestones, and learning activities. People may refer to … Continue reading Skills versus tasks: A false debate that obscures a perverse reading pedagogy (part 1 of 4)
How the design and methods used in the Essential Skills framework coordinate and guide its use in education
A reader wondered why I called the Essential Skills a curriculum framework when it was intended to be used to profile various occupations (i.e. provide extensive descriptions of jobs organized by skill domain and level), and not to support individual literacy development. Based on some previous research into the development of the Essential Skills, I settled … Continue reading How the design and methods used in the Essential Skills framework coordinate and guide its use in education
From the global to the local: A mapping of methods and messages carried into programs and learners’ lives
This blog is about more than critiquing a couple of tests. It is also about more than Ontario's LBS system, although the system will be examined regularly. The blog is fundamentally an effort to articulate for all readers how an international adult literacy testing initiative has shaped the day-to-day teaching and learning of adult literacy. By examining … Continue reading From the global to the local: A mapping of methods and messages carried into programs and learners’ lives
The ESEE is not so easy: Results of readability analyses
In a previous post I described my attempt to respond to one of the Essential Skills for Employment and Education (ESEE) practice test items, the dosage chart for a liquid medicine. Since then, I have taken a close look at the ESEE test itself. The test has a major problem if adults with less than a … Continue reading The ESEE is not so easy: Results of readability analyses
What makes the spin-off tests so darn difficult (and frustrating)?
All spin-off tests share common elements since they adhere to the basic test development methods used to construct test items in the international literacy tests. Here are the main reasons that they are difficult and an inappropriate measure in the context of literacy learning programs: The spin-offs claim to be "authentic" and representative of a task … Continue reading What makes the spin-off tests so darn difficult (and frustrating)?
Using an international literacy spin-off to make funding decisions: A first in Canada and the world
As far as I can tell, and you can tell me different, no other government funded education or learning system in Canada has ever tied the results of student testing to funding. In other words, the LBS system in Ontario will be the first and only publicly funded system in Canada to base funding decisions … Continue reading Using an international literacy spin-off to make funding decisions: A first in Canada and the world
A decade of effort to make the unworkable work
Since 2007 the policy folks who oversee the literacy program at Ontario's Ministry of Training, Colleges and Universities (MTCU) have been attempting to use an international literary spin-off test to produce a measure of what they refer to as learner gains. What they are after are test results that show an improvement or increased score … Continue reading A decade of effort to make the unworkable work
What is information-processing anyway?
This is the excerpt for your very first post.
Fair Assessment Practices 