Quantitative Literacy

Measuring Quantitative Literacy

Quantitative literacy is focused on essential skills that involve computations, arithmetic operations, and mathematics concepts, either alone or sequentially, and that are required to function on a job or [Page 1346]to carry out activities performed in daily living, such as figuring out a tip, calculating the overall cost of a list of products purchased, or computing taxes owed from a tax table. Although measurement of these skills can be determined by simply asking individuals whether they know how to add, subtract, multiply, and divide, the inaccuracy of self-identification and the more complex quantitative operations required by jobs and in the economy has led to the growing use of test-based measurement. Standardized tests of the quantitative skills of children in school are widely available through the efforts of national education agencies as well as international assessments of student achievement, such as the Programme for International Student Assessment and the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study. But data for adults (16 years of age or older) are more scarce.

The earliest studies adopting a comprehensive test-based measure of quantitative literacy were developed by Educational Testing Service and the U.S. Department of Education and included the 1985 Young Adult Literacy Assessment Survey, the 1990 Workplace Literacy Survey, and the 1992 National Adult Literacy Survey. Currently, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development utilizes the same approach in its Programme for the International Assessment of Adult Competencies (PIAAC). The PIAAC has conducted quantitative literacy surveys for random samples of the population aged 16–65 years in over 40 countries, with results published for 32 countries so far. Test scores are standardized across countries and range from 0 to 500, gathered into five levels of increasing proficiency, with scores at or below Level 1 corresponding to a very rudimentary literacy, with the person able to carry out only operations with whole numbers, one at a time and in very concrete situations. Higher levels of proficiency progressively require two or more steps in calculations, more than one operation, use of decimals, and—at the top level—the use of abstract thinking, the ability to use data to construct graphs and statistical representations, and utilizing more complex mathematical problem-solving strategies.

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