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1. o co oe o o p no eee eee no e e cn p e o ce ne e o oeoce nop e e e e e e e o oo DATA AVAILABILITY This section outlines the products and services currently available and those expected to be available over the coming months Results from the 2006 ALLS are available in the form of an electronic summary publication available free of charge on the ABS website versions of the summary publication compiled separately for each state tables produced on request to meet specific information requirements from the survey and abasic Confidential Unit Record File CURE available on CD ROM and an expanded CURE available via the Remote Access Data Laboratory RADL SUMMARY PUBLICATION The publication Adult Literacy and Life Skills Australia 2006 cat no 4228 0 presents summary results from the survey The tables in the publication are predominantly at the national level but some tables show international first wave country results A number of tables also show comparisons with the 1996 Survey of Aspects of Literacy The publication was released on 28 November 2007 and is available free of charge on the ABS website lt www abs gov au gt An electronic version of the tables released in the summary publication in spreadsheet format is also available on the ABS website lt www abs gov au gt The spreadsheet presents RSEs relating to estimates and or proportions for each publication table S
2. o U O OC C OO O eee eee eee eee eee ee eee ee meee em ee eee me oem eee eee eC ee em ee el ele First language spoken First wave countries Group or organisation Health literacy Informal learning Industry Labour force status First Language Spoken is defined as the first language an individual masters during the language acquisition phase of intellectual development This would generally be the language spoken in the home by the people who have raised the individual from infancy The Adult Literacy and Life Skills Survey ALL is an international literacy survey that completed by participating countries in successive waves The first wave of countries to participate in ALL were in 2003 and included Bermuda Canada Italy Mexico Norway Switzerland and the United States Second Wave countries to take part in ALL were Australia New Zealand the Netherlands Hungary and South Korea An group or organisation is any body with a formal structure It may be as large as a national charity or as small as a local book club Purely ad hoc informal and temporary gatherings of people do not constitute an organisation The knowledge and skills required to understand and use information relating to health issues such as drugs and alcohol disease prevention and treatment safety and accident prevention first aid emergencies and staying healthy Learning that results from daily work related family or leisure activities OECD 200
3. ADULT LITERACY AND LIFE SKILLS SURVEY USER GUIDE 4228 0 55 002 2006 37 APPENDIX 2 MEASURING LITERACY IN ALLS continued e b o oo ope9 e ne rece ce eee eee eee eee eee eee eee eee eee eee noe peo9 co o n o poeo np e o Numeracy Tasks continued The most difficult numeracy task in this assessment rated Level 5 presented respondents with an advertisement claiming that it is possible for an investor to double an amount invested in seven years based on a 10 fixed interest rate each year Respondents were asked if it is possible to double 1000 invested at this rate after seven years and had to support their answer with their calculations A range of responses was accepted as correct as long as a reasonable justification was provided with relevant computations Respondents were free to perform the calculation any way they wanted but could also use a financial hint which accompanied the advertisement and presented a formula for estimating the worth of an investment after any number of years Those who used the formula had to enter information stated in the text into variables in the formula principal interest rate and time period and then perform the needed computations and compare the result to the expected amount if 1000 is doubled All respondents could use a basic calculator provided as part of the assessment This task proved difficult because it involved percents and the computation whether with or
4. ADULT LITERACY AND LIFE SKILLS SURVEY USER GUIDE 4228 0 55 002 2006 DATA PROCESSING continued e h e hk o o o no p e e9 re eee eee eee eee eee eee eee eee a eee eee eee eee eee ee eee eee o Coding continued Scoring Coding of industry Industry data were dual classified according to the newly released 2006 Australian and New Zealand Standard Industrial Classification ANZSIC cat no 1292 0 and the previous 1993 Australian and New Zealand Standard Industrial Classification ANZSIC cat no 1292 0 15 001 In addition industry was coded to the INTERNATIONAL STANDARD INDUSTRIAL CLASSIFICATION OF ALL Economic Activities ISIC 1989 Completed MTBs were returned to the office where they were either scored or data captured depending on which blocks were included in the booklet Booklets that contained only blocks to measure prose literacy document literacy or numeracy needed to be scored and blocks measuring problem solving generally required data capture and a minimal amount of scoring The scoring of the problem solving blocks was completed by Statistics Canada and ETS The scoring and data capture of the booklets was completed by specially trained scoring staff The scoring staff participated in two days of classroom training covering the international rules and guidelines for scoring This was followed by re scoring 200 Canadian test booklets which were scored by Statistics Canada and feedback
5. As a result the ranges of scores in each level are not identical In fact for the prose literacy document literacy numeracy and health literacy domains Level 1 captures almost half of the scale The thresholds for the problem solving domain are set somewhat differently and Level 1 covers precisely half of the scale The relatively small proportions of respondents who actually reached Level 5 often resulted in unreliable estimates of the number of people at this level For this reason whenever results are presented in the main report by proficiency level Levels 4 and 5 are combined Level 3 is regarded by the survey developers as the minimum required for individuals to meet the complex demands of everyday life and work in the emerging knowledge based economy Learning a Living First Results of the Adult Literacy and Life Skills Survey available from Statistics Canada s website www statcan ca For more information on the literacy domains skill levels and details on how literacy is measured refer to the Appendices in this User Guide or the above report from Statistics Canada In order to minimise respondent burden not all literacy domains were directly assessed for each respondent ALLS used a matrix sampling design to assign assessment booklets to individuals so that a comprehensive picture of the literacy achievements across the country could be assembled from the components completed by each individual ALLS relied on Item Res
6. o ABS ADULT LITERACY AND LIFE SKILLS SURVEY USER GUIDE 4228 0 55 002 2006 25 DATA QUALITY continued e h n e o eo cn n po oe co pe oe e p rn e eee eee eee eo eee eee em eee ee meee eee ee ee eC em oO eo em em oO ee el et Total Variance Total Together the sampling variance and imputation variance can be added to provide a Standard Error and Total suitable measure of the total variance Then the total Standard Error SE can be Relative Standard Error obtained as the square root of the total variance This SE indicates the extent to which an estimate might have varied by chance because only a sample of persons was included and or because of the significant imputation used in the literacy scaling procedures Another common measure used in the 2006 ALLS is the Total Relative Standard Error RSE which is obtained by expressing the Total SE as a percentage of the estimate to which it relates RSE SE Estimate x 100 Very small estimates may be subject to such high relative standard errors as to seriously detract from their value for most reasonable purposes Only estimates with relative standard errors less than 25 are considered sufficiently reliable for most purposes However estimates with relative standard errors of 25 or more are included in all 2006 ALLS output Estimates with an RSE of 25 to 50 are preceded by the symbol to indicate that the estimate should be used with caution Estimates wi
7. Portal lt www nzliteracyportal org nz gt COC ooo OOOOH HEHEHE HEHEHE HEHEHE EEE HEHEHE HEHEHE ETE HEHEHE HHH HEHEHE HEH HHH HEHEHE HHH SHES EHH HEHEHE HEHEHE OEE OOOO ES 40 ABS ADULT LITERACY AND LIFE SKILLS SURVEY USER GUIDE 4228 0 55 002 2006 GLOSSARY e nkhk oe e neo e e no e np e oeo e eee ewe eee eo eee eee em eee eee eee eee eee eee eee eee eee eee eee Australian Standard Classification of Education ASCED Certificate not further defined Document Literacy Educational Attainment Education Participation Educational institution or organisation Employed Employed full time Employed part time Field of education ce oooo nono n n nenonn o cooooononn nn nn n on n n o The ASCED is a national standard classification which includes all sectors of the Australian education system that is schools vocational education and training and higher education From 2001 ASCED replaced a number of classifications used in administrative and statistical systems including the AUSTRALIAN BUREAU OF STATISTICS CLASSIFICATION OF QUALIFICATIONS ABSCQ The ASCED comprises two classifications Level of Education and Field of Education See Australian Standard Classification of Education ASCED 2001 cat no 1272 0 Survey responses were coded to Certificate not further defined n f d when there was not enough information to code them to Certificate I II IN or IV in the Australia
8. employed or unemployed as defined The knowledge and skills required to effectively manage and respond to the mathematical demands of diverse situations Respondents who had worked in the last 12 months were asked whether they performed any of the following tasks in their main job and if so how often a Fills in bills invoices spreadsheets or budget tables calculates prices costs or budgets counts or reads numbers manages time or prepares timetables gives or follows directions or uses maps or street directories or uses statistical data A collection of jobs sufficiently similar in their main tasks in terms of skill level and specialisation to be grouped together for classification purposes Occupation has been dual classified according to the AUSTRALIAN AND NEW ZEALAND STANDARD CLASSIFICATION OF Occupations ANZSCO and AUSTRALIAN STANDARD CLASSIFICATION OF OCCUPATIONS ASCO Parental information is gathered to provide an indication of the foundation for skill acquisition that has been provided in the home Essentially the information is used as an indicator of the socioeconomic status of respondents an important antecedent variable to skill acquisition economic and social success There is research to suggest that an individual s educational attainment is influenced by the educational attainment of the parents Regular and recurring cash receipts including monies received from wages and salaries governmen
9. if the probability of a person being selected in the survey was 1 in 600 then the person would have an initial weight of 600 that is they represent 600 people The initial weights were calibrated to align with independent estimates of the population of interest referred to as benchmarks Weights calibrated against population benchmarks ensure that the survey estimates conform to the independently estimated distribution of the population by State or Territory age sex and area of usual residence rather than to the distribution within the sample itself Calibration to population benchmarks helps to compensate for over or under enumeration of particular categories of persons which may occur due to either the random nature of sampling or non response CoCo ooo EOE EEO HE HEHEHE HEHEHE EHH HHH HHH HEHEHE HEHEHE HHH HHH HHH HHH HEH HHH HEHEHE HEHEHE OOOO ES 20 ABS ADULT LITERACY AND LIFE SKILLS SURVEY USER GUIDE 4228 0 55 002 2006 DATA PROCESSING continued e hk oo eo co peo en eee eee eee eee eee eee eo ee eee ee ee ee eee em meee eee eee em oO em em ooo ooo Benchmarking continued The 2006 ALLS was benchmarked to the estimated resident population ERP aged 15 to 74 years living in private dwellings in each state and territory excluding the ERP living in very remote areas of Australia at December 2006 The ERP estimates for 2006 were based on results from the 2001 Census of Population and Housing Therefo
10. non responding persons and or partial responding persons may differ from responding persons and m processing errors such as mistakes in the recording or coding of the data obtained Each of these sources of error is discussed in the following paragraphs Some dwellings may have been inadvertently included or excluded because for example the distinctions between whether they were private or non private dwellings may have been unclear All efforts were made to overcome such situations by constant updating of lists both before and during the survey In addition some people may have been inadvertently included or excluded because of difficulties in applying the scope rules concerning who was identified as a usual resident and concerning the treatment of some overseas visitors In this survey response errors may have arisen from four main sources deficiencies in questionnaire design and methodology deficiencies in interviewing technique a inaccurate reporting by the respondent and factors affecting respondent performance on the main task booklet questions Response errors may arise through ambiguous or misleading questions inadequate or inconsistent definitions of terminology used or by poor overall survey design e g context effects where responses to a question are directly influenced by the preceding questions In order to overcome problems of this kind individual questions and the overall questionnaire were thoroughly tes
11. of general information some of which are comparable with information collected in other ABS surveys such as the General Social Survey m the National Health Survey the Survey of Disability Ageing and Carers and the Household Use of Information Technology In consultation with DEST and DEWR and a number of experts in adult literacy the ABS adapted the literacy assessment tasks to be used in the ALLS to the Australian context using adaptation and translation guidelines prescribed by the international co ordinators of the survey These guidelines detail what can and cannot be changed in the assessment tasks Changes are intentionally restrictive so as not to alter the underlying definition or concept being assessed For example terms such as candy or bleachers that are essentially North American were changed to lollies and bench seating to suit Australian respondents All changes were approved by Statistics Canada to maintain comparability of the assessments between countries Coe eee eee ooo HOHE HOODEO HEHEHE EEE HEHEHE HEHEHE HEHEHE HEHEHE HEHEHE HEHEHE HEHE SHEESH HEHEHE HEHEHE HEHEHE HEHEHE HHH HEHEHE HEHEHE OOS ABS ADULT LITERACY AND LIFE SKILLS SURVEY USER GUIDE 4228 0 55 002 2006 11 SURVEY METHODOLOGY e kh v eo e no oooeo c o0o o oe co e o e e e ec p e re e neo eee eee eee eee eee eee eee eee eee eee SCOPE AND COVERAGE SAMPLE DESIGN AND SELECTION Only people who
12. puter analysis of the speaker s output and on listening tests using music from CDs No model produced high fidelity sound Reversible time setting This useful feature makes setting clock and alarm times easy If you overshoot the desired setting u simply back up Dual alarm Lets you set two separate wake up times EX Brand and model a fi Full featured clock radios RCA RP 3690 50540 acme 26 O O vV v 12 ABDHJLOTU A Sony ICF C303 5045 500158 4 OQ OQ OQ Y W 12 CEFINT C Panasonic RC X220 50 45 1028 2 MM O Y vY 12 AGKMOSTU bc A Realistic 272 5020 5815 79 MM O A QQ Y Y 3 AGHKOT D Magnavox AJ3900 es 152813 78 O O O A YW 2 DGKMORT bg B Emerson AK2745 30 20 amp 28x15 70 O OSO Y Y23260 g K Soundesign 3753 2020 82x13 2 OF OOO Y vY 2jQ dh J asic c radios Realistic 263 28 18 10x20x1074 O 8 A oe 3 A D H O P U h Soundesign 3622 12 10 5x20x13 68 O 32u d L Panasonic RC 6064 18 15 5x20x13 67 O O 12 be General Electric 7 4612 13 10 5x20x13 88 O O O 12 AD ag Lloyds CRO01 20 15 5x18x13 64 O O O 3U Sony ICF C240 15 13 5x18x15 68 OOOO 12 fg Emerson AK2720 19 10 5x20x13 61 O O 207 e K Gran Prix D507 15 10 5x18x10 54 O 23 d Clock radios with cassette General Electric 7 4965 soso 10x20x15 25 Md M M A Y vVi12ADGHKOST BE Panasonic RC X250 1 13313 76 M O MA vY v 12 AGKOR
13. such as headings Respondents may also be asked to generate a response based on information that can be easily identified in the text Distracting information is present but is not located near the correct information These tasks require respondents to perform multiple feature matches and to integrate or synthesize information from complex or lengthy passages More complex inferences are needed to perform successfully Conditional information is frequently present in tasks at this level and must be taken into consideration by the respondent Some tasks in this level require the respondent to search for information in dense text which contains a number of plausible distractors Others ask respondents to make high level inferences or use specialised background knowledge Some tasks ask respondents to contrast complex information Tasks in this level tend to require the respondent either to locate a piece of information based on a literal match or to enter information from personal knowledge onto a document Little if any distracting information is present Tasks in this level are more varied than those in Level 1 Some require the respondents to match a single piece of information however several distractors may be present or the match may require low level inferences Tasks in this level may also ask the respondent to cycle through information in a document or to integrate information from various parts of a document Some tasks in th
14. survey of 8 988 dwellings persons Some survey respondents provided most of the required information but were unable or unwilling to provide a response to certain questions The records for these persons were retained in the sample and the missing values were recorded as don t know or not stated No attempt was made to deduce or impute for these missing values CoCo ooo ooo OOOOH EEE EOE HEHEHE EEE EEE HEHEHE HEHEHE HEHEHE HEHEHE HHH HEHEHE HEHEHE HHH HHH HHH HHH HHH HEHEHE HEHEHE HOHE EEE EEE OEE 12 ABS ADULT LITERACY AND LIFE SKILLS SURVEY USER GUIDE 4228 0 55 002 2006 SURVEY METHODOLOGY continued e nh eoe e no o e oe rn eee eee eee eee eee eee eee eee eee eee ewe eee ee eee eee eee eee eeee DATA COLLECTION Interviews ABS interviewers conducted personal interviews at selected dwellings during the period of July 2006 to January 2007 with a break of eight weeks to allow for the enumeration of the 2006 Census of Population and Housing Much of the detail obtained from the ALLS was provided by one person aged 15 to 74 years randomly selected from each participating household This person was randomly selected after basic information had been obtained about all household members Selected households were initially sent a Primary Approach Letter PAL by mail to inform the household of their selection in the survey and to advise that an interviewer would call to arrange a suitable time to conduct the int
15. the interview including the assessment component took 100 minutes per fully responding household Interviewers for the ALLS were primarily recruited from a pool of trained ABS interviewers having previous experience with ABS household surveys All 299 interviewers selected to work on this survey underwent two days of classroom training aimed at emphasising the survey concepts definitions and procedures in order to ensure that a standard approach was employed by all interviewers concerned Each interviewer was supervised in the field in the early stages of the survey and periodically thereafter to ensure consistent standards of interviewing procedures were maintained In addition regular communication between field staff and survey managers was maintained throughout the survey via database systems set up for the survey Interviewers were allocated a number of dwellings a workload at which to conduct interviews The size of the workload was dependent upon the geographical area and whether or not the interviewer was required to temporarily live away from home in order to collect the data Interviewers living close to their workload area in urban areas usually had larger workloads The questionnaire was designed to be administered using standard ABS procedures for conducting population interview surveys having regard to the particular aims of the survey and of the individual topics within it and to the methodological issues associated w
16. the last 12 months were asked whether they performed any of the following tasks in their main job and if so how often Read or used letters memos or emails reports articles magazines or journals manuals or reference books directions or instructions The job at which the respondent worked the most hours in the last 12 months If the respondent had not worked in the last 12 months but had worked in the last 5 years the main job was the most recent job held within the last 5 years In IALS only those who worked in the last 12 months were included By including those who have had work experience in the last 5 years but have not worked in the last 12 months it will aim to capture recent retirees and to ascertain the potential skill match to occupation and industry of those who may be temporarily out of the labour market such as women with young children Non school qualifications are awarded for educational attainments other than those of pre primary primary or secondary education They include qualifications at the Post graduate degree level Master degree level Graduate diploma and Graduate certificate level Bachelor degree level Advanced diploma and Diploma level and Certificates I I TI and IV levels Non school qualifications may be attained concurrently with school qualifications A course that does not result in formal certification but is structured in content and delivery Persons who were not in the categories
17. were usual residents of private dwellings in Australia were covered by the survey Private dwellings are houses flats home units and any other structures used as private places of residence at the time of the survey People usually resident in non private dwellings such as hotels motels hostels hospitals and short stay caravan parks were not included in the survey Usual residents are those who usually live in a particular dwelling and regard it as their own or main home Visitors to private dwellings are not included in the interview for that dwelling However if they are a usual resident of another dwelling that is in the scope of the survey they have a chance of being selected in the survey or if not selected they will be represented by similar persons who are selected in the survey The ALLS was conducted in both urban and rural areas in all states and territories except for very remote parts of Australia Queensland South Australia Western Australia and the Northern Territory have very remote areas With the exception of the Northern Territory the population living in very remote areas represents only a small proportion of the total population approximately 2 For this and other practical reasons no adjustment was made to state population benchmarks population benchmarks are discussed below when deriving survey results This exclusion is unlikely to impact on national estimates and will only have a minor impact on any aggregate e
18. you with analytical or methodological advice PHONE 1300 135 070 EMAIL client services Wabs gov au FAX 1300 135 211 POST Client Services ABS GPO Box 796 Sydney NSW 2001 FREE ACCESS TO STATISTICS All statistics on the ABS website can be downloaded free of charge WEB ADDRESS www abs gov au 2000001561157 ISBN 9780642483027 RRP 11 00 coooon pn n nn nnnnnornnnnnnnnrcerennnnnnonnnnnononononen o Commonwealth of Australia 2007 Produced by the Australian Bureau of Statistics Z200 6565 0 823 34 AJAYNS SITITINS 33417 ANY ADWHALIT 11NAV 30IN9 wasn 9002
19. 2006 4228 0 55 002 RALIA PSSS SAN y EEN Australian ADULT LITERACY AND LIFE SKILLS Bureau of SURVEY USER GUIDE AUSTRALIA Statistics CONTENTS page NOLES 2 60002030 as a a aa 2 AbbreviationS 4664064 ees ii a 3 CHAPTERS INTOGUCLION ss fd ede ROR TE MEE ERE ROR ETE RE Oe a eR 4 SUEY CONTENT sisi as d A a BO oe SE 6 Survey methodology cee ee ee ee ee eee eens 12 Data Processing eiii ir a Bane lel aw De a edie bea S 18 Data Quality usina ada a Oo aed ade 22 Output and dissemination 0 eee ee ee ee eee eee 28 ADDITIONAL INFORMATION Appendix 1 Levels of difficulty o o o o oooooo ooo ooo 30 Appendix 2 Measuring literacy in ALLS o o o oooooooo ooo 33 Appendix 3 International publications 40 GIOSSANY iio a a eo a Plenty led a bes Ble dle Gob aoe eked GORA S 41 INQUIRIES For further information about these and related statistics contact the National Information and Referral Service on 1300 135 070 www abs gov au NOTES USING THIS PUBLICATION Appropriate use and interpretation of the Adult Literacy and Life Skills Survey ALLS results relies upon knowledge of what information was collected how the information was collected and how the information was used to produce final estimates This User Guide covers these topics in several chapters Survey content Survey methodology Data processing Data quality and Output and Dis
20. 2007 from 8 988 private dwellings throughout non remote areas of Australia The sample design ensured that within each state and territory each household had an equal chance of selection Information was obtained from one person aged 15 to 74 years in the selected household If there was more than one person of this age the person interviewed was selected at random While the survey was initially developed by Statistics Canada the ABS together with DEST DEWR and a wide range of users of the survey data with interests in adult literacy reviewed the international survey content Some minor adaptations to survey questions and exercises were made to suit the Australian context As for all ABS surveys extensive testing was carried out to ensure that the survey would collect objective and high quality data The 2006 ALLS was conducted under the authority of the Census and Statistics Act 1905 The ABS sought the willing cooperation of households in the survey The confidentiality of all information provided by respondents is guaranteed Under this legislation the ABS cannot release identifiable information about households or individuals All aspects of CoCo oo eee EHEHHE HEHEHE HEHEHE EEE HE HHH H HEHEHE HEHEHE HHH HHH HHH HHH HOH HEHEHE HHO HHO HOHE OEE OOOO EE 4 ABS ADULT LITERACY AND LIFE SKILLS SURVEY USER GUIDE 4228 0 55 002 2006 INTRODUCTION continued e e o o o ec oeo n e e o eee eee eee ee eee ns r
21. 55 002 2006 29 APPENDIX 1 LEVELS OF DIFFICULTY e e oe o oc nc e o eee eee eee eee eee eo eee eee meee ee eee eee e e e e e e e e e o oo PROSE Level 1 0 225 Level 2 226 275 Level 3 276 325 Level 4 326 375 Level 5 376 500 DOCUMENT Level 1 0 225 Level 2 226 275 Level 3 276 325 Level 4 326 375 Level 5 376 500 Most of the tasks in this level require the respondent to read relatively short text to locate a single piece of information which is identical to or synonymous with the information given in the question or directive If plausible but incorrect information is present in the text it tends not to be located near the correct information Some tasks in this level require respondents to locate a single piece of information in the text however several distractors or plausible but incorrect pieces of information may be present or low level inferences may be required Other tasks require the respondent to integrate two or more pieces of information or to compare and contrast easily identifiable information based on a criterion provided in the question or directive Tasks in this level tend to require respondents to make literal or synonymous matches between the text and information given in the task or to make matches that require low level inferences Other tasks ask respondents to integrate information from dense or lengthy text that contains no organisational aids
22. 6 Various informal learning activities are collected in ALLS and these activities can be analysed separately or be grouped into active and passive modes of informal learning Passive modes of informal learning include going on guided tours such as museums art galleries or other locations learning by being sent around an organisation to learn different aspects of that organisation visiting trade fairs professional conferences or congresses and attending short lectures seminars workshops or special talks that were not part of a course Active modes of informal learning include learning by watching getting help from or advice from others but not from course instructors learning by yourself by trying things out doing things for practice trying different approaches to doing things using video television tapes to learn but not as part of the course using computers or the Internet to learn but not as part of a course and reading manuals reference books journals or other written materials but not as part of a course An individual business entity is assigned to an industry based on its predominant activity Industry is classified according to the Australian and New Zealand Standard Industrial classification ANZSIC cat no 1292 0 Refers to the situation of respondents in relation to the labour force at the time of the survey Categories are employed had a job or business or undertook work with
23. E EE EES ABS ADULT LITERACY AND LIFE SKILLS SURVEY USER GUIDE 4228 0 55 002 2006 35 APPENDIX 2 MEASURING LITERACY RATINGS Listed by types within types listed in order of overall score Differences in score of 4 points or less were not deemed significant Brand and model if you can t find a model call the company Phone numbers are listed on page 726 Price The manufacturers suggested or approximate retail price followed by the average advertised price Dimensions Tothenearestcentimetre Overall score A composite encom passing all our tests and judgments A per fect radio would have earned 100 points IN ALLS Convenience This composite judg ment reflects such things as the legibility of the display the ease of tuning the radio and setting the alarm and the presence or absence of useful features Performance An overall judgment reflecting performance in our tests of sensi tivity and selectivity tuning ease capture ratio the ability to bring in the stronger of two stations on the same frequency image re jection the ability to ignore signals from just above the band resistance to interference from signals bouncing off aircraft and such IA Sensitivity How well each radio received a station with little interference continued o 2 Oe O Selectivity How well each radio received clearly a weak station next to a strong one on the dial Tone quality Based mainly on com
24. E HEHEHE HEHEHE HEHEHE HEHEHE HEHEHE EHH HEHEHE HHH HEHEHE HEHEHE HHH HHH HHH HHH HEHEHE HHH HOHE HHO EEO EEO ES 32 ABS ADULT LITERACY AND LIFE SKILLS SURVEY USER GUIDE 4228 0 55 002 2006 APPENDIX 2 MEASURING LITERACY IN ALLS e n e roo e e rc e o ooo op e oeo eee eee ee eee ee no ee eee em eee eee me ne nee e e e e e eoo oo TASKS EXAMPLES The following examples are taken from Learning a Living First Results of the Adult Literacy and Life Skills Survey 2005 OECD Statistics Canada For more details on measuring literacy in ALLS refer to the full publication Prose Literacy Tasks One of the easiest tasks prose tasks categorised as Level 1 directs the reader to look at a medicine label to determine the maximum number of days you should take this medicine This task was scored as easy because the reader was required to locate a single piece of information that was literally stated in the medicine label The label contained only one reference to number of days and this information was located under the label dosage MEDCO ASPIRIN 500 INDICATIONS Headaches muscle pains rheumatic pains tooth aches earaches RELIEVES COMMON COLD SYMPTOMS DOSAGE ORAL 1 or 2 tablets every 6 hours preferably accompa nied by food for not longer than 7 days Store in a cool dry place CAUTION Do notuse for gastritis or peptic ulcer Do not use iftaking anticoagulant drugs Do notuse for serious liver illne
25. OH OEE EOE O OOS 22 ABS ADULT LITERACY AND LIFE SKILLS SURVEY USER GUIDE 4228 0 55 002 2006 DATA QUALITY continued eoeovoeeveeeveeeeeeeeeeee ee eee eee eee eee eee eee eee eee ee eee eee em eee ee meee eee ee em em eh eee Response errors continued Non response bias Errors in processing Response errors may have also occurred due to the large nature of the survey resulting in respondent fatigue i e loss of concentration While efforts were made to minimise errors arising from mis reporting or non reporting by respondents some instances would have inevitably occurred Recall error may also have led to response error Information recorded in the background questionnaire is essentially as reported by respondents and hence may differ from information available from other sources or from different methodologies Responses may be affected by imperfect recall or individual interpretation of survey questions especially in the assessment components which were self enumerated A number of potential sources of non sampling error are unique to ALLS Some of the respondents may have found the test portion of the study intimidating and this may lead to a negative effect on their performance Unlike other surveys the ALLS test items have right and wrong answers Although there was no imposed time limit for answering questions having an interviewer present and waiting may have imposed an unintentional time pressure and therefore t
26. S 6 ABS ADULT LITERACY AND LIFE SKILLS SURVEY USER GUIDE 4228 0 55 002 2006 SURVEY CONTENT continued e re e o 0 e o o eee eee eee eee eee eee eee ee eee ee em eo em eee mee e o e e e neo no e oo Background Questionnaire country of birth continued Labour Force activities current labour force status labour force activities in the last 12 months hours worked occupation and industry of main job job tenure Literacy and numeracy practices at work and daily life Frequency of reading and writing activities Participation in education and learning involvement in different types of learning incidence of education and learning reasons for pursuing education and learning volume of education undertaken Social capital and well being volunteering civic participation physical and psychological well being Information and communication technology m access types and usage purposes and intensity of computer use a purposes and intensity of Internet use self assessment of skills Personal and household income Further information about the content of the survey can be obtained by referring to the data item list available as a datacube with this user guide on the ABS website lt www abs gov au gt and the glossary p 41 Core task booklet After the background questionnaire the randomly selected person completed the core task booklet CTB The CTB compon
27. SACC 1998 cat no 1269 0 Coding of language The survey questionnaire listed 10 most frequently reported languages first spoken at home Interviewers were instructed to mark the appropriate box or if the reported language was not among those listed to record the name of the language for subsequent coding All responses for language spoken were coded to the Australian Standard Classification of Languages ASCL cat no 1267 0 Coding of geographical data Geography data Capital city Balance of state territory Remoteness areas were classified according to the Australian Standard Geographical Classification ASGC cat no 1216 0 Coding of education Level of education and field of education were coded to the Australian Standard Classification of Education ASCED cat no 1272 0 Coding was based on the level and field of education as reported by respondents and recorded by interviewers Coding of occupation Occupation data were dual classified according to the ASCO Australian Standard Classification of Occupations Second Edition 1997 cat no 1220 0 30 001 and the newly released ANZSCO Australian and New Zealand Standard Classification of Occupations First Edition 2006 cat no 1220 0 In addition occupation was coded to the INTERNATIONAL STANDARD CLASSIFICATION OF Occupations ISCO 1988 CoCo ooo oO HEHHHHE HEHEHE HEHEHE HEHEHE HHH HEHEHE HEHEHE HEHEHE HHH HHH HHH HHH HEHEHE HHH HHH OEE EOE E EOS 18 ABS
28. TATE TERRITORY TABLES A set of tables in a spreadsheet format equivalent to those in this publication will be produced for each state and territory subject to standard error constraints and excluding time series and international comparative tables These tables will be available from the ABS website lt www abs gov au gt as Datacubes to cat no 4228 0 or from the ABS upon request ACCESS TO MICRODATA For users who wish to undertake more detailed analysis of the survey data microdata from the 2006 ALLS will be released in the form of two CURFs the basic CURF and the expanded CURF The expanded CURF will contain more detail than the basic CURF and will only be available via the RADL which is a secure Internet based data query service The basic CURF will be available via CD ROM or RADL Technical Information describing the content and use of the basic CURF Adult Literacy and Life Skills Survey Australia Basic Confidentialised Unit Record File cat no 4228 0 30 001 and the expanded CURF Adult Literacy and Life Skills Survey Australia Expanded Confidentialised Unit Record File cat no 4228 0 30 002 will be available within the Technical Manual Adult Literacy and Life Skills Survey Australia Confidentialised Unit Record File cat no 4228 0 55 003 SPECIAL DATA SERVICES Special tabulations designed to suit individual user requirements can be provided subject to confidentiality and sampling variability constraints Tabulations can
29. U bc AH Sony ICF CS650 75 65 15281574 O amp O O Q Y v 12 GRU cfi AFH Soundesign 3844MGY 40 30 13x20x1362 o J gt G K J S U 1 Discontinued Replaced by RC X260 79 list and 60 average Features in Common Ail Permit snooze time of about min Retain time during short power failures Except as noted all have Battery backup for clock and alarm memory Red display digits 1 cm high Sleep time radio play for up to 60 min before automatic shutoff Switch to reset alarm Keys to Advantages A Alann works despite power failure B Shows actual time plus up to 2 alarm times C Twin alarms settable for 2 different stations D Tone alarm has adjustable volume control E Memory needs no battery F Digital tuner with presertable stations G Tuner can receive in H Battery strength indic I Iihuminated tuning dial J Tiuminated tuning pointer E Earphone jack L Nap timer M Audio input for tape deck or CD player N Display can show date and time O Display bes high low brightness switch P Display has larger digits than most Q Night light adjusts for room light R Bass boost tone control S Treble cut tone control T Better than most in tuning ease U Better than most in image rejection Key to Disadvantages a Possible to reset time by accident b Controls for time setting or dimmer inconveniently located on radio s bottom or rear c Display dimmer tha
30. UALITY continued n h oo ce ro oe o e o eee ee eee eee eee ce 0 wEOe9 2 02 0 0000000000000000000 n 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 Sampling error continued ce o oooo o n n n n o dwellings had been included and about 19 chances in 20 that the difference will be less than two SEs Another measure of the likely difference is the relative standard error RSE which is obtained by expressing the SE as a percentage of the estimate For estimates of population sizes the size of the SE generally increases with the level of the estimate so that the larger the estimate the larger the SE However the larger the sampling estimate the smaller the SE in percentage terms RSE Thus larger sample estimates will be relatively more reliable than smaller estimates The magnitude of the sampling error associated with a sample estimate depends on the following factors Sample design there are many different methods which could have been used to obtain a sample from which to collect data The final design attempted to make survey results as accurate as possible within cost and operational constraints Sample size the larger the sample on which the estimate is based the smaller the associated sampling error Population variability the third factor which influences sampling error is the extent to which people differ on the particular characteristic being measured This is referred to as the populat
31. and consistency edits were programmed into the CAI collection instrument Edit messages appeared on screen automatically if the information entered was either outside the permitted range for a particular question or contradicted information already recorded These edit queries were resolved by interviewers on the spot with respondents Workloads were electronically loaded on receipt in the ABS office in each state or territory Checks were made to ensure interviewer workloads were fully accounted for and that questionnaires for each household and respondent were completed Problems with the questionnaire identified by interviewers were resolved by office staff where possible using other information contained in the questionnaire or by referring to the comments provided by interviewers Coding Computer assisted coding was performed on responses to questions on country of birth language family relationships educational qualifications occupation and industry of employment Geography data was also coded The following details the classifications used to code data Coding of country of birth The survey questionnaire listed the 10 most frequently reported countries Interviewers were instructed to mark the appropriate box or if the reported country was not among those listed to record the name of the country for subsequent coding All responses for country of birth were coded according to the Standard Australian Classification of Countries
32. are used household characteristics current labour force status and educational attainment The table below provides a summary of comparability between the education and training concepts collected in ALLS and other surveys EDUCATION AND TRAINING CONCEPTS COLLECTED IN ALLS AND OTHER SURVEYS CoC CCC eee HEE oe eo oH ooo HOO HOHE HEHEHE HEHEHE HOES HOHE HEHE HEHEHE EOE EEO HEH OS Topic collected in ALLS 2006 SEW 2006 07 Adult Learning 2005SET 2006 Census Educational attainment Yes Yes Yes Yes Education participation No Yes No No Current Study Yes Yes No Yes Labour force status Yes Yes Yes Yes Household Income No Yes Yes Yes Coo ee eereereseeeseeeseeereeeseseseeeeseeesereseseeseseeeeeeeseeee CoCo oe ooo OEE EEE EOE HEHEHE EEE EEE EEE HEHEHE HEHEHE HEHEHE HEHEHE HHH HEHEHE HEHE HEHEHE HHH HHH HHH HHH HHH HEHEHE HEHEHE EEO EEO OS 10 ABS ADULT LITERACY AND LIFE SKILLS SURVEY USER GUIDE 4228 0 55 002 2006 SURVEY CONTENT continued eovovoeveveeveeeeeeeeeeee eee e ee eee eee eee eo eee ee eo eee rn eee no e pe e e oeo eo e eo o COMPARABILITY OF ALLS WITH OTHER EDUCATION AND TRAINING SURVEYS continued ADAPTING CONTENT FOR THE AUSTRALIAN POPULATION The SEW is designed to provide a snapshot of the participation and attainment of the population This survey s main focus is first on young people and their transitions from education to other study and or work and second on the stud
33. be produced from the survey incorporating specified data items and populations These can be provided in printed or electronic form Please refer to the contact details provided on the front of this publication COC ooo ooo HEHEHE ESE HEHEHE EHS EEE HEHEHE HEHEHE HEHEHE HEHEHE HHH HEHEHE HEHEHE HHH HHH HHH HHH HEHEHE HEHEHE HEHEHE EEE OOOO OS 28 ABS ADULT LITERACY AND LIFE SKILLS SURVEY USER GUIDE 4228 0 55 002 2006 OUTPUT AND DISSEMINATION continued e re R e e o n e ene eee eee eee poo eee eee eee eee oo noo oe n re e ee ee meee ee em e eo o RELATED PUBLICATIONS Listed below is a selection of other ABS publications on related topics which may be of interest Information about current ABS publications and products can be found in the Catalogue of Publications cat no 1101 0 or on line at lt www abs gov au gt A Directory of Education and Training Statistics cat no 1136 0 Aspects of Literacy Profiles and Perceptions Australia cat no 4226 0 Census of Population and Housing 2006 cat no 2015 0 Education and Work Australia cat no 6227 0 General Social Survey cat no 4159 0 Labour Force Australia cat no 6202 0 Education and Training Experience Australia cat no 6278 0 CoCo ooo ooo EHH EE HOHE HEHEHE HEHEHE HEHEHE HEHEHE HEHEHE HEHEHE HEHEHE HEHEHE HHH HHH HHH HHH HEHEHE HEHEHE HEHEHE HOO EEE OOOO OS ABS ADULT LITERACY AND LIFE SKILLS SURVEY USER GUIDE 4228 0
34. ces the two scales can not be compared The problem solving and the health literacy domains are additions to the 2006 ALLS and hence no time series information will be available The information in 2006 was gathered using computer assisted interviewing methodology while the 1996 survey used a paper questionnaire to collect information Ceo eee ee eeeeeeeeeeeeseseeeEeeeeEeEEeEeEEEEEE TESTES EEE HEHEHE HEHEHE OEE EEE EEE EES ABS ADULT LITERACY AND LIFE SKILLS SURVEY USER GUIDE 4228 0 55 002 2006 9 SURVEY CONTENT continued e r gt pK uEOeOO SC OS c ca U OOO O O O eee eee eee eee eee ee O O O0 000000000O0OAs0Aa0Aoa0oa0osoas0oaooasoasoasoaosoasoaooasooaooasooasoasooasooasoosoa COMPARABILITY OF ALLS WITH THE PREVIOUS SURVEY OF ASPECTS OF LITERACY continued COMPARABILITY OF ALLS WITH OTHER EDUCATION AND TRAINING SURVEYS The main differences between the 1996 and 2006 surveys can be summarised as follows a the addition of the numeracy problem solving and health literacy scales a the addition of informal learning more limited information collected on health conditions a the addition of the SF 12 Health Survey which provides scales on mental and physical functioning and overall health related quality of life a the introduction of the AUSTRALIAN STANDARD CLASSIFICATION OF EDUCATION ASCED in 2001 to classify educational activity by the level and field of activity The 1996 survey used th
35. e eee eee eee eee MEASURES OF LITERACY INFORMATION COLLECTED Background Questionnaire The assessment component of the ALL survey provides information on knowledge and skills in the following five domains prose literacy document literacy numeracy problem solving and health literacy In the 1996 SAL only three domains were assessed These domains were prose literacy document literacy and quantitative literacy The addition of problem solving and health literacy as well as the expansion of the quantitative literacy to numeracy provides extra dimensions to the assessment of adult skills A number of prose and document literacy tasks administered in the 1996 SAL have been retained for the 2006 ALLS to provide comparison of levels of literacy over time Both SAL and ALLS measured skills in the official language which in Australia is English The five domains can be defined as follows Prose Literacy The knowledge and skills needed to understand and use various kinds of information from text including editorials news stories brochures and instructions manuals Document Literacy The knowledge and skills required to locate and use information contained in various formats including job applications payroll forms transportation schedules maps tables and charts Numeracy The knowledge and skills required to effectively manage and respond to the mathematical demands of diverse situations Problem Solving Problem solving is goa
36. e or part time work at any time in the four weeks up to the end of the reference week and were available for work in the reference week if they had found a job A person who provides unpaid help willingly undertaken in the form of time service or skills to an organisation or group Had at least one employer or own business in the last 12 months Refers to a person s number of completed academic years in a formal studies at the primary secondary or further education level Part time study is converted to its full time equivalent CoCo ooo oO HOODEO HEHEHE HEHEHE EEE HEHEHE HEHEHE HEHEHE EHH H EHH HHH HEHEHE HHH HHH HHH HHH HHH HEHEHE SEH HOHE SEE EEE EEO OS ABS ADULT LITERACY AND LIFE SKILLS SURVEY USER GUIDE 4228 0 55 002 2006 FOR MORE INFORMATION www abs gov au the ABS website is the best place for data from our publications and information about the ABS INTERNET LIBRARY A range of ABS publications are available from public and tertiary libraries Australia wide Contact your nearest library to determine whether it has the ABS statistics you require or visit our website for a list of libraries INFORMATION AND REFERRAL SERVICE Our consultants can help you access the full range of information published by the ABS that is available free of charge from our website or purchase a hard copy publication Information tailored to your needs can also be requested as a user pays service Specialists are on hand to help
37. e previous classification of AUSTRALIAN BUREAU OF STATISTICS CLASSIFICATION OF QUALIFICATIONS ABSCQ a the introduction of the AUSTRALIAN AND NEW ZEALAND STANDARD CLASSIFICATION OF Occupations ANZCO and AUSTRALIAN AND NEw ZEALAND STANDARD INDUSTRIAL CLASSIFICATION 2006 ANZSIC06 to classify occupation and industry The ABS can provide additional advice on comparisons between the two surveys The ALLS is an international comparative study designed to provide participating countries with information about the skills of their adult populations The international nature of the survey means that data between countries are comparable as essentially the same questionnaire and assessments were used in all participating countries A Unit Record File of the survey results from first wave countries can be requested from the Statistics Canada website lt www statcan ca gt The ALLS is one of various education and training surveys conducted by the ABS Other education and training surveys include the annual Survey of Education and Work SEW the four yearly Survey of Education and Training SET and the Adult Learning Survey The Census of Population and Housing also collects some educational information Wherever possible ABS standard question modules were used in ALLS to ensure comparability of data with other education and training surveys Therefore the following topics are directly comparable with other ABS surveys where the standard modules
38. ellent very good good fair and poor Self perception of skills The selected person s self perception of their own literacy skills given against a four point scale from excellent through to poor for example a respondent would be asked to self rate their reading and writing skills Social capital Social capital is broadly defined as Networks together with shared norms values and understandings which facilitate cooperation within and among groups OECD 2001 Social capital variables collected in ALLS include participation in group or organisation unpaid volunteer work life satisfaction self assessed heath and emotional condition Social marital status A person s relationship status in terms of whether she or he forms a couple relationship with another person State or territory Classified according to the Australian Standard Geograpbical Classification ASGC cat no 1216 0 Studying full time Enrolment in study full time as reported by the respondent Studying part time Enrolment in study part time as reported by the respondent c oooonon n n n nnn nennnnnnnnnnnnrennnnnernnnerereeercononooooonenenenrcrnonnnnnonnononen nenonn n n n n o 44 ABS ADULT LITERACY AND LIFE SKILLS SURVEY USER GUIDE 4228 0 55 002 2006 GLOSSARY continued Unemployed Unpaid volunteer Worked in the last 12 months Years of formal education Persons aged 15 74 who were not employed as defined had actively looked for full tim
39. ent is designed to identify respondents who are unlikely to be able to complete the exercises included in the main task booklet MTB The CTB contains six basic questions for the respondent to complete Only respondents who correctly answered a minimum of three questions for the CTB moved on to the MTB Main task booklet The exercises in the MTB which are more numerous and diverse than those in the CTB in complexity and subject matter are designed to provide an understanding of the literacy skills of the general adult population Each booklet consists of two of a possible eight blocks of questions The blocks of questions measure different skill domains Blocks 1 to 4 measure Prose and Document Literacy Blocks 5 to 6 measure Numeracy Blocks 7 to 8 measure Problem solving These blocks were then distributed across 28 different booklets with different combinations of blocks This was to ensure a broad coverage of the skill domains CoCo ooo ooo HEHEHE HSE HOES EEE HEHEHE HEHEHE HEHEHE HEHEHE HEHEHE HEHEHE HEHEHE HEHEHE HHH HHH HHH HHH HEHEHE HEHEHE OHHH OOOO EOS ABS ADULT LITERACY AND LIFE SKILLS SURVEY USER GUIDE 4228 0 55 002 2006 7 SURVEY CONTENT continued e re eo o oo ce e eee eee wee eee eee eee eee ne eee eee mee e e oeo e e e eo e n n e o ce oo ooo o 8 Main task booklet continued SKILL LEVELS ABS Skill level estimates A
40. eople aged 16 65 years b Of eligible dwellings excluding sample loss The sample sizes differed between the 2006 ALLS and 1996 ALLS In 2006 the number of fully or adequately responding households achieved in the survey was 8 988 compared to approximately 9 302 for the 1996 cycle The 2006 cycle had a larger initial sample size of 14 311 dwellings compared to 13 008 in 1996 These differences in the sample size for 2006 and 1996 should be considered when comparing results For published results from the 1996 ALLS refer to Aspects of Literacy Assessed Skill Levels Australia 1996 cat no 4228 0 available on the ABS website lt www abs gov au gt Coe ooo ooo ooo HOHE OEE HOHE HEHEHE OHH HEHEHE HEHEHE HEH HHH HHH HEHEHE HEHEHE EEO E EEE EEE ABS ADULT LITERACY AND LIFE SKILLS SURVEY USER GUIDE 4228 0 55 002 2006 17 DATA PROCESSING e o nob eoe noe nc ce ne e e nco e ce o e e e e ce eee eo eee eee eee ee ne ne e e e e e eo e e e o oo DATA PROCESSING Computer based systems were used to process the data from the Background Data capture questionnaire and CTB components of the survey Internal system edits were applied in the CAI instrument to ensure the completeness and consistency of the questionnaire and responses during the interview The interviewer could not proceed from one section of the interview to the next until responses had been properly completed A number of range
41. er of votes cast This task was easy because respondents were asked to deal with a realistic type of situation where simple numerical information is displayed in a simple column format showing the name of each candidate and the number of votes that the candidate received No other numerical information was present that could distract the respondent Finding the total number of votes cast in the election requires a single addition operation that is made explicit in the question by the use of the keyword total and the computation involves relatively small whole numbers Nationwide Manufacturing Company Union Council ELECTION RESULTS Posting Date June 22 2000 The election of a new member of the Union Council for election group 3 at the Carver plant took place on June 21 2005 The results of the election were as follows Candidates Number of votes A Greer 120 votes H A Holliday 80 votes G F Reynolds 29 votes Consequently Mr A Greer was formally elected as member of the Union Council for Nationwide Manufacturing Company In accordance with article 16 paragraph 1 of the Union Council bylaws any interested party may lodge a complaint with the council within one week after publication of these results For the Election Committee K Moore Information Bulletin No 40 Removal date July 6 2000 Coo eee eee eee ooo HERE HHO HOH HH HOHE HEH HHH HOHE HEHEHE HEHEHE HEHEHE HHH HHH HHH HEHEHE HEHEHE TELE TERE EES ABS
42. erview A brochure providing some background to the survey information concerning the interview process and a guarantee of confidentiality was included with the letter For a small number of households where the ABS did not have an adequate postal address this was not possible On first face to face contact with the household by an interviewer general characteristics of the household were obtained from a responsible adult member of the household any responsible adult ARA This information included basic demographic characteristics of all usual residents of the dwelling e g age and sex and the relationships between household members e g spouse son daughter not related From the information provided by the ARA regarding household composition the survey instrument identified those persons in scope of the survey and randomly selected one person aged 15 to 74 years to be included in the survey A personal interview was conducted with the randomly selected person In some cases where a personal interview with the selected person was not possible another person responsible for them known as a proxy was interviewed on their behalf provided the interviewer was assured that this was acceptable to the selected person This was only permitted in extreme cases for one of the following reasons Mental or physical state of health does not allow response for the duration of the survey period Children aged 15 to 17 where parent o
43. esented in diverse ways including in texts of increasing complexity or in unfamiliar contexts These tasks involve undertaking multiple steps to find solutions to problems and require more complex reasoning and interpretation skills including comprehending and working with proportions and formulas or offering explanations for answers Tasks in this level require respondents to understand complex representations and abstract and formal mathematical and statistical ideas possibly embedded in complex texts Respondents may have to integrate multiple types of mathematical information draw inferences or generate mathematical justification for answers Tasks in this level typically require the respondent to make simple inferences based on limited information stemming from a familiar context Tasks in this level are rather concrete with a limited scope of reasoning They require the respondent to make simple connections without having to systematically check any constraints The respondent has to draw direct consequences based on the information given and on his her previous knowledge about a familiar context Tasks in this level often require the respondent to evaluate certain alternatives with regard to well defined transparent explicitly stated criteria The reasoning however may be done step by step in a linear process without loops or backtracking Successful problem solving may require the combination of information from different source
44. fficient detail necessary for classification and coding Ideally interviews would be conducted with all people selected in the sample However in practice some level of non response is inevitable Non response is classified as being where people refuse to cooperate cannot be contacted or are contacted but cannot be interviewed It is important that response be maximised in order to reduce sampling variability and minimise bias Sampling variability is increased when the sample size decreases Bias can arise if the people who fail to respond to the survey have different characteristics from those who did respond The ABS sought the willing cooperation of selected households Measures taken to encourage respondent cooperation and maximise response included CoCo eee ooo eH HOHE HEHEHE EEE EEE HEHEHE EHH HEHEHE HEHEHE HEHEHE HHH SESE SESE SESE HEHEHE HEHEHE HEHEHE HH HHH HEHEHE HOHE OS ABS ADULT LITERACY AND LIFE SKILLS SURVEY USER GUIDE 4228 0 55 002 2006 15 SURVEY METHODOLOGY continued e nk e cs o e 0 0 P0 60600000 0U0 0000000O0O0O0Aa0oaoasoasaaosaoasoasoasaoasaoaaoasoasoasaoasoasooasaoasasaoasaoasaoasaoasaoasoasoasaoasaoasoasaoasaoasaoasaoasaoasaoasooasooasosoa MEASURES TO MAXIMISE information provided to selected households in the ALLS initially by letter and a RESPONSE continued brochure explaining that their dwelling had been selected for the survey the purposes of the survey its official nature and the conf
45. fifth scale measuring health literacy proficiency was produced as a by product of the above testing process The production of the health literacy scale was an additional service provided to participating countries The survey contained 191 daily tasks that were judged to measure health related activities in five domains health promotion 60 items health protection 65 items disease prevention 18 items health care and disease management 16 items and navigation 32 items In ALLS each respondent was required to complete one MTB which consisted of tasks from two of the possible eight blocks of questions The full collection of blocks is required to cover all the concepts to be tested However individual respondents were not tested on all skill domains Each respondent is given a score for each domain based on their proficiency in their allocated MTB and responses in the background questionnaire For each literacy domain proficiency is measured on a scale ranging from 0 to 500 points Each person s score denotes a point at which they have an 80 per cent chance of successfully completing tasks with a similar level of difficulty To facilitate analysis these continuous scores have been grouped into 5 skill levels only 4 levels were defined for the problem solving scale with Level 1 being the lowest measured level of literacy The levels indicate specific sets of abilities and therefore the thresholds for the levels are not equidistant
46. g of data between the initial collection of the data and final compilation of statistics These may be due to a failure of computer editing programs to detect errors in the data or during the manipulation of raw data to produce the final survey data files for example in the course of deriving new data items from raw survey data or during the estimation procedures or weighting of the data file Due to the nature of the ALLS the ABS has implemented in addition to its own quality assurance processes a number of internationally required quality assurance procedures CoCo ooo ooo HEHEHE HEHEHE HOHE HEHEHE HEHEHE HSH HEHEHE HEHEHE EHH HHH HHH HEHEHE HEHEHE HHH HHH HHH HH HHH HEHEHE EHH HEHEHE HEHE EEE OEE ABS ADULT LITERACY AND LIFE SKILLS SURVEY USER GUIDE 4228 0 55 002 2006 23 DATA QUALITY continued be eo o pcp o o n neo o e e o e no e e e eo e no e e e e ne e e e eo o nc no eo o eo e o ne o Errors in processing continued Errors in scoring Literacy Score Imputation Variance Sampling error Errors may occur when computer editing programs fail to detect errors and when data is coded and transferred at various stages of computer processing In order to minimise these errors computer edits were devised to ensure that logical sequences were followed in the CAI instrument that necessary items were present and that specific values lay between certain ranges The
47. he loss of households which had no residents in scope for the survey and where dwellings proved to be vacant under construction or derelict Of the eligible dwellings 80 7 responded fully or adequately which yielded a total sample from the survey of 8 988 dwellings The following table shows the number of fully responding households achieved for each state and territory and the corresponding response rate achieved in the ALLS ALLS 2006 Sample size and Response rate summary By State and Territory e eee eo HEE HEHE SOHO HOH HO HSH HO HOH HHH HHH HEHEHE SESS HOOT H OHHH OHO RES EEE OOOO OS Fully responding Response rate a no State or Territory New South Wales 1 953 77 6 Victoria 1724 77 6 Queensland 1 658 83 0 South Australia 1 084 82 7 Western Australia 1271 81 3 Tasmania 579 89 2 Northern Territory 289 81 4 Australian Capital Territory 430 81 3 Australia 8 988 80 7 a Of eligible dwellings excluding sample loss The number of adequately responding persons and response rates for selected countries are presented in the following table SELECTED COUNTRIES Sample size and Response rate summary a CoC CoCo oo ooo O EEE SoS E OOH HHH HOHE HEHEHE HOES OSHS HEHEHE EHH EHO HOHE EEE E OEE OEE Fully responding Response Rate b no Bermuda 2 696 82 Canada 20 059 66 Italy 6 853 44 Norway 5 411 56 Switzerland 5 120 40 United States 3 420 66 eoecececee eee errr eee sre ee eee e eee e eee eee rere eeeee a P
48. he purpose of this analysis was to identify any problems in the input data which had not previously been identified as well as errors in derivations or other inconsistencies between related items In the final stages of processing additional output editing and data confrontation was undertaken to ensure ALLS estimates conformed to known or expected patterns and were broadly consistent with other ABS data sources allowing for methodological and other factors which might impact comparability Data available from the survey are essentially as reported by respondents The procedures and checks outlined above were designed primarily to minimise errors occurring during processing In some cases it was possible to correct errors or inconsistencies in the data which was originally recorded in the interview through reference to other data in the record in other cases this was not possible and some errors and inconsistencies remain on the data file Weighting is the process of adjusting results from a sample survey to infer results for the total population To do this a weight is allocated to each sample unit e g a person or a household The weight is a value which indicates how many population units are represented by the sample unit The first step in calculating weights for each person or household in the 2006 ALLS was to assign an initial weight which is equal to the inverse of the probability of being selected in the survey For example
49. he test responses might not fully reveal the literacy capabilities of respondents due to the testing environment The skills measured by the survey may not reflect the full range of some respondents abilities in a more natural setting Non response can introduce errors into the results as non respondents may have different characteristics and experiences from those people who responded The extent of non response varies from partial non response failure to answer just one or some questions to total non response The magnitude of the bias depends on the extent of the differences the level of non response and the extent to which non response adjustments can be made during estimation through the use of benchmarks As it is not possible to quantify differences between respondents and non respondents in any survey every effort is made to reduce the level of non response and for this survey additional measures were taken see p 15 Non response bias may be redressed to an extent by calibration to benchmark totals The 2006 ALLS was calibrated to two sets of benchmarks i estimated household composition totals and ii State part of state age group and sex totals Under or over representation of persons and households in these benchmark groups were adjusted for helping to compensate for any differential response patterns that may also be associated with these groups Opportunities exist for errors to arise during the processin
50. ical problem solving task is shown The project is about Planning a trip and a family reunion In the introductory part of the project the respondent is given the following summary describing the scenario and overall problem Imagine that you live in City A Your relatives are scattered throughout the country and you would like to organise a family reunion The reunion will last one day You decide to meet in City B which is centrally located and accessible to all Since you and your relatives love hiking you decide to plan a long hike in a state park close to City B You have agreed to be responsible for most of the organisation The respondent is then given a list of steps they need to work through in this example the following list Set the date for the reunion Consider your relatives suggestions for the hike Plan what needs to be done before booking your flight Answer your relative s questions about travelling by plane Book your flight m Make sure your ticket is correct Plan the trip from City B to the airport The first task of this project Set the date for the reunion is a good example of a typical problem solving task and is shown here as it would appear in a test booklet Example task Set the date for the reunion The family reunion should take place sometime in July You asked all your relatives to tell you which dates would be suitable After talking to them you made a list of your relative
51. identiality of the information collected The letters gave advance notice that an ABS interviewer would call and provided an ABS contact number for more information if required stressing the importance of participation in the survey by selected households by explaining that each household selected represented a number of others similar in size composition location occupation lifestyle and health Further explanation that the cooperation of those selected was important to ensure all households persons were properly represented in the survey and properly reflected in survey results stressing the importance of the survey itself which measures the literacy of Australians and therefore helps plan and provide support to those groups at risk a stressing the confidentiality of all information collected The confidentiality of data is guaranteed by the Census and Statistics Act 1905 Under provisions of this Act the ABS is prevented from releasing any identifiable information about individuals or households to any person organisation or government authority Through call backs and follow up at selected dwellings every effort was made to contact the occupants of each selected dwelling and to conduct the survey in those dwellings Interviewers made several call backs before a dwelling was classified as non contact Call backs occurred at different times during the day to increase the chance of contact If any person who was selected to be incl
52. ion variability for that characteristic The smaller the population variability of a particular characteristic the more likely it is that the population will be well represented by the sample and therefore the smaller the sampling error Conversely the more variable the characteristic the greater the sampling error RSE s for estimates from the 2006 ALLS are available in actual form i e the RSE for each estimate produced has been calculated using replicate weights Delete a group jack knife replicate weighting is a process whereby a primary sampling unit PSU of persons in the sample are assigned a zero weight and then the remaining records are reweighted to the survey benchmark population For the 2006 ALLS this process was repeated 60 times to produce 60 replicate weights These replicate weights are used for calculating the variances of the estimate for each replicate group about the main weight estimate by squaring the difference and summing these differences over all of the 60 replicate groups The difference between the replicate estimate and the main weight estimate is then used in calculating the sampling error of the estimate The formula used for the sampling variance is k 60 varsmpl0 2 2 o i where 0 the five plausible and mean literacy scores g the 60 replicates estimates of the five plausible and mean literacy scores c o oooonenn nnnonenen nn nennn nnnnnnnnnnnnrnonnnnnnnnnnnenereenenreneneneenen
53. is level require the respondent to integrate multiple pieces of information from one or more documents Others ask respondents to cycle through rather complex tables or graphs which contain information that is irrelevant or inappropriate to the task Tasks in this level like those at the previous levels ask respondents to perform multiple feature matches cycle through documents and integrate information however they require a greater degree of inferencing Many of these tasks require respondents to provide numerous responses but do not designate how many responses are needed Conditional information is also present in the document tasks at this level and must be taken into account by the respondent Tasks in this level require the respondent to search through complex displays that contain multiple distractors to make high level text based inferences and to use specialised knowledge CoCo o ooo oOo HHEHHEHEHEH HEHEHE HEHEHE HHH HEHEHE HEHEHE HHH HH HHH HHH HEHEHE HEHEHE HEHEHE OOOO OS 30 ABS ADULT LITERACY AND LIFE SKILLS SURVEY USER GUIDE 4228 0 55 002 2006 APPENDIX 1 LEVELS OF DIFFICULTY continued e kh Oe 9C lt lt 0 OOSO Oo eo o em eo em eee eee eC ea eo n eo o NUMERACY Level 1 0 225 Level 2 226 275 Level 3 276 325 Level 4 326 375 Level 5 376 500 PROBLEM SOLVING Level 1 0 250 Level 2 251 300 Level 3 301 350 Tasks in th
54. is level require the respondent to show an understanding of basic numerical ideas by completing simple tasks in concrete familiar contexts where the mathematical content is explicit with little text Tasks consist of simple one step operations such as counting sorting dates performing simple arithmetic operations or understanding common and simple percents such as 50 Tasks in this level are fairly simple and relate to identifying and understanding basic mathematical concepts embedded in a range of familiar contexts where the mathematical content is quite explicit and visual with few distractors Tasks tend to include one step or two step processes and estimations involving whole numbers benchmark percents and fractions interpreting simple graphical or spatial representations and performing simple measurements Tasks in this level require the respondent to demonstrate understanding of mathematical information represented in a range of different forms such as in numbers symbols maps graphs texts and drawings Skills required involve number and spatial sense knowledge of mathematical patterns and relationships and the ability to interpret proportions data and statistics embedded in relatively simple texts where there may be distractors Tasks commonly involve undertaking a number of processes to solve problems Tasks at this level require respondents to understand a broad range of mathematical information of a more abstract nature repr
55. ith those topics Other factors considered in designing the questionnaire included the length of individual questions the use of easily understood words and concepts the number of subjects and overall length of the questionnaire and sensitivity of topics Where appropriate standard questions from previous ABS surveys were included The Background Questionnaire and the scoring of CTB components of the interviews were conducted using a Computer Assisted Interviewing CAI questionnaire The CTB and MTB were separate paper forms completed by the respondent without assistance from the interviewer or anyone else There was no time limit for the survey CAI involves the use of a notebook computer to record store manipulate and transmit the data collected during interviews This type of instrument offers important advantages over paper questionnaires These include the ability to check the responses entered against previous responses to reduce data entry errors by interviewers and to enable inconsistent responses to be identified and clarified with respondents at the time of the interview The audit trail recorded in the instrument also provides valuable information about the operation of particular questions and associated data quality issues a the ability to use complex sequencing to define specific populations for questions and ensure word substitutes used in the questions are appropriate to each respondent s characteristics and prior res
56. l directed thinking action in situations for which no routine solution procedure is available The understanding of the problem situation and its step by step transformation based on planning and reasoning constitute the process of problem solving and Health literacy As a by product of the above domains health literacy is defined as the knowledge and skills required to understand and use information relating to health issues such as drugs and alcohol disease prevention and treatment safety and accident prevention first aid emergencies and staying healthy The ALLS is divided into the following sections Background Questionnaire including the household questionnaire and Assessment component Core Task Booklet and Main Task Booklet The initial household component of the survey was designed to collect basic information from a responsible adult about all persons in the selected household age sex marital status country of birth A personal interview was then conducted with one randomly selected person aged 15 to 74 years on the following topics General demographic information a Linguistic information m first language learned and most used at home self assessed proficiency in spoken English reading and writing proficiency in non English language Parental information occupation educational attainment CoCo ooo ooo HEHHH HEHEHE HEHEHE SHH HEHEHE HEHEHE HHH HHH HHH HHH HHH HEHEHE HEHEHE HHO OEE OOOO E
57. ly to resolve scoring queries quickly and consistently CoCo oo ooo OOOOH HEE HSE OES EEE HEHEHE EEE HEHEHE HEHEHE HEHEHE HEHE HHH HEHEHE HEHEHE HHH HHH HHH HHH HEHEHE SEH HEHEHE EOE EE EEO EE ABS ADULT LITERACY AND LIFE SKILLS SURVEY USER GUIDE 4228 0 55 002 2006 19 DATA PROCESSING continued e r gt 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 2 0 b e no o em ee eee mee eo meee eee meee eC eC em em ee el ele WE BENCHMARKING AND Output processing IGHTING ESTIMATION Weighting Benchmarking Information from the questionnaires and scored assessment items other than names and addresses was stored on a computer output file in the form of data items In some cases items were formed from answers to individual questions while in other cases data items were derived from answers to several questions During processing of the data checks were performed on records to ensure that specific values lay within valid ranges and that relationships between items were within limits deemed acceptable for the purposes of this survey These checks were also designed to detect errors which may have occurred during processing and to identify instances which although not necessarily an error were sufficiently unusual or close to agreed limits to warrant further examination Throughout processing frequency counts and tables containing cross classifications of selected data items were produced for checking purposes T
58. mputed as follows A Lear Omean 5 2 where Omean the mean value of the five weighted sample estimates of the five plausible values6 All literacy estimates presented in Adult literacy and Life Skills Summary results Australia cat no 4228 0 are obtained by taking the average of the five weighted estimates from each of the plausible values All five plausible scores as well as the 60 replicate weights are used in order to more reliably compute the standard errors This is covered in more detail in chapter 5 Data Quality Results of the previous adult literacy survey 1996 SAL were published in Aspects of Literacy Profiles and Perceptions Australia cat no 4226 0 and Aspects of Literacy Assessed Skill Levels Australia cat no 4228 0 Essentially the main components of the survey a background questionnaire and objective assessments were the same however additional literacy domains were included in the 2006 survey Of the five literacy domains available from the 2006 ALLS only two prose and document literacy are directly comparable to those derived from the 1996 SAL The quantitative literacy domain derived from the 1996 SAL was narrowly focused on numeracy competency and did not necessarily emphasise real life tasks which demand more diverse numeracy skills Consequently an expanded concept of adult numeracy has been incorporated in the 2006 ALLS numeracy scale As a result of these conceptual differen
59. n Standard Classification of Education ASCED 2001 cat no 1272 0 Level of Education classification The knowledge and skills required to locate and use information contained in various formats including job applications payroll forms transportation schedules maps tables and charts Highest level of schooling or non school educational qualification completed e g trade qualification certificate or university degree These qualifications may have been obtained in any country and need not have been accredited or recognised in Australia In an economic sense educational attainment provides a measure of the stock of skill and participation provides a flow measure Participation in education and learning is an indicator of access to skill learning opportunities Lifelong learning is a key policy issue for OECD nations and has been connected to economic prosperity through the promotion of skill development within nations Measures of participation in education and learning provide indicators of participation in lifelong learning and the opportunity to link such participation to directly assessed skill levels In an economic sense educational attainment provides a measure of the stock of skill and participation provides a flow measure An institution or organisation providing education or training such as Universities TAFEs Schools organisations which provide Adult and Community Education Business Colleges and Professional or Industry As
60. n most in brightly lit room Radio volume must be turned completely down for alarm buzzer to sound e Lacks alarm buzzer radio is sole alarm f Lacks indication alarm is set g Lacks alarm reset button h Time setting lacks fast reverse i No slow forward fast reverse for time setting Key to Comments 4 Display shows green digits B Display shows blue digits C Display uses LCD liquid crystal digits D Terminals for external ant E 3 position graphic ain F Cassette player lacks Record function G Cassette player lacks Rewind function H Model permits wake up to cassette play J Cassette deck flutter worse than most J Warranty repairs cost 3 for handling E Waranty repairs cost 3 50 for handling L Warranty repairs cost 6 for handling M Warranty repairs cost 10 for handling POSSESS EEE HEHEHE HEHEHE HEHEHE HHH HEHE HHH HHH HH HHH EHH HHH HHH HHH HHH HEHEHE HEHE HHH EHH HHH HHH HEHEHE HEHEHE OEE E TELE EES ABS ADULT LITERACY AND LIFE SKILLS SURVEY USER GUIDE 4228 0 55 002 2006 APPENDIX 2 MEASURING LITERACY IN ALLS continued e b e noo sc po ce e noc ee ee eee eee ooo eee eee ee eee eee eee eee ee eee O O O eee eee ee eeeee Numeracy Tasks e o nro ne neneenerercerrrno o One of the easiest tasks on the numeracy scale required respondents to look at a short text depicting the results of an election involving three candidates and determine the total numb
61. ning a Living First Results of the Adult Literacy and Life Skills Survey 2005 LITERACY IS CONTAINED IN OECD Statistics Canada THE FOLLOWING a The Adult Literacy and Life Skills Survey 2003 Public Use Microdata file Statistics INTERNATIONAL Canada available at www statcan ca PUBLICATIONS ALLS interactive data tool lt http litdata ets org ialdata search asp gt Measuring Adult Literacy and Life Skills New Frameworks for Assessment 2005 Statistics Canada The International Adult Literacy Survey ALS Understanding What Was Measured 2001 ETS Literacy and Health in America Policy Information Report 2004 ETS a Literacy Economy and Society Results of the First International Adult Literacy Survey 1995 OECD Statistics Canada a Literacy Skills for the Knowledge Society Further Results from the International Adult Literacy Survey 1997 OECD Statistics Canada m Literacy in the Information Age Final Report of the International Adult Literacy Survey 2000 OECD Statistics Canada Adult numeracy and its assessment in the ALL survey A conceptual framework and pilot results 2003 Statistics Canada a An Overarching Framework for Understanding and Assessing Life Skills 1999 Statistics Canada ALL Problem Solving Framework 2003 Statistics Canada Health Literacy in Canada Initial results from the International Adult Literacy and Skills Survey IALSS September 2007 Canadian Council of Learning New Zealand Literacy
62. o e no n no pto oe nr eee eee eee oe eee _EO O em ee em CC CO O O 0 0 0 1 00U 0U0000000 Significance testing Calculating standard errors for proportions and percentages Seasonal effects For comparing estimates between surveys or between populations within a survey it is useful to determine whether apparent differences are real differences between the corresponding population characteristics or simply the product of differences between the survey samples One way to examine this is to determine whether the difference between the estimates is statistically significant This is done by calculating the standard error of the difference between two estimates x and y and using that to calculate the test statistic using the formula below x y SE x y If the value of the statistic is greater than 1 96 then we may say there is good evidence of a Statistically significant difference between the two populations with respect to that characteristic Otherwise it cannot be stated with confidence that there is a real difference between the populations The imprecision due to sampling variability which is measured by the SE should not be confused with inaccuracies that may occur because of imperfections in reporting by respondents and recording by interviewers and errors made in coding and processing data Inaccuracies of this kind are referred to as non sampling error and they occur in any enumeration whethe
63. o eee eee oe nop eee eee 0 o 0000000000 METHODOLOGY continued the ALLS implementation were designed to conform to the Information Privacy Principles set out in the Privacy Act 1988 and the Privacy Commissioner was informed of the details of the proposed survey Standard ABS interviewing techniques were used and the questionnaire was designed to be administered by experienced ABS interviewers who had received specific training on this survey The questionnaire was further supported by detailed interviewer instructions covering general procedural issues as well as specific instructions relating to individual questions As for all ABS surveys standard ABS procedures including office coding and systems ensure the collection of objective and high quality data The questionnaire is not fully indicative of the range of information available from the survey as additional items were created in processing the data and ABS classifications were applied to raw data inputs Furthermore some questions were asked solely for the purpose of enabling or clarifying other questions and are not available in survey results CoCo oe ooo EHH EEE HEHE HEHEHE EEE HEHEHE HEHEHE HEHEHE HEHEHE HEHEHE HEHEHE HHH HHH HHH HHH HEH HEHEHE HEHEHE HOHE EEE OOOO OS ABS ADULT LITERACY AND LIFE SKILLS SURVEY USER GUIDE 4228 0 55 002 2006 5 SURVEY CONTENT e n h n O Cf Oo e _ o o ee eee wee eee we eee eee eee eee eee ree eee eee eee ee
64. or gross personal income for the 1996 ALLS population were Lowest quintile Up to 115 per week Second quintile 115 to 230 per week a Third quintile 230 to 460 per week Fourth quintile 460 to 690 per week Highest quintile 690 or more per week Problem Solving Problem solving is goal directed thinking action in situations for which no routine solution procedure is available The understanding of the problem situation and its step by step transformation based on planning and reasoning constitute the process of problem solving Proficiency in spoken English The self assessed level of ability to speak English in every day situations asked of people whose first language spoken was a language other than English or who speak a language other than English at home Prose Literacy The knowledge and skills needed to understand and use various kinds of information from text including editorials news stories brochures and instruction manuals Qualification A course that results in formal certification issued by a relevant approved body in recognition that a person has achieved learning outcomes or competencies relevant to identified individual professional industry or community needs Statements of attainment awarded for partial completion of a course of study at a particular level are excluded Self assessed health status The selected person s general assessment of their own health against a five point scale consisting of exc
65. out pay in a family business in the week prior to the survey including being absent from a job or business they had full time persons who usually work 35 hours or more per week or part time persons who usually work at least one hour but less than 35 hours per week unemployed not employed and actively looked for work in the four weeks prior to the survey and available to start work in the week prior to the survey not in labour force persons who were neither employed nor unemployed They include people who are keeping house unpaid retired voluntarily inactive or permanently unable to work or unpaid voluntary workers for charitable organisations CoCo ooo OOOOH EEE EOE HEHEHE HEHEHE HEHEHE HEHEHE HEHEHE EHO HEHE HHH HEHEHE HEHEHE HHH HHH H HHH HHH HHH HEHEHE HEHEHE HOHE EEE EOE EE 42 ABS ADULT LITERACY AND LIFE SKILLS SURVEY USER GUIDE 4228 0 55 002 2006 GLOSSARY continued e rebe oc co po eo eee ee ewe eee eo eee ee oe eee ee em eee ee meee mem ee ee ee ee eC em oO ee ele Level and Field not determined Literacy related work activities Main job Non school qualifications Non qualification course Not in the labour force Numeracy Numeracy related work activities Occupation Parental information Personal gross income Level and Field not determined includes inadequately described responses and cases where no response was given Respondents who had worked in
66. ponse Theory scaling to combine the individual responses to provide accurate estimates of literacy achievement in the population With this approach however aggregations of individuals scores can lead to biased estimates of population characteristics To address this the ALLS scaling procedures also used a multiple imputation or plausible scores methodology to obtain proficiency scores in literacy for all individuals even though each individual responded to only a part of the assessment item pool By using all available data for each respondent five plausible scores were generated for each of the five domains measured Coe eee esses eseeseeseeeeseseeeeeeeEeeeEeeEEeEEEEFEEEE EEE HEHEHE HEHEHE EEO E TELE E EES ADULT LITERACY AND LIFE SKILLS SURVEY USER GUIDE 4228 0 55 002 2006 SURVEY CONTENT continued eovovoeeveeveeeeeeeeeeee eee eee eee eee ee eee eee eee eee ee eee eee meee meee oc nc e o e e o Skill level estimates continued COMPARABILITY OF ALLS WITH THE PREVIOUS SURVEY OF ASPECTS OF LITERACY c o oooon on n n n n n en o o For simple point estimates in any of the literacy domains it is sufficient to use one of the corresponding five plausible scores chosen at random to derive population estimates of the levels of literacy However a more robust point estimate can be obtained by taking the average of the five weighted estimates produced from each of the five plausible scores which can be co
67. ponses CoCo ooo ooo EHHEHEHEHEH HEHEHE HEHEHE HHH HEHEHE HHH HHH HHH HHH HHH HHH HHH EHH HOHE HEE EEE EEO OS 14 ABS ADULT LITERACY AND LIFE SKILLS SURVEY USER GUIDE 4228 0 55 002 2006 SURVEY METHODOLOGY continued eovovoeveveeeeeeeeeeeeeee eee eee eee eee ee eee ee eee eee eee em ee em ee meee mem em eee ee eo he em oO eee ele Questionnaire continued MEASURES TO MAXIMISE RESPONSE a the ability to capture data electronically at the point of interview removing the added cost logistical timing and quality issues around the transport storage and security of paper forms and the capture of information from paper forms into a computerised format the ability to deliver data in an electronic semi processed form compatible with ABS data processing facilities semi processed in terms of data validation and some derivations which occur within the instrument itself While both the input and output data still need to be separately specified to the processing system input of the data in this form assists in the specification task and reduces the amount and complexity of some later processing tasks the provision for interviewers to record comments to help explain or clarify certain responses or provide supplementary information to assist in office coding The questionnaire employed a number of different approaches to recording information at the interview a questions where responses were classified by interviewers to one o
68. provided on any items scored inconsistently Participating countries were also required to re score at least 20 of the booklets with a match rate of at least 97 necessary between score one and score two Initially all Australian booklets were re scored to ensure the scoring guidelines were applied consistently by all scorers and where this was not the case feedback was provided to the scorer As scorers became more proficient the number of booklets re scored was reduced Overall 35 of Australian booklets were re scored with a match rate of at least 97 for all items In addition to the intra country re scoring as participating countries were nearing completion of scoring their booklets they were also required to undertake inter country re scoring The main goal of inter country re scoring was to verify that Australian scorers did not score differently to other participating countries This involved Australian scorers re scoring 397 Canadian booklets These scores were then compared to the Canadian first scores and feedback provided where items differed by more than 10 The outcome from the inter country re scoring resulted in Australia only having to re score five items Throughout the scoring process participating countries had access to an electronic bulletin board where counties could post scoring questions and receive scoring decisions from the domain experts This information could be seen by all countries and was used extensive
69. r guardian consent is not obtained and Persons incapable of answering because of language difficulties In these cases only the background questionnaire was administered and the assessment components of the interview were not completed In order to obtain a personal interview with appropriate respondents interviewers made appointments to call back as necessary to the household In some cases appointments for call backs were made by telephone however all interviews were conducted face to face Interviews may have been conducted in private or in the presence of other household members according to the wishes of the respondent CoC ooo eo oO H EH HHHEHHEH HEHEHE EHH HEHEHE HEHEHE HEHEHE HHH HHH HHH HHH HEHEHE HEHEHE HOHE HEHEHE OOOO OS ABS ADULT LITERACY AND LIFE SKILLS SURVEY USER GUIDE 4228 0 55 002 2006 13 SURVEY METHODOLOGY continued e e o nc pop oe on e rc eee eee eee eee eee eee eee ee ee eee eee em ee em ee mee eee ce rn pc o o n oo Interviews continued Interviewer Questionnaire In cases where a respondent initially refused to participate in the survey a follow up letter was sent and a second visit was made to the respondent usually by a supervisor to explain the aims and importance of the survey and to answer any particular concerns the respondent may have had about the interview Persons excluded from the survey through non contact or refusal were not replaced in the sample On average
70. r it be a full count or sample Every effort is made to reduce non sampling error to a minimum by careful design of questionnaires intensive training and supervision of interviewers and efficient operating procedures Proportions and percentages formed from the ratio of two estimates are also subject to sampling errors The size of the error depends on the accuracy of both the numerator and the denominator For proportions where the denominator is an estimate of the number of persons in a group and the numerator is the number of persons in a sub group of the denominator group the formula to approximate the RSE is given by RSE x y J RSE RSEQ The estimates from the 2006 ALLS are based on information collected from July 2006 through to January 2007 and due to seasonal effects they may not be fully representative of other time periods in the year For example the ALLS asked standard ABS questions on labour force status to determine whether a person was employed Employment is subject to seasonal variation throughout the year Therefore the ALLS results for employment could have differed if the ALLS had been conducted over the whole year or in a different part of the year CoCo ooo ooo EHO HEHEHE HOE HEHEHE EEE HEHEHE HEHE HEHEHE HEHEHE EHH HEHEHE HEHEHE HEHEHE HHH HHH HHH EHH HEH HEHEHE HEHEHE EEE EOE E EES ABS ADULT LITERACY AND LIFE SKILLS SURVEY USER GUIDE 4228 0 55 002 2006 27 OUTPUT AND DISSEMINATION e
71. r more predetermined response categories This approach was used for recording answers to more straightforward questions where logically a limited range of responses was expected or where the focus of interest was on a particular type or group of response which were listed in the questionnaire with the remainder being grouped together under other questions asked in the form of a running prompt i e predetermined response categories read out to the respondent one at a time until the respondent indicated agreement to one or more of the categories as appropriate to the topic or until all the predetermined categories were exhausted questions asked in association with prompt cards i e where printed lists of possible answers were handed to the respondent who was asked to select the most relevant response s By listing a set of possible responses either in the form of a prompt card or a running prompt question the prompt served to clarify the question or to present various alternatives to refresh the respondent s memory and at the same time assist the respondent select an appropriate response To ensure consistency of approach interviewers were instructed to ask the interview questions as shown in the questionnaire In certain areas of the questionnaire interviewers were asked to use indirect and neutral prompts at their discretion where the response given was for example inappropriate to the question asked or lacked su
72. re the ALLS estimates do not and are not intended to match estimates for the total Australian resident population obtained from other sources which include persons and households living in non private dwellings such as hotels and boarding houses and in very remote parts of Australia Benchmark variables used in the 2006 ALLS with corresponding level of detail were State or territory of usual residence all states and territories Age of person in five year age groups Sex of person males and females and a Area of usual residence capital city and balance of state CoCo oo ooo EHH HOHE SEDO HOE HEHEHE EEE HEHEHE HEHEHE HEHEHE HEHEHE HEHE HHH HEHEHE HEHEHE HHH HHH H HH HEH HHH HEHEHE HHO HEHEHE EEE EEE EOS ABS ADULT LITERACY AND LIFE SKILLS SURVEY USER GUIDE 4228 0 55 002 2006 21 DATA QUALITY e n h e rnr o e eee eee eee eee eee eo op ne e em eee eee eee eee e n e e e e e e e e e e e o oo DATA QUALITY Non sampling error Errors related to Survey Scope Response errors Non sampling errors occur when survey processes work less effectively than intended This type of error is not specific to sample surveys and can occur in a census The main sources of non sampling error are errors related to survey scope and coverage a response errors such as incorrect interpretation or wording of questions a bias due to non response or partial response characteristics of
73. reer Change Projects CIEM supports and coordinates projects to help employees prepare for new careers and new perspectives Mediation CIEM acts as a mediator for employees who are threatened with dismissal resulting from reorganisation and assists with finding new positions when necessary How much does CIEM cost Payment is determined in consultation with the department where you work A number of services of CIEM are free You may also be asked to pay either in money or in time How does CIEM work CIEM assists employees who are seriously considering another job within or outside the company That process begins by submitting an application A discussion with a personnel counsellor can also be useful It is obvious that you should talk with the counsellor first about your wishes and the internal possibilities regarding your career The counsellor is familiar with your abilities and with developments within your unit Contact with CIEM in any case is made via the personnel counsellor He or she handles the application for you after which you are invited to a discussion with a CIEM representative For more information The personnel department can give you more information 4228 0 55 002 2006 APPENDIX 2 MEASURING LITERACY IN ALLS continued e h e e no o o oeo co pPe ee eee eee eee eee eee eo eee eee eee eee eee eee ee ee ee eee eee eeee Document literacy tasks A Level 1 document literacy
74. s appointments during the month of July Your own appointment calendar is lying in front of you You realize that some of your relatives will have to arrive a day carly in order to attend the family reunion and will also only be able to return home on the day after the meeting Please look at the list of your relatives appointments and your own appointment calendar List of your relatives appointments in July 1999 Henry Karen Peter Janet Anne Frank Vacationin Everydayof Business Doesn t Unable to Has to be away City E the week is appoint have any attend sometime during beginning okay except ments on appoint reunion on the 1 full on July 26 Thursdays July 2 ments July 5 week in July and on July 13 and July 20 on business July 16 between or July 24 but will find Appointment July 27 out the exact on July 11 and 29 dates shortly before Henry Karen and Peter could arrive on the same day as the reunion whercas Janet Anne and Frank can only arrive on the afternoon before and return home on the day after the reunion Coe ee eee eee ee eeeeeeeeeeeesEeEEeEE EEE EEE EEE EEE HEHEHE HHH HHH HEHEHE HOHE E HOSE TELE EE EES ABS ADULT LITERACY AND LIFE SKILLS SURVEY USER GUIDE 4228 0 55 002 2006 39 APPENDIX 3 INTERNATIONAL PUBLICATIONS e nok e ee c no eo eo oe n pop eo o e noe ewe eo ee woe ee ee oem eee ee em ee eee ne ep eo c e e e n e e eo e e o oo MORE INFORMATION ON Lear
75. s e g from the question section and the information section of the test booklet Some tasks in this level require the respondent to order several objects according to given criteria Other tasks require the respondent to determine a sequence of actions events or to construct a solution by taking non transparent or multiple interdependent constraints into account The reasoning process goes back and forth in a non linear manner requiring a good deal of self regulation At this level respondents often have to cope with multi dimensional or ill defined goals Coe eee eee ooo HOHE HOE HEHEHE HEHEHE EEE HEHEHE HHH HEHEHE HEHE HEHEHE HHH HEE SESH HEHEHE HEHEHE HEHEHE HEHE HHH HEHEHE HOHE OOS ABS ADULT LITERACY AND LIFE SKILLS SURVEY USER GUIDE 4228 0 55 002 2006 31 APPENDIX 1 LEVELS OF DIFFICULTY continued eovovoeveveeveeeeeeeeeeee ee ee eer ee eee eee eee eee eee eee eee eee ce po poeoe cc e one ne o Level 4 351 500 Items in this level require the respondent to judge the completeness consistency and or dependency among multiple criteria In many cases the respondent has to explain how the solution was reached and why it is correct The respondent has to reason from a meta perspective taking into account an entire system of problem solving states and possible solutions Often the criteria and the goals have to be inferred from the given information before actually starting the solution process CoCo Sooo OHHH EEO HO
76. se edits were designed to detect reporting or recording errors and incorrect relationships between data items or missing data items Tabulations were obtained from the data file at various stages during processing such as after computer editing and subsequent amendments weighting of the file and after derivation of new data items to identify unusual values which may have significantly affected estimates and illogical relationships not previously identified Further checks were conducted to ensure consistency between related data items and in the relevant populations Another potential source of non sampling error is on the scoring of the test items particularly those that were scored on a scale e g items that required respondents to write A number of measures were implemented to minimise any error including the thorough training given to scorers prior to commencement of scoring actual survey test answers It is an international requirement that scoring of main task booklets is performed by trained scorers using international scoring guidelines to maintain consistency Thirty five percent of the core task booklets and main task booklets were re scored for quality control Adjudication of the re scoring was performed by the Scoring Supervisor in consultation with Statistics Canada where necessary In contrast to most other ABS surveys the 2006 ALLS estimates also include significant imputation variability due to the use of multiple po
77. semination In addition a comprehensive list of the data items from the survey is available as a datacube with this User Guide on the ABS web site lt www abs gov au gt Susan Linacre Acting Australian Statistician POSSE HEHEHE HEHEHE HEHEHE HHH HEHEHE HHH HHH HHH HHH HHH HHH HEH HHH HHH HEHEHE HEHEHE HEHEHE HHH HHH HEHEHE HEHEHE EEO E TELE EE EEE 2 ABS ADULT LITERACY AND LIFE SKILLS SURVEY USER GUIDE 4228 0 55 002 2006 ABBREVIATIONS e n e eo rn e oe e e noe p opP Ra o coo eee eee nooo e eee eee em eee eee eee eee eee eee eee eee eee ABS Australian Bureau of Statistics ALL International Adult Literacy and Life Skills Survey ALLS Adult Literacy and Life Skills Survey ANZSCO Australian and New Zealand Standard Classification of Occupations ANZSIC Australian and New Zealand Standard Industrial Classification ARA any responsible adult ASCED Australian Standard Classification of Education ASCL Australian Standard Classification of Languages ASCO Australian Standard Classification of Occupations ASGC Australian Standard Geographical Classification CAI computer assisted interviewing CTB core task booklet CURE confidentialised unit record file DEST Australian Government Department of Education Science and Training DEWR Australian Government Department of Employment and Workplace Relations ERP estimated resident population IALS International Adult Literacy Survey MTB main task booklet nfd no
78. sociations Persons who during the reference week worked for one hour or more for pay profit commission or payment in kind in a job or business or on a farm comprising employees employers and own account workers or worked for one hour or more without pay in a family business or on a farm i e contributing family workers or were employees who had a job but were not at work or were employers or own account workers who had a job business or farm but were not at work Employed persons who usually worked 35 hours or more a week in all jobs and those who although usually working less than 35 hours a week worked 35 hours or more during the reference week Employed persons who usually worked less than 35 hours a week in all jobs and either did so during the reference week or were not at work in the reference week Field of Education is defined as the subject matter of an educational activity Fields of education are related to each other through the similarity of subject matter through the broad purpose for which the education is undertaken and through the theoretical content which underpins the subject matter The field of education is classified according to the Australian Standard Classification of Education ASCED cat no 1272 0 co ono o n e nn nennnnnneennenenereeneoooooooooonenoe o ABS ADULT LITERACY AND LIFE SKILLS SURVEY USER GUIDE 4228 0 55 002 2006 41 GLOSSARY continued e r gt e
79. ss or bronchial asthma Iftaken in large doses and for an extended period may cause harm to kidneys Before using this medication for chicken pox or influenza in children consult with a doctor about Reyes Syndrome a rare but serious illness During lactation and pregnancy consult with a doctor before using this product especially in the last trimester of pregnancy If symptoms persist or in case of an accidental overdose consult a doctor Keep out of reach of children vl 611079 500 mg acetylsalicicylic acid Excipient c b p 1 tablet INGREDIENTS Each tablet contains 0 Reg No 88246 ll Made is Canada by STERLING PRODUCTS INC 1600 indestrial Blvd Montreal Quebec HOJ 3P1 Reprinted by permission The most difficult task on the prose literacy scale Level 5 required readers to look at an announcement from a personnel department and to list two ways in which CIEM an employee support initiative within a company helps people who lose their jobs because of departmental reorganization This task was scored as difficult because the question contained multiple phrases that the reader needed to keep in mind when reading the text In addition readers had to provide multiple responses and make low text based inferences This task is made somewhat more difficult because the announcement is organised around information that is different from what is being requested in the question Thus while the correct information is listed
80. ssible MTB questionnaires and the complex literacy scaling procedures The effect of the plausible scoring methodology on the estimation can be reliably estimated and is included in the calculated SEs An accepted procedure for estimating the imputation variance using plausible values is to measure the variance of the plausible scores with an appropriate scaling factor as follows N x 2 e M 0 Omean Var imp O mean 1 g TA l M 1 where Omean the mean estimate of the plausible scores i 1 5 respectively for the plausible scores 6 to 0s M the total number of plausible scores used M 5 for ALLS The estimates are based on information obtained from the occupants of samples of dwellings Therefore the estimates are subject to sampling variability and may differ from the figures that would have been produced if information had been collected for all dwellings One measure of the likely difference is given by the standard error SE which indicates the extent to which an estimate might have varied because only a sample of dwellings was included There are about two chances in three that the sample estimate will differ by less than one SE from the figure that would have been obtained if all CoCo Oooo OOOOH EEE HEHEHE HOHE EEE EEE EEE HEHEHE HEHEHE HEHE TE HEHE HHH HEHEHE HEHEHE HHH HHH HHH HHH HOHE HEHEHE HEHEHE HEE EEO OEE 24 ABS ADULT LITERACY AND LIFE SKILLS SURVEY USER GUIDE 4228 0 55 002 2006 DATA Q
81. stimates that are produced for individual states and territories except the Northern Territory where the excluded population accounts for over 20 of persons Persons aged 15 to 74 years were included in the survey The estimated Australian resident population at December 2006 after the exclusion of people living in non private dwellings and very remote areas of Australia was 20 182 511 of which 15 105 435 were aged 15 to 74 years The following non residents were excluded from resident population estimates used to benchmark the survey results and were not interviewed diplomatic personnel of overseas governments members of non Australian defence forces and their dependants stationed in Australia and persons whose usual place of residence was outside Australia The ALLS was designed to provide reliable estimates at the national level and for each state and territory Dwellings included in the survey in each state and territory were selected at random using a multi stage area sample This sample included only private dwellings from the geographic areas covered by the survey The initial sample for the survey consisted of 14 311 private dwellings This number was reduced to 11 139 dwellings due to the loss of households which had no residents in scope for the survey and where dwellings proved to be vacant under construction or derelict Of the eligible dwellings 80 7 responded adequately which yielded a total sample from the
82. t further defined OECD Organisation for Economic Co operation and Development RADL Remote Access Data Laboratory SAL Survey of Aspects of Literacy SE standard error SET Survey of Education and Training SEW Survey of Education and Work CoC ooo ooo EHO HOHE HSE HOE HEHEHE EEE EEE HEHEHE HEHEHE HEHEHE HEHEHE HHH HEHEHE HEHEHE HHH HHH HHH HHH HEH HEHEHE EHH HOHE EEE EEE EEE ES ABS ADULT LITERACY AND LIFE SKILLS SURVEY USER GUIDE 4228 0 55 002 2006 3 INTRODUCTION e kh oeo o no e e e neo n p e e e ee eee eee eo eee eee eee eee eee ee eee oo eee ee eee eee eee BACKGROUND TO SURVEY The Adult Literacy and Life Skills Survey ALLS was conducted in Australia as part of an international study coordinated by Statistics Canada and the Organisation for Economic Co operation and Development OECD The conduct of ALLS in Australia was jointly funded by the Department of Education Science and Training DEST the Department of Employee and Workplace Relations DEWR and the ABS Other countries that have participated or are currently taking part in the study include the United States of America Bermuda Canada Italy Mexico Norway Switzerland Hungary the Netherlands New Zealand and South Korea The ALLS is designed to identify and measure literacy numeracy and problem solving skills which can be linked to social and economic characteristics both across and within countries An additional literacy measure health li
83. t pensions and allowances and other regular receipts such as superannuation workers compensation child support scholarships profit or loss from own unincorporated business or partnership and property income Gross income is the Coe eee ooo ooo HEHE EEE HOHE HOHE EEE HEHEHE HEHEHE HHH HHH HEHEHE HEHE HEHEHE HHH H ESE SESE EHH HEHEHE HEHEHE HEHEHE HEH HHH HEHEHE HEHE ABS ADULT LITERACY AND LIFE SKILLS SURVEY USER GUIDE 4228 0 55 002 2006 43 GLOSSARY continued e h e o o o n noo cs 0 k o o o oe e ne ne Ln e ce eee eee eee eee eee eee eee ee ne e e o Personal gross income sum of the income from all these sources before income tax or the Medicare levy are continued deducted Personal gross income Median personal gross weekly income was calculated by dividing the distribution of gross median weekly reported income into two equal groups one receiving income above and the other income below that amount Personal gross Income These are groupings of 20 of the total population of Australia when ranked in quintile ascending order according to gross personal income The quintile boundaries for gross personal income for the 2006 ALLS population were Lowest quintile Up to 204 per week Second quintile 204 to 402 per week a Third quintile 402 to 738 per week Fourth quintile 738 to 1150 per week Highest quintile 11508 or more per week The quintile boundaries f
84. task directs the reader to identify from a chart the percentage of teachers from Greece who are women The chart shown below displays the percentage of teachers from various countries who are women This task was judged to be easy because the reader was required to locate a single piece of information that was literally stated in the chart FEW DUTCH WOMEN AT THE BLACKBOARD There is a low percentage of women teachers in the Netherlands compared to other European countries In most of the other countries the majority of teachers are women However if we include the figures for inspectors and school principals the proportion shrinks considerably and women are in a minority everywhere Luxem Italy France Ireland United Spain Belgium Greece Den Nether bourg Kingdom mark lands Percentage of women teachers kindergarten primary and secondary The most difficult task associated with this document falling in Level 5 asks the reader to identify from a complicated document taken from a page in a consumer magazine the average advertised price for the basic clock radio receiving the highest overall score This task was difficult because the reader had to match multiple features and there was more than one price listed for the clock with the highest score only one of which is the average advertised price POSS eee HEHEHE ERE HHO HHH HHH HEHEHE HEH HHH HHH HHH HHH HH HEHEHE HHH HHH HHH HEHEHE HEHEHE HEHEHE HSH HHH HEHEHE HEHEHE HEE E OEE HEL
85. ted before being finalised for use in the survey In addition consultation with DEST and DEWR and a wide range of users of the survey data with interests in adult literacy reviewed the international survey content Some minor adaptations to survey questions and exercises were made to suit the Australian context A further source of response error is lack of uniformity in interviewing standards Methods employed to achieve and maintain uniform interviewing practises included training and re training initiatives and regular supervision and checking of interviewers work These initiatives aimed to ensure that a high level of response accuracy was achieved An advantage of the CAI technology used in conducting interviews for this survey is that it potentially reduced non sampling error by enabling edits to be applied as the data was being collected The interviewer was alerted immediately if information entered into the computer was either outside the permitted range for a question or contradictory to information previously recorded during the interview These edits allowed the interviewer to query respondents and resolve issues during the interview CAI sequencing of questions was also automated such that respondents were asked only relevant questions and only in the appropriate sequence eliminating interviewer sequencing errors COC ooo ooo HOODEO HEHEHE HEHEHE EEE HEHEHE HEHEHE HEHEHE HEHEHE HEHEHE HHH HEHEHE HEHEHE HHH HHH HHH HHH HHH HEHEHE H
86. teracy is also available to countries who request it as Australia has done for this survey The key objectives of the survey are to profile the distribution of prose literacy document literacy numeracy analytic reasoning and health literacy in the adult population 15 to 74 years of age and to identify sub populations whose performance in these skill domains may place them at risk The ALLS will be the second survey of its type conducted in Australia Its predecessor the International Adult Literacy Survey IALS was conducted in Australia in 1996 as the Survey of Aspects of Literacy SAL Of the five literacy domains available from the 2006 ALLS only two prose and document literacy are directly comparable to those derived from the SAL The quantitative literacy domain derived from the 1996 SAL was narrowly focused on numeracy competency and did not necessarily emphasise real life tasks which demand more diverse numeracy skills Consequently an expanded concept of adult numeracy has been incorporated in the 2006 ALLS numeracy scale As a result of these conceptual differences the two scales can not be compared The problem solving and the health literacy domains are additions to the 2006 ALLS and hence no time series information is available Key findings from the 2006 ALLS are presented in Adult Literacy and Life Skills Summary results Australia cat no 4228 0 METHODOLOGY The ALLS collected information from July 2006 to January
87. th an RSE greater than 50 are preceded by the symbol to indicate the estimate is considered too unreliable for most purposes Space does not allow for the separate indication of the SEs and or RSEs of all the estimates in this publication However RSEs for all these estimates are available free of charge on the ABS website lt www abs gov au gt released in spreadsheet format as an attachment to Adult literacy and Life Skills Summary results Australia cat no 4228 0 Comparison of estimates Published estimates may also be used to calculate the difference between two survey estimates Such an estimate is subject to sampling error The sampling error of the difference between two estimates depends on their SEs and the relationship correlation between them An approximate SE of the difference between two estimates x y may be calculated by the following formula SEC y SEE SEQ While the above formula will be exact only for differences between separate and uncorrelated unrelated characteristics of sub populations it is expected that it will provide a reasonable approximation for all differences likely to be of interest in this publication COC ooo ooo OOOOH EEE EOE HEHEHE EEE EEE HEHEHE HEHEHE HEHEHE HEHEHE HEHE HHH HEHEHE HEHEHE HHH HHH HHH HHH HEHEHE HEH HOHE HEE EOE OES 26 ABS ADULT LITERACY AND LIFE SKILLS SURVEY USER GUIDE 4228 0 55 002 2006 DATA QUALITY continued e re oe e n o o
88. uded in the survey was absent from the dwelling when the interviewer called arrangements were made to return and interview at a later date Interviewers made return visits as necessary in order to complete the questionnaire for the selected person in scope of the survey In some cases the selected adult within a dwelling could not be contacted or interviewed and these were classified as non contacts Respondents who refused to participate were usually followed up by letter as well as a subsequent visit by a supervisor Completed questionnaires were obtained where possible There were instances in which respondents were willing to answer some but not all of the questions asked or did not know an answer to a particular question The survey instrument was programmed to accept don t know responses as well as refusals on sensitive topics such as income CoCo eo ooo EEHEEHEHH HEHEHE HEHEHE ETE HEHE HEHEHE HEHEHE HHH HHH HHH HHH HHH HEHEHE HEHEHE HOHE OEE OEE OOS 16 ABS ADULT LITERACY AND LIFE SKILLS SURVEY USER GUIDE 4228 0 55 002 2006 SURVEY METHODOLOGY continued e reh o e no neo nc nc e no pe poe on ne eee eo eee eee eee eee ce o oe o pe ne e e e e e e eo o RESPONSE RATES AND SAMPLE ACHIEVED COMPARABILITY WITH 1996 SAL c o oooo o n n n o The initial sample for the survey consisted of 14 311 private dwellings This number was reduced to 11 139 dwellings due to t
89. under a single heading this information is embedded under a list of headings describing CIEM s activities for employees looking for other work POPS eee HEHEHE TERE H EHH HEHEHE HEHEHE HHH HHH HHH HHH HHH HEHEHE HEH HHH HHH HEHEHE HEHEHE HEHEHE HSH HHH HEHEHE HEHEHE EEO E TELE E EEE ABS ADULT LITERACY AND LIFE SKILLS SURVEY USER GUIDE 4228 0 55 002 2006 33 APPENDIX 2 MEASURING LITERACY IN ALLS continued AUSCO AUSCO Manufacturing Company Personnel Department Centre on Internal and External Mobility What is CIEM CIEM stands for Centre on Internal and External Mobility an initiative of the personnel department A number of workers of this department work in CIEM together with members from other departments and outside career consultants CIEM is available to help employees in their search for another job inside or outside the AUSCO Manufacturing Company What does CIEM do CIEM supports employees who are seriously considering other work through the following activities Job Data Bank After an interview with the employee information is entered into a data bank that tracks job seekers and job openings at AUSCO and at other manufacturing companies Guidance The employee s potential is explored through career counselling discussions Courses Courses are being organised in collaboration with the department for information and traming that will deal with job search and career planning Ca
90. without the formula required the integration of several steps and several types of operations Performing the computations without the formula required understanding of compound interest procedures This task allowed respondents to use a range of reasoning strategies including informal or invented procedures It required the use of formal mathematical information and deeper understanding of non routine computational procedures all of which may not be familiar or accessible to many people DouBLE Your MONEY IN 7 YEARS 10 fixed interest each year over a period of 7 years Minimum deposit 1000 00 Handy financial hint For a quick way to estimate how much your investment 1s worth use this formula A P 1 r A new amount after the time period P principal the amount you invest I interest rate t time period in years CoCo ooo ooo EHH HOE EEO HEHEHE HEHEHE HEHEHE HEHEHE HEHEHE HOHE HHH HHH HEHEHE HEHEHE HHH HHH HHH HHH HEHEHE HEHEHE HEHEHE OEE OEE 38 ABS ADULT LITERACY AND LIFE SKILLS SURVEY USER GUIDE 4228 0 55 002 2006 APPENDIX 2 MEASURING LITERACY IN ALLS continued eoevovoevveeveeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee eee eee eee eee eee eee eee eee eee eee o 0o o eo CL Ct o e o o oeo o Problem solving tasks e onon nen enenercencerr n e o The following example illustrates a concrete realisation of a project For this purpose a project that is not included in the final ALLS instrument is introduced and one typ
91. y experiences and attainment of the working population The SEW has been run as the May supplementary to the Labour Force Survey since 1964 collecting information from persons aged 15 to 64 years The Adult Learning Survey is a brief survey on participation in formal non formal and informal learning using the international Classification of Learning Activities developed by the OECD The survey will allow the measurement of participation in continuing education and training The survey was enumerated in 2006 07 as part of the ABS s Multi Purpose Household Survey collecting information from persons aged 25 to 64 years The SET aims to provide a comprehensive picture of education participation qualifications and work related training experiences of people aged 15 and over with a focus on obtaining a history of education training and work experiences over the 12 to 18 month period prior to the survey The Census of Population and Housing which is conducted every five years provides information on education participation the level and field of people s highest educational qualification and a range of data on other topics However due to the self enumerated nature of the Census there are limitations due to the accuracy of recall high levels of non response for some education items as well as definition differences between the Census and more detailed education and training surveys The ALLS background questionnaire collected a variety

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