criterion-referenced approaches report an individual ‘s score in relation to some fixed
criterion Boudard and Jones, 2003:194. There have been various international and national literacy assessment models
undertaken to test adult literacy proficiency according to different operational policies.
2.3.1 Young Adult Literacy Survey YALS
The direct measurement model of the YALS mentioned above was devised on the basis of seminar work by Irwin Kirsch of ETS and Peter Mosenthal of Syracuse
University Murray et al. eds., 1998:101. The Kirsch-Mosenthal framework accounted for the characteristics associated with the difficulty of various types of adult reading tasks
in three distinct literacy domains: •
prose literacy, which reflects the ability to read and use texts of varying levels of difficulty which are presented in sentence and paragraph form;
• document literacy, which reflects the ability to use texts of varying difficulty
which are presented as tables, charts, and graphs, etc.; and •
quantitative literacy, which reflects the ability to perform arithmetic calculations of varying difficulty which are based on text materials ibid.:101-
102. To develop the assessment tasks and conduct the assessment, an expert panel
convened for the YALS adopted the following operational definition of literacy: ―Using printed and written information to function in society, to achieve one‘s
goals, and to develop one ‘s knowledge and potential‖ Kirsch and Jungeblut,
1986:3. The YALS was conducted by 500 interviewers to assess approximately 3,600
young adults. Approximately sixty to ninety minutes were required for each interview designed to measure proficiencies on diverse tasks that simulate the use of printed
materials encountered in various adult contexts associated with work, home, and community.
These tasks included: • reading and interpreting prose, as in newspaper articles, magazines, and
books; • identifying and using information located in documents such as forms,
tables, charts, and indexes; and • applying arithmetic operations to information contained in printed material
such as a menu, checkbook, or advertisement ibid.. The proficiency scales of each literacy domain were designed to range from 0 to
500 with a mean of 250. The assessment model described by Kirsch et al. was used in the YALS and has been applied to other large-scale surveys such as the U.S. Department of
Labor DOL Workplace Literacy Survey, the National Adult Literacy Survey NALS, the International Adult Literacy Survey IALS, and the National Assessment of Adult
Literacy NAAL National Research Council, 2005.
2.3.2 U.S. Department of Labor DOL Workplace Literacy Survey
