Adult Literacy in OECD Countries: Technical Report on the First InternationalAdult Literacy Survey

摘要

In December 1995 the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development(OECD) and Statistics Canada jointly published the results of the first International Adult Literacy Survey (IALS). For this survey, conducted during the autumn of 1994, representative samples of adults aged 16 to 65 were interviewed and tested in their homes in Canada (English and French-speaking provinces). France, Germany, the Netherlands, Poland, Sweden, Switzerland (French and German-speaking cantons), and the United States. The IALS established an important precedent by extending the educational measurement and assessment to the adult population. The results enable us for the first time to profile the literacy and numeracy of adults in different countries as well as to make international comparisons of particular subpopulations of interest--for example, adults in the labor force.