How do you compare literacy skills of adults from around the world?

Challenge

Do adults have the literacy and problem-solving skills they need to successfully participate in 21st-century society? Are their skills improving, declining, or staying the same? How do skill levels compare among different countries?

The Program for the International Assessment of Adult Competencies (PIAAC) is a cyclical, large-scale study of adult skills and life experiences designed to answer these questions and focuses on education and employment.

PIAAC Cycle 1 conducted data collection rounds in 2012, 2014, and 2017 to assess nationally representative samples of adults between the ages of 16 and 65. Study participants were administered an assessment of literacy, numeracy, and problem-solving in technology-rich environments, as well as survey questions about their educational background, work history, the skills they use on the job and at home, and sense of their health and well-being. In 2023, data collection for Cycle 2 of PIAAC was completed by 31 participating countries; in addition to literacy and numeracy assessments,  Cycle 2 included a new adaptive problem-solving component as part of the tablet-based assessment.

Solution

With our colleagues at ETS and under contract with the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), Westat developed the PIAAC technical standards and guidelines, as well as training and quality control materials for sampling, weighting, and field operations.

Supporting the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), Westat conducted the U.S. sampling, data collection, and reporting for all rounds in the U.S., collecting data from more than 12,000 participants during Cycle 1, with an extended age range of 16 to 74. In 2023, Westat completed the first data collection round of  Cycle 2, which included a nationally representative sample of about 4,600 new adults (age 16 to 74).

Results

The PIAAC results are used to compare participating countries’ skills capacities of their workforce-aged adults and to learn more about the relationships between educational background and employment and other outcomes.

In addition to reports highlighting the Cycle 1 results, these data were used to produce indirect state-level and county-level estimates for the U.S., which are available on the NCES PIAAC Skills Map website.

The OECD and NCES will release the PIAAC Cycle 2 results on December 10, 2024. The results will compare skills across all rounds of U.S. data collection.