This chapter proposes 10 targets and tools for improving literacy outcomes in North America. Considered in isolation, these policy instruments are neither novel nor surprising. What is new, however, is the idea to employ them deliberately and collectively as elements of a comprehensive strategy for improving literacy outcomes. The proposed instruments are derived from an analysis of major international policy documents, previous research studies, the empirical analyses of the determinants of literacy proficiency using the IALS survey data,15 and experiences of education and literacy policy in OECD countries.
Learning is the self-evident key to improving literacy outcomes. But learning occurs not only in schools; it is a fundamental and defining feature of human life itself. This principle is underscored in several recent policy statements about the necessity of promoting lifelong learning for all citizens. Agencies such as the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), OECD and the European Union have all contributed to the building of an international consensus concerning the goals, means and ends of life-long learning. The National Education Goals Panel in the United States has monitored progress in adult literacy and life-long learning since 1994.
Life-long learning policies are grounded in the realization that firms, communities and whole countries are faced with a stupendous challenge of adjustment brought about by a fundamental change in the forces and factors of production in emerging knowledge and information-based economies. But life-long learning policies are also promoted for noneconomic reasons, on the grounds that education and skills are at the heart of any rational, enlightened and democratic society. Life-long learning, as currently understood, is a normative concept that is assigned meaning in a situation of uncertainty, change and structural adjustment.
15. In OECD and Statistics Canada (2000), results are presented of a multivariate analysis across 20 countries of factors that are associated with literacy proficiency. The purpose of that analysis was to find out, first, how much of the variance in literacy performance could be explained by the predictor variables in each country, and second, how much of that explained variance could be attributed to each of the predictors while holding the other factors constant.