Identifying task characteristics

The task characteristics represent variables that can be used in a variety of ways in developing an assessment and interpreting the results. Almond and Mislevy (1998) have identified five roles that variables can take on. They can be used to limit the scope of the assessment, characterize the features that should be used for constructing tasks, control the assembly of tasks into booklets or test forms, characterise examinees’ performance on or responses to tasks, or help to characterise aspects of competencies or proficiencies. IALS focused on variables that can be used to help in the construction of tasks as well as in the characterization of performance along one or more proficiency scales.

Each task in the assessment represents a piece of evidence about a person’s literacy (Mislevy, 2000). While the goal of the assessment will be to develop the best possible picture of an individual’s skills and abilities, the test cannot include an infinite number of tasks nor can an infinite number of features of those tasks be manipulated. Therefore, decisions need to be made about which features should be part of the test development process. Three task characteristics were identified and used in the construction of tasks for the IALS. These characteristics include:

Adult contexts/content. Since adults do not read written or printed materials in a vacuum, but read within a particular context or for a particular purpose, materials for the literacy assessment are selected that represent a variety of contexts and contents. This is to help ensure that no one group of adults is either advantaged or disadvantaged due to the context or content included in the assessment. Six adult context/content categories have been identified as follows:

• Home and family: may include materials dealing with interpersonal relationships, personal finance, housing, and insurance.
• Health and safety: may include materials dealing with drugs and alcohol, disease prevention and treatment, safety and accident prevention, first aid, emergencies, and staying healthy.
• Community and citizenship: may include materials dealing with staying informed and community resources.
• Consumer economics: may include materials dealing with credit and banking, savings, advertising, making purchases, and maintaining personal possessions.
• Work: may include materials that deal in general with various occupations but not job specific texts, finding employment, finance, and being on the job.
• Leisure and recreation: may include materials involving travel, recreational activities, and restaurants.

Materials/texts. While no one would doubt that a literacy assessment should include a range of material, what is critical to the design and interpretation of the scores that are produced are the range and specific features of the text material which are included in constructing the tasks. A key distinction among texts that is at the heart of the IALS survey is their classification into continuous and non-continuous texts. Conventionally, continuous texts are formed of sentences organized into paragraphs. In these texts, organization occurs by paragraph setting, indentation, and the breakdown of text into a hierarchy signalled by headings that help the reader to recognize the organization of the text. The primary classification of continuous texts is by rhetorical purpose or text type. For IALS, these included: expository, descriptive, argumentative, and injunctive.