Variation in the distribution of proficiencies between Canadian jurisdictions is mirrored by variation between countries (Figures 1.3 A to D). International comparisons allow us to assess the Canadian results against external benchmarks. Some provinces and territories perform as well as, or even better than, the bes performing countries participating in the ALL study, while others perform less well.2 The literacy performance of 16 to 65 year-olds in the Yukon, Saskatchewan, Alberta and British Columbia, for example, compares favourably with Bermuda and Norway, the best performing countries. The average literacy performance of the adult populations of most Canadian provinces and territories is significantly higher than that of the adult population in the United States.
The length of the bar in Figures 1.3 A to D denotes the extent of inequality inperformance within a jurisdiction with longer lines indicating greater inequality. Onthe prose literacy scale, British Columbia, the Northwest Territories and Ontario have a relatively large spread in scores, like Bermuda and Italy. In contrast, the shorter bar for Saskatchewan, like Switzerland, indicates a tighter distribution of scores.
These
findings, taken as a whole, are useful because they also indicate
thedegree of inequality in the distribution of proficiency
between
each jurisdiction which “… is associated with
the distribution of social, economic, health and educational
outcomes.”
3
Figures 1.3 A to D show how the proficiency scores are distributed within populations by using percentiles. The extreme left of the bars shows the scores for the weakest performers in the population (known as the 5th percentile where 95 percent of the population scores above this level) while the extreme right provides the score for the strongest performers (known as the 95th percentile where only 5 percent of the population score higher). In between are the middle performers (the 25th and 75th percentiles) and in the centre of the bar is the mean or average score. When plotted along a line, these points provide a clear picture of the spread of literacy and numeracy performance within each jurisdiction. For instance, on the prose scale, the average score for both the Yukon and Saskatchewan is greater than the 75th percentile scores in Nunavut, Italy and the Mexican State of Nuevo Leon.