This study may have an effect on large scale future literacy assessments. Our initial research on literacy gender differences, as found in large scale studies (IALS, 1995; OECD, 2001), led us to examine individual reading levels and reading behaviors of boys and girls.
The International Adult Literacy Survey (Kirsch, Jones & Murray, 1995) divided literacy into three domains: prose literacy; documentary literacy, and quantitative literacy. The IALS measured literacy at five levels of confidence in each domain. The results are examined in terms of their relationships between literacy and television, literacy and employment, literacy and income, as well as literacy and education.
The Programme for International Student Assessment (OECD, 2001) focused on the reading literacy domain. PISA, 2000 included a large Canadian sample in order to provide results nationally and provincially. It focused on the literacy skills needed for life rather than mastery of the school curriculum. Some of the factors analyzed in the PISA report include:
Academic Factors