This audio file introduces a series of podcasts, developed by the Office of Literacy and Essential Skills (OLES) in Human Resources and Skills Development Canada (HRSDC), focusing on numeracy-related research undertaken as part of the Essential Skills Research Project designed to improve the current measurement framework for those skills.

Host Véronique Cadieux interviews Katherine Clarke-Nolan, a policy analyst with OLES, who explains the basis for the numeracy portion of the project.

The project objectives were to do a literature review of five internationally recognized assessment frameworks measuring numeracy; develop a comparative analysis of the definitions and components of numeracy used by selected international large-scale assessments, and to evaluate their compatibility with the functions and intended uses of the Essential Skills profiles developed by HRSDC; and develop a set of recommendations for revising the Essential Skills Research Project methodology to align it with the international assessments.

 

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