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Adult Literacy in America - National Center for Education Statistics ...

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Document Level 3 Scale range: 276 to 325<br />

Some tasks <strong>in</strong> this level require the reader to <strong>in</strong>tegrate multiple pieces<br />

of <strong>in</strong><strong>for</strong>mation from one or more documents. Others ask readers to<br />

cycle through rather complex tables or graphs which conta<strong>in</strong><br />

<strong>in</strong><strong>for</strong>mation that is irrelevant or <strong>in</strong>appropriate to the task.<br />

Average difficulty value of tasks <strong>in</strong> this level: 302<br />

Percentage of adults per<strong>for</strong>m<strong>in</strong>g <strong>in</strong> this level: 31%<br />

Tasks with<strong>in</strong> the range <strong>for</strong> Level 3 ask the reader to locate particular<br />

features <strong>in</strong> complex displays, such as tables that conta<strong>in</strong> nested <strong>in</strong><strong>for</strong>mation.<br />

Typically, distractor <strong>in</strong><strong>for</strong>mation is present <strong>in</strong> the same row or column as the<br />

correct answer. For example, the reader might be asked to use a table that<br />

summarizes appropriate uses <strong>for</strong> a variety of products, and then choose which<br />

product to use <strong>for</strong> a certa<strong>in</strong> project. One such task had a difficulty value of 303.<br />

To per<strong>for</strong>m this task successfully, the respondent uses a table conta<strong>in</strong><strong>in</strong>g nested<br />

<strong>in</strong><strong>for</strong>mation to determ<strong>in</strong>e the type of sandpaper to buy if one needs “to smooth<br />

wood <strong>in</strong> preparation <strong>for</strong> seal<strong>in</strong>g and plans to buy garnet sandpaper.” This task<br />

requires match<strong>in</strong>g not only on more than a s<strong>in</strong>gle feature of <strong>in</strong><strong>for</strong>mation but<br />

also on features that are not always superord<strong>in</strong>ate categories <strong>in</strong> the document.<br />

For example, “preparation <strong>for</strong> seal<strong>in</strong>g” is subord<strong>in</strong>ated or nested under the<br />

category “wood,” while the type of sandpaper is under the ma<strong>in</strong> head<strong>in</strong>g of<br />

“garnet.” In addition, there are three other types of sandpaper that the reader<br />

might select that partially satisfy the directive.<br />

Section III ......89

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