Functional Literacy Assessment: Issues of Interpretation

Abstract

Adult educators typically have no difficulty recognizing theoretical distinctions between the concept of functional literacy and constructs that refer to internal traits such as cognitive aptitude or intelligence. In practice, however, interpretations of a person's performance on functional literacy tasks are confounded frequently by implicitly held notions that a cognitive trait closely aligned with intelligence is being measured. This essay discusses problems and issues inherent in measuring and interpreting functional literacy performance. First, a brief overview of the definitional dilemma and a synopsis of some of the widely known functional literacy assessments will be presented to provide a necessary context. Specific issues related to validity will then be examined. Finally, the impact of various conceptualizations of validity upon our interpretation of functional literacy test performance will be explored.

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