The Irish Journal of Education, 2015, xl, pp. 3-28. LITERACY AND NUMERACY IN NORTHERN IRELAND AND THE REPUBLIC OF IRELAND IN INTERNATIONAL STUDIES Gerry Shiel and Lorraine Gilleece Educational Research Centre St Patrick’s College, Dublin Recent international assessments of educational achievement at primary, post- primary, and adult levels allow for comparisons of performance in reading literacy and numeracy/mathematics between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland. While students in grade 4 (Year 6) in Northern Ireland significantly outperformed students in the Republic in reading literacy and mathematics in the PIRLS and TIMSS studies in 2011, 15-year olds in the Republic outperformed students in Northern Ireland on reading and mathematical literacy in PISA 2006 and 2012. Performance on PISA reading literacy and mathematics declined significantly from performance in earlier cycles in Northern Ireland in 2006 and in the Republic of Ireland in 2009. However, while performance in the Republic improved in 2012, it has remained at about the same level since 2006 in Northern Ireland. Adults in both Northern Ireland and the Republic performed significantly below the international averages on literacy and numeracy in the 2012 PIAAC study. Results of the studies are discussed in the context of policy initiatives in 2011 to improve literacy and numeracy in both jurisdictions, including the implementation of literacy and numeracy strategies and the establishment of targets for improved performance at system and school levels. Both Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland have participated in four major international assessments of scholastic achievement in recent years – the Progress in International Literacy Study (PIRLS) and Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS), both organized by the International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement (IEA), and the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) and the Programme for the International Assessment of Adult Competencies (PIAAC), organized by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). These studies allow for a comparison of the performance of students and adults in the two jurisdictions in the years in which they were administered, and, in the case of PISA, for a consideration of trends in performance over time, since both jurisdictions participated in PISA on five occasions since 2000. Some comparisons can also be drawn 4 GERRY SHIEL AND LORRAINE GILLEECE between the performance of adults in Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland on PIAAC and their performance on an earlier study of adult literacy – the International Adult Literacy Survey (IALS). In addition to outcomes on tests of achievement, all four provide contextual information obtained from questionnaires. The questionnaires in the school-based surveys (PIRLS, TIMSS, PISA) provide data at the level of education systems, schools, and classrooms, as well as data on students and their homes, while the PIAAC questionnaire provides information at the level of the participating adult. Despite strong cultural, economic, and geographic links between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland, their education systems have developed more or less independently of one another since separation in 1922. In the past, the education system in Northern Ireland was influenced by developments in curriculum and assessment in the United Kingdom, especially in England, but, in 1999, policy and legislative responsibility for education was devolved from the UK government to a local Assembly. The Republic of Ireland has enjoyed relative independence in educational decision making since its establishment in 1922. Since 2000, officials from Northern Ireland and the Republic have worked collaboratively in the context of the North-South Ministerial Council on such issues as education for children with special needs, under-achievement in education, and teacher qualifications (see http://www.northsouthministerialcouncil.org). THE FOUR STUDIES The data considered in this paper are drawn from PIRLS, TIMSS, PISA, and PIAAC. PIRLS is a study of the reading literacy of students in their fourth year of formal schooling (Year 6 in Northern Ireland; fourth class in the Republic of Ireland). Although PIRLS was administered on two previous occasions (2001, 2006), Northern Ireland and the Republic took part for the first time in Spring 2011. Both met PIRLS 2011 sampling criteria. The exclusion rate (based on school-level and within-school exclusions) was marginally greater in Northern Ireland (3.5%) than in the Republic (2.5%), though both met a 5% criterion level. In all, 3,568 students in 136 schools in Northern Ireland and 4,524 students in 151 schools in the Republic took part. The overall response rate in the Republic (based on numbers of participating students and schools) was 95%, while it was 79% in Northern Ireland, a level that was reached only after replacement schools were added. The average age of students was 10.4 years in Northern Ireland and 10.3 years in the Republic. LITERACY AND NUMERACY IN NORTHERN IRELAND AND THE REPUBLIC 5 TIMSS is a study of mathematics and science, also of students in their fourth year of formal schooling. It has been administered in fourth grade on four occasions (1995, when it was called the Third International Mathematics and Science Study, 2003, 2007, and 2011). While the Republic of Ireland participated in 1995 and 2011, Northern Ireland participated for the first time in 2011. Participation numbers and rates for TIMSS in both Northern Ireland and the Republic are very similar to those for PIRLS, since the two studies were administered to the same students. Neither Northern Ireland nor the Republic took part in TIMSS in eighth grade in 2011. (The Republic participated in 1995 and 2015.) PISA is a study of the reading literacy, mathematical literacy, and scientific literacy of 15-year olds and has been administered in OECD and partner countries every three years since 2000. In 2012, it was administered in all 34 OECD countries and in an additional 31 ‘partner’ countries. Northern Ireland has participated in all five cycles to date as part of the United Kingdom sample, while the Republic of Ireland has participated as a full OECD member state. Schools and students in Northern Ireland were over-sampled to allow performance to be reported separately from the UK as a whole. Whereas the samples for the Republic of Ireland and the UK as a whole were adjudicated by the OECD to ensure that they were representative, and that response rates were in line with PISA technical standards, the sample for Northern Ireland was not formally adjudicated, though the OECD has produced results for Northern Ireland, in the same way as it has for other recognized jurisdictions such as Flemish Belgium and the Canadian provinces. In 2012, 2,224 students in 90 schools in Northern Ireland and 5,016 students in 183 schools in the Republic of Ireland took part (OECD, 2013b). In 2012, the Republic of Ireland had a weighted response rate of 99% at school level and 84% at student levels (OECD, 2013b, Table A2.3). Response rates for Northern Ireland, separate from those for the UK as a whole, have not been reported. For the first and second cycles of PISA, only paper-based tests were employed. Computer-based tests were administered alongside paper-based texts from 2006 onwards in some countries, including the Republic of Ireland. Since Northern Ireland employed paper-based tests only up to and including 2012, only performance on paper-based tests is considered in this paper. From 2015, PISA will be offered in most countries in computer-based format only. 6 GERRY SHIEL AND LORRAINE GILLEECE PIAAC is a study of adult literacy (reading literacy, numeracy, computer- based problem solving), which was administered to representative samples of adults in 25 countries/jurisdictions for the first time in 2012 (OECD, 2013a, 2013c). PIAAC allowed for comparisons with earlier international studies, including IALS (the International Adult Literacy Study) which was administered in 20 countries, including the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland between 1994 and 1998. In 2012, 3,761 adults (aged 16-64) in Northern Ireland and 5,983 in the Republic participated in PIAAC. Northern Ireland had a response rate of 65%, while in the Republic, the response rate was 72% (the required rate was stated to be 70%, though, like Northern Ireland, most participating countries did not meet it). PIAAC employed a combination of print-based texts (for non-computer users) and electronic or computer-based texts. In Northern Ireland, 10.0% of adults indicated that they had no computer experience, 2.3% said that they were not sufficiently confident to complete the PIAAC tests on computer though they had some skills, and 5.8% ‘failed’ a basic computer skills test. In the Republic, the corresponding figures were 10.1%, 17.4%, and 4.7% (CSO, 2013). These adults completed the PIAAC tasks on paper. It is unclear why a far greater percentage of adults in the Republic than in Northern Ireland decided that their computer skills were insufficient to do PIAAC on computer. Comparisons between PIAAC and the earlier IALS study can be made on the basis of an unspecified set of common items (OECD, 2013c). However, caution is urged due to differences in the construct of literacy assessed in the two studies and the fact that large proportions of participants completed the PIAAC test on computer, whereas none did in IALS. READING LITERACY PIRLS Reading Literacy In PIRLS 2011, students in Northern Ireland achieved a mean score of 558.5 (Figure 1), which ranked fifth of 45 participating countries; only Hong Kong SAR, the Russian Federation, Finland, and Singapore achieved significantly higher mean scores (Mullis, Martin, Foy, & Drucker, 2012). Students in the Republic of Ireland achieved a mean score of 551.6, which ranked tenth, with five countries (including Northern Ireland) achieving significantly higher mean scores.