Measuring student knowledge and skills

Recommended distribution of reading tasks by non-continuous text type
Text type
% of non-continuous texts
% of test
Charts/Graphs
33
11
Tables
33
11
Schematics
10
3
Maps
10
3
Forms
8
3
Advertisements
6
2
Total
100
33
Table 6.
Recommended distribution of reading tasks by aspects of reading
Aspect
% of test
Retrieving information 
20
Broad understanding 
20
Developing an interpretation 
30
Reflecting on content 
15
Reflecting on form
15
Total
100
Table 7.
Recommended distribution of tasks by text format and aspect
Aspect
% of test
% of continuous texts
% of non-continuous texts
Retrieving information
20
13
7
Broad understanding
20
13
7
Developing an interpretation
30
20
10
Reflecting on content
15
10
5
Reflecting on form
15
10
5
Total
100
66
34

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Reading Literacy
37
OECD 1999
Reporting scales
To meet the aims of OECD/PISA, the development of scales describing student achievement is
essential. The process of developing the reporting scales will be iterative, in that initial proposals that
are based on past experience and research in the field of learning and cognitive development in
mathematics are further developed on the basis of empirical evidence collected during the OECD/PISA
field trial.
The two organising characteristics of the reading framework that are being considered for use as
reporting scales are the text types (continuous and non-continuous) and the macro aspects (forming a
broad general understanding, retrieving information, developing an interpretation, reflecting on the con-
tent of a text, and reflecting on the form of a text). This means that there will be either two or five reading
reporting scales, in addition to the overall reading literacy scale.
Other issues
Several other issues need to be addressed, in addition to how reading literacy will be defined and
measured in this assessment. Three of these areas overlap with the context questionnaires that students
will answer and two others concern relations with other assessments. These issues are elaborated in the
following sections.