Key Terms and Definitions
Literacy
Literacy is understanding, evaluating, using and engaging with written texts to participate in society, to achieve one’s goals, and to develop one’s knowledge and potential.
– The National Center for Education Statistics (NCES),
citing the Programme for the International Assessment of Adult Competencies (PIAAC)
Literacy is an individual’s ability to read, write, and speak in English, compute, and solve problems, at levels of proficiency necessary to function on the job, in the family of the individual, and in society.
– Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA), section 203
Literacy is the ability to identify, understand, interpret, create, communicate and compute, using printed and written materials associated with varying contexts. Literacy involves a continuum of learning in enabling individuals to achieve their goals, to develop their knowledge and potential, and to participate fully in their community and wider society.
– Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) Programme for the International Assessment of Adult Competencies (PIAAC), as cited by the American Library Association’s Committee on Literacy
Beyond its conventional concept as a set of reading, writing and counting skills, literacy is now understood as a means of identification, understanding, interpretation, creation, and communication in an increasingly digital, text-mediated, information-rich and fast-changing world. Literacy is a continuum of learning and proficiency in reading, writing and using numbers throughout life and is part of a larger set of skills, which include digital skills, media literacy, education for sustainable development and global citizenship as well as job-specific skills. Literacy skills themselves are expanding and evolving as people engage more and more with information and learning through digital technology.
– UNESCO (2024). What you need to know about literacy.
Numeracy
Numeracy is the ability to access, use, interpret, and communicate mathematical information and ideas, in order to engage in and manage the mathematical demands of a range of situations in adult life.
– The National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), citing the Programme for the International Assessment of Adult Competencies (PIAAC)
Numerate behavior involves
- managing a situation or solving a problem in a real context (everyday life, work, societal, further learning)
- by responding (identifying or locating, acting upon, interpreting, communicating about)
- to information about mathematical ideas (quantity and number, dimension and shape, patten and relationships, data and chance, change)
- that is represented in a range of ways (objects and pictures, numbers and symbols, formulae, diagrams and maps, graphs, tables, texts)
- and requires activation of a range of enabling knowledge, behaviors, and processes (mathematical knowledge and understanding, mathematical problem-solving skills, literacy skills, beliefs and attitudes)
Notwithstanding the immense value of numeracy for education and vocation, its most profound value to society may be the role it plays in supporting informed citizenship and democratic government. Virtually every major public issue—from health care to Social Security, from international economics to welfare reform—depends on data, projections, inferences, and the kind of systemic thinking that is at the heart of quantitative literacy. So too are many aspects of daily life, from selecting telephone services to buying a car, from managing household expenses to planning for retirement. For centuries, verbal literacy has been recognized as a free citizen’s best insurance against ignorance and society’s best bulwark against demagoguery. So today, in the age of data, quantitative literacy joins verbal literacy as the guarantor of liberty, both individual and societal.
ASCD, 1999. Numeracy: The New Literacy for a Data-Drenched Society
Family Literacy
Family literacy is a term used to describe parents and children – or more broadly, adults and children – learning together. Also known as intergenerational literacy, and in some cases, community literacy, the rationale underlying such work is that parents (and adults in communities) are children’s first teachers; that much learning occurs beyond traditional school settings, and that learning is a life long process.
– Ohio Literacy Resource Center, Kent State University
In alignment with federal law, NCFL defines family literacy as a continuum of services that address the multigenerational nature of literacy. Family literacy programs integrate (1) interactive literacy activities between parents and children; (2) support in parenting activities; (3) parent or family adult education and literacy activities that lead to readiness for postsecondary education or training, career advancement, economic self-sufficiency, and personal goal attainment; and (4) age-appropriate education to prepare children for success in school and life experiences.
– National Center for Families Learning, 2023. Setting the foundation for learning success: A brief on family literacy