Developments Vol. 6, n°. 1 - Fall 2001

DATA DEVELOPMENTS

Youth in Transition Survey

The Youth in Transition Survey (YITS) is a new Canadian longitudinal survey designed to collect vital information about major transitions in young people's lives, particularly between education, training, and work. The information collected from YITS will be used to support policy planning and decision making about youth.

The first cycle of YITS was administered in 2000 to two different age groups of youth; a younger group 15 years old and an older group 18 to 20 years of age. Over 50,000 youth are taking part in the survey across the two age groups, a nationally and provincially representative sample. In addition to information collected from the youth themselves and from the parents of the 15-year olds, the 15-year-old youth were assessed in reading and literacy through the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA).

YITS is sponsored by HRDC and is carried out in partnership with Statistics Canada (SC). The Council of Ministers of Education Canada (CMEC) and Provincial Ministries and departments of labour and education collaborated with HRDC and SC on PISA.

In light of these survey objectives, YITS provides a wide range of information on the education and employment experiences of youth. Among other things, data are collected from youth on their high school experiences, dropping out of school, post-secondary education (among the older youth), employment histories, barriers to education and employment, skills, training and volunteering. Financial data is also collected from the older youth including information on personal income, student loans and other post-secondary financing. Examining the experiences of youth on these topics will help shed light on the factors that promote or impede the transition to the labour market and adulthood. The longitudinal design of the survey is particularly well-suited to capture information on the education and career trajectories of these youth.

Information on these youth will be collected every two years for a period of several years. The first findings on the 15-year-old youth, including detailed PISA results, will be released in December 2001. First results on the YITS 18-20-year-old cohort will be released in January 2002. Additional information on YITS can be found at the project web site: www.pisa.gc.ca/yits

OECD/PISA

Programme for International Student Assessment

The Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) is a project initiated by the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). PISA was designed to provide policy-oriented international indicators of the skills and knowledge of 15-year-old students in reading, mathematics and science.

Thirty-two countries participated in the first PISA survey in 2000. Subsequent PISA administrations are scheduled to take place in 2003 and 2006.

In Canada, the 2000 PISA survey was carried out through a partnership between HRDC, SC, CMEC and Provincial Ministries and departments of education.

The data generated from PISA will be useful to address a number of questions. For example, how well are young adults prepared to meet the challenges of the future? Are they able to analyze, reason and communicate their ideas effectively? Do they have the capacity to continue learning throughout life? And finally, are some kinds of school organization more effective than others?

For each administration of PISA, two-thirds of the testing instrument is devoted to a major literacy domain. The major literacy domain tested for PISA 2000 was reading. In 2003, mathematics will be the major domain, while science will be the focus of the 2006 PISA test.

The PISA 2000 survey included a two-hour-long direct assessment of students' skills through reading, mathematics and science tests. Students also completed a questionnaire on background information, and a smaller questionnaire on information technology. Finally, PISA 2000 surveyed school principals to collect information on school´s characteristics.

In Canada, 30,000 15-year-old students from 1,200 schools were surveyed. Thus, provincial, national and international comparisons are possible. For other countries, between 4,000 and 10,000 students were typically tested. These same Canadian youth also participated in the Youth in Transition Survey (YITS). A key benefit of linking PISA with YITS is that it provides greater research capabilities, in that information on measured achievement of youth at age 15 (via PISA) can be linked with information on school-work transitions (via YITS) over time.

A Pan-Canadian report is scheduled to be released in December 2001. This report will outline PISA results for Canada, and comparisons will be made with selected countries. Research on selected topics associated with the Canadian PISA results will follow in subsequent years. An OECD international report is also scheduled to be released in December 2001, and will present PISA results for all countries. For 2002, the OECD is also planning to release three thematic reports, one on reading literacy as a foundation skill, a second on social background and equity and a third will be the public version of the data-oriented report.

Additional information on PISA can be found at the Canadian project web site: www.pisa.gc.ca

Student

NLSCY Content Development Update

The team is hard at work on content for our Cycle 5 collection, due to begin next fall, 2002.

Since the last newsletter, some important steps in the content development process have occurred, including:

An Expert Advisory Group (EAG) Meeting last December 2000;
Ongoing consultation with experts;
Focus testing for 10 to 19 year olds in September 2001; and currently,
Preparation for the up-coming field-test in February 2002.

Through these steps, some concerns have been recognized. We are reviewing the length of the interview and the perception of repetitive questions in trying to address respondent burden and refusal rates. The challenge is to maintain consistency across cycles while streamlining the instruments.

In Cycle 5, our oldest cohort will be turning 18 and 19 years old. These late adolescent years are significant in human development as they represent a period marked by multiple transitions into adulthood. For the first time in their lives, youth are faced with a wide range of options about school, careers, health and social relationships. The new content for this age group aims to capture and reflect these transitions while still maintaining continuity with past content. In addition, the shift from parent to youth as the main respondent is now complete with the 18 and 19 year olds.

Some new content being considered for Cycle 5 includes:

Moving out of the parental home (18-19 year olds)
Career Aspirations (18-19 year olds)
EQi:Y- a scale of emotional intelligence (10-19 year olds)
Social Support scale (18-19 year olds)
Computer use (3 to 19 year olds) and Internet access (10 to 19 year olds)
Physical activity questions (10-19 year olds)

NLSCY Measures of Cognitive Development

The content development process includes long-term planning for a consistent measurement of outcomes across ages. For example, the measures of cognitive development progress from vocabulary development through math skills to life skills. The following charts illustrate the measures for the different cohorts as they are followed over time. (Note that there may be some changes in future cycles, as details are worked out and constraints of feasibility, budget and respondent burden are respected.)

Original Longitudinal Cohort

COHORTS...

MEASURES
AT AGE...

Aged 0-1 in Cycle 1

Aged 2-3 in Cycle 1

Aged 4-5 in Cycle 1

Aged 6-7 in Cycle 1

Aged 8-9 in Cycle 1

Aged 10-11 in Cycle 1

4-5

PPVT - R^c

PPVT - R^b

PPVT - R^a

6-7

PPVT - R (age 6)
Math (age 7)^d

PPVT - R (age 6)
Math and Reading (age 7)^c

PPVT - R (age 6)
Math and Reading (age 7)^b

Math (age 7)^a

8-9

Math^e

Math^d

Math and Reading^c

Math and Reading^b

Math^a

10-11

Math^f

Math^e

Math^d

Math and Reading^c

Math and Reading^b

Math^a

12-13

Math^f

Math^e

Math^d

Math and Reading^c

Math and Reading^b

14-15

PPVT - R^f

PPVT - R^e

Math^d

Math and Reading^c

16-17

Numeracy^f

Numeracy^e

Numeracy^d

18-19

Life skills^f

Self-assessment^e

20-21

Life skills^f

22-23

Life skills^f

24-25

Life skills^f


^aCycle 1	^bCycle 2	^cCycle 3	^dCycle 4	^eProposed Cycle 5	^fProposed future cycles

Additional sample of younger children
Measures at age ...	Aged 0-1 in Cycle 2	Aged 0-1 in Cycle 3	Aged 0-1 in Cycle 4	Aged 0-1 in Cycle 5	Aged 0-1 in Cycle 6
Measures at age 0-1	-	-	Ages & Stages	Ages & Stages	Ages & Stages
Measures at age 2-3	-	Ages & Stages	Ages & Stages	Ages & Stages	Ages & Stages
Measures at age 4-5	PPVT Who Am I? Number Knowledge	PPVT Who Am I? Number Knowledge	PPVT Who Am I? Number Knowledge	PPVT Who Am I? Number Knowledge	PPVT Who Am I? Number Knowledge

The Ages and Stages is an assessment of five domains of development including problem solving. The PPVT-R measures receptive vocabulary, the Who Am I? involves copying shapes and printing symbols and the Number Knowledge measures the child's understanding of numbers. For more details refer to the previous edition of Developments (Vol. 5, No. 1).

Upcoming Data Collections & Releases
Data	Collections		Releases
NLSCY	Completed	Planned	Completed	Planned
NLSCY	Cycle 1 - 1994 Cycle 2 - 1996 Cycle 3 - 1998 Cycle 4 - 2000	Cycle 5 - 2002	Cycle 1, 2, 3	Cycle 4 - 2002
EJET	Cycle 1 - 2000	Cycle 2 - 2002		Cycle 1 - 2002
PISA 2000	PISA 2000			2001
PISA 2003		PISA 2003

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Contents

Developments Vol. 6, n°. 1 - Fall 2001 - January 2001

DATA DEVELOPMENTS

Youth in Transition Survey

Programme for International Student Assessment

NLSCY Content Development Update

NLSCY Measures of Cognitive Development