Students Leave High School Without Necessary Information Literacy Skills
By Megan Frazer

Are we failing our students? That is the message from the preliminary findings of the ETS ICT Literacy test. Though today’s teens and young adults may appear technologically savvy, according to the test results, they enter college without the skills to succeed.

The Test
ETS developed a test of ICT Literacy (Information and Communication Technology literacy) and unveiled it in 2006. The exam is meant to test seven skills areas in a simulated online environment: Define, Access, Evaluate, Manage, Integrate, Create, and Communicate (PF). The test is structured to include four short tasks (3-5 minutes) which each target on of skill area and one longer task (15 minutes) that covers Accessing and Evaluating.

The Results
The preliminary findings are based on over 6300 students who took the test at four-year colleges and universities, community colleges, and high schools (seniors only). On average, students scored 50% of a possible total. The results can be broken down by skill area.

Define:

When asked to select a research statement for a class assignment, only 44% "identified a statement that captured the demands of the assignment", while 8% picked statements that did not address it. On the other hand, when presented with "an unclear assignment", 70% of the test takers selected the best question to clarify it.

Access:

Students were asked to narrow an overly broad search, and only 35% did so correctly, while an additional 35% chose a revision that marginally narrowed the search results. Only 40% used multiple search terms for a web search task, and 50% used database search strategies to weed out irrelevant results.

Evaluate:

When looking at websites, 52% were able to correctly assess the objectivity of the website. They fared better when looking at authority (65% correct), and timeliness (72%), but only 49% of the students correctly evaluated all three. On the positive side, most test-takers recognized that .edu and .gov sites are less likely to contain biased material than .com sites.

Manage:

Here students did slightly better. When they were asked to organize a "large amount of information efficiently," more than half failed. However, 80% of the students were able to crate an organization chart based on e-mailed information.

Integrate, Create, and Communicate:

Students were asked to create a persuasive slide presentation. Only 12% used points directly related to the argument.

(2006 ICT Literacy Assessment Preliminary Findings)

How do our standards match up?
AASL is in the process of revising the Information Literacy Standards for Student Learning. Currently, there are nine standards, which are broken down into three categories: Information Literacy Standards, Independent Learning Standards, and Social Responsibility Standards. The ETS test does not focus on the latter two. The Information Literacy Standards are:

Standard 1: The student who is information literate accesses information efficiently and effectively.
Standard 2: The student who is information literate evaluates information critically and
Standard 3: The student who is information literate uses information accurately and creatively. (AASL).

If one looks closely at the standards and indicators, which are available from the AASL website (http://www.ala.org/ala/aasl/aaslindex.htm ), it is clear that standard one encompasses the ETS tasks of Define and Access. Standard two covers Evaluate. Standard three covers Manage, Integrate, Create, and Communicate. All the bases, then are covered, though perhaps we are asking too much of Standard Three. If we are truly covering these standards, our students should do very well on the test.

Likewise, the standards put forth in Massachusetts School Library Media Program Standards for 21st Century Learning (2003) line up with, and even exceed, the expectations of the ETS.

Responding to the Test
There are any number of reasons as to why our kids are not testing as well as they should. Some of these are perhaps related to the test itself. With the preliminary findings, ETS included a disclaimer: "Because the data is not a random sample and is not representative of all US institutions or all higher education institutions, ETS urges caution in using these results to generalize to the greater population of college-age students." (ETS, p. 15). It is possible; too, that it is simply not a good test. Let's assume, though, that it is a good test and the results are strong.

Given that our standards line up with the test, the problem seems to be that we are not meeting those standards. Perhaps this test can serve as a reminder of those standards, and a call to arms to re-apply ourselves to them.

The MSLMA (now MSLA) Program Standards for 21st Century Learning emphasize collaboration with teachers. By learning the skills in the context of their schoolwork, students are more likely to retain the skills. "Library teachers are skilled at teaching information problem solving processes that develop critical thinking skills. Working with classroom teachers at all grade levels, they collaborate to design inquiry-based research projects that grow progressively more sophisticated in the level of thought and reaction required as students mature" (Hallisey et. al., p. 5) This requires school and district wide collaboration to ensure a consistent and logical progression.

Although many argue that we are entering an age of over-testing our students, we do need a way to determine whether or not our methods are effective. Information Power: Building Partnerships for Learning recommend checklists, rubrics, conferencing, journaling, and portfolios. These methods can be integrated into the collaborative projects. For example, students could easily keep a research journal as they do a research project. These journals would allow not only for self-evaluation by the students, but would show teachers and teacher librarians which areas need further emphasis and teaching.

Another option is an actual test, such as TRAILS (Tools for Real-time Assessment of Information Literacy Skills). Aimed at high school students, it is a web-based "knowledge assessment with multiple-choice questions targeting a variety of information literacy skills". Librarians can use it to assess the pre and post task skills of a class. To access TRAILS, visit their website: http://www.trails-9.org/.

Using the ETS Results to Our Advantage
Many librarians would like to collaborate with teachers and develop projects and programs to teach information literacy skills, but do not have the time or money to do so. Collaboration requires that both the teacher and the librarian have time to meet, plan, and teach together. While the project is going on, day to day operations must continue in the library. In understaffed and underfunded libraries, this simply is not possible.

The ETS results, however, could serve as the basis for a proposal to school administrators for a collaborative project. Included in that proposal should be how you plan to evaluate your results, using the methods listed above. Once your project is measurably successful, you can continue it, and even ask for more. Instead of seeing the test results as a strike against us, why not use them to move the library to its rightful place as the center of learning?

Works Cited
"2006 ICT Literacy Assessment Preliminary Findings". 14 November 2006. Educational     Testing Services. 13 December 2006     <http://www.ets.org/Media/Products/ICT_Literacy/pdf/2006_Preliminary_Findin    gs.pdf >.

American Association of School Librarians. Information Literacy Standards for Student     Learning, Standards and Indicators. 1998. American Association of School     Librarians. 14 December 2006     <http://www.ala.org/ala/aasl/aaslproftools/informationpower/InformationLiteracy    Standards_final.pdf >.

Hallisey, Peggy, et. al. "Massachusetts School Library Media Program Standards for 21st     Century Learning." Massachusetts School Library Association. 2 January 2007     <http://maschoolibraries.org/dmdocuments/standardsrev.pdf >.