BCS70 – Age 21 – Literacy and Numeracy Assessments

The 1970 British Cohort Study (BCS70) assessed their cohort members (CMs) during the study’s age 21 sweep using the Literacy and Numeracy Assessments’ measure.

Details on this measure and the data collected from the CMs are outlined in the table below.

Year of data collection	1992
Domain:	Adult basic literacy and numeracy
Measures:	(Functional) literacy and numeracy assessment. The assessment covered four levels for communication skills and the three levels for numeracy as defined by ALBSU’s Basic Skills Standards. These emphasise ‘functional’ performance, i.e. the ability to apply basic skills in everyday life situations (ACACE, 1982).
CHC:	None.
CLOSER Source:	Not currently available in CLOSER Discovery
Administrative method:	Face to face interviewer; paper and showcards; pen and paper
Procedure:	Each literacy and numeracy assessment item comprised a visual stimulus presented to the cohort member on a ‘showcard’ about which they were asked a number of questions. Questions were open response (OR) in format.
	There were 25 literacy items and 16 numeracy items.
	Duration: 28 minutes for both tests
Link to questionnaire:	https://cls.ucl.ac.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/BCS70_21-year_Survey-Questionnaire.pdf (opens in new tab)
Scoring:	Literacy: 25 items
	One point for each correct answer
	16 items were used to derive a score that was comparable with NCDS
	Scores were categorised as follows: 0 – 9 = 1 “very poor”, 10 – 11 = 2 “poor”, 12 – 13 = 3 “average”, 14 – 16 = 4 “good”
	Numeracy: 16 items
	One point for each correct answer
	Scores were categorised as follows: 0 – 6 = 1 “very poor”, 7 – 8 = 2 “poor”, 9 – 10 = 3 “average”, 11 – 14 = 4 “good”
Item-level variable(s):	Literacy (16 items):
	vd1a – vd1b, vd2a1 – vd2b2, vd3a1 – vd3b3, vd4a1 – vd4a3, v4dc2, vd5 (16 items)
	Literacy (additional 9 items):
	vd4b1 – vd4b4, 4dc1a – 4dc1e
	Numeracy (14 items)
	vd6a1 vd6a2 vd6b1 vd6b2 vd6b3 vd6b4 vd7a1 vd7a2 vd7b1 vd7b2 vd8a1 vd8a2 vd8a3 vd8b1 vd8b2 vd8b3 vd8c1 vd8c2 vd8c3 vd9a vd9b
Total score/derived variable(s):	litscore (sum of 16 items)
	lit4grp (categorical)
	numscore (sum of 14 items)
	num4grp (categorical)
Age of participants (months):	N/A
Descriptives:		litscore (raw score)	numscore (raw score)
	N	1,133	863
	Range	6 – 16	1 – 14
	Mean	13.42	9.81
	SD	1.91	2.62
	Histogram	(click image to enlarge)	(click image to enlarge)
Other sweep and/or cohort:	BCS70 – Age 34 – Basic Skills (Literacy and Numeracy Assessments)
	NCDS – Age 37 – Basic Literacy and Numeracy Skills (BCS devised to be comparable with NCDS)
Source:	Assessments devised by consultants, Cambridge Training and Development Ltd designed to operationalise the ALBSU Basic Skills Unit for the BCS70.
Technical resources:	Ekinsmyth, C., & Bynner, J. (1994). The basic skills of young adults. London: Basic Skills Agency (Link opens in a new tab)
Example articles:	Bynner, J., & Steedman, J. (1995). Difficulties with basic skills: Findings from the 1970 British Cohort Study. London: Basic Skills Agency.