Project 5: Literacy and Numeracy Skills

Contacts:

	Dr Sandra McNally, CEE and CEP. Tel: +44(0)20 7955 7579 Email: s.mcnally1@lse.ac.uk
	Dr Anna Vignoles, Institute of Education. Tel:+44(0)20 7612 6879 Email: a.vignoles@ioe.ac.uk

The Moser report stated that about 20 per cent of adults in Britain (nearly 7 million people) have severe literacy difficulties, while about 40 per cent have some numeracy problems and that this 'skills gap' is one of the worst in Europe. This project is concerned with evaluating how attainment in basic skills can be improved in schools and the consequences of literacy and numeracy skills for labour market outcomes.

At the school level this research builds upon CEE findings which show the National Literacy Project to have been extremely effective for raising attainment, especially for boys. Further research questions will be explored such as: to what extent does years of exposure to 'the literacy hour' matter for attainment?; did the benefits observed for the pilot literacy hour extend to all schools in the national roll out?; Has the numeracy hour been similarly effective?; and how have the benefits of these initiatives varied by group?

In the second part of this project the impacts of literacy and numeracy for outcomes throughout the lifecycle will be considered, in an attempt to understand more about the longer term benefits of improving basic skills attainment. The British birth cohort datasets will used here to link changes in basic skills over the lifetime with labour market outcomes.

Related Papers:

The Literacy Hour
Stephen Machin and Sandra McNally,
Journal of Public Economics 92 (2008) 1441-1462 Full paper (free)