Measuring Information Literacy Skills in Education

This text describes the development and validation ofan information literacy assessment scale specific toeducation. Information literacy has been recognizedby a number of professional organizations andaccrediting bodies as an essential skill for successin the 21st century and consequently has become akey learning outcome of a number of educationprograms. Teacher candidates are expected to teachand model information literacy skills to theirstudents yet rarely is it suggested that they areadequately prepared to do so. The scale describedherein was developed to measure information literacyskills in the field of education in an effort toinform curricular and instructional decisions and toprovide evidence of institutional effectiveness forprogram reviews. Test content is based on standardsfrom the International Society for Technology inEducation (ISTE) and the Association of College andResearch Libraries (ACRL). The work has beenrecognized for its technical merit in describingvalidation procedures and for revisiting thediscussion of traditional versus modern approaches tovalidating cognitive instruments.