Literacy Basics - Community Literacy of Ontario

3. CIPMS is a model of continuous improvement
   
   The three main areas of focus in MTCU's LBS CIPMS are the results we achieve in terms of effectiveness, efficiency and client satisfaction. In order to achieve those results, we must have good processes in place. For the past few years, those processes have been measured by the Program Monitoring Report. Now we are ready to focus more on the results themselves.
   
   Effectiveness is the extent to which we meet our intended objectives and produce the results we plan to produce. In other words, are we doing the right things to help learners reach their goals? When we talk about effectiveness, we are focusing on who our learners are, evaluating the delivery of literacy training and measuring learner skill attainment or essential skills gain.
   
   A performance measure is quantifiable information that provides a reliable basis for assessing achievement, change or performance over time. Draft core measures have been developed for effectiveness (as of winter 2007).
   
   Although these measures are subject to change, looking at what is proposed by MTCU can help us better understand how we might measure effectiveness. Each performance measure will also carry a weighting, although the weighting specifics have not yet been finalized.
   
   
   • Participant profile: Participant profiles will be measured according to a learner's current level of education, source of income, barriers to participation, age and other demographic information. This includes indicators of barriers to the learner's goal. An agency's ability to deliver services will partially be determined by the percentages of learners in various demographic groups. This is because some agencies work with harder-to-serve client groups, so the results they achieve will be different from those achieved by agencies that work with other client groups. (Source: MTCU, LBS-CIPMS Advisory Group Measures and Indicators (Draft). January 2007.)
     
     
   • Employment: This includes both employed learners and those who are employment ready. Success will be measured according to the percentages of learners who are employed, ready for employment and/or actively volunteering. (Note: the addition of volunteering as an employment measure is new as of 2007.)
     
     
   • Further education and training: These are learners who are prepared to go on to further training or education; success will be measured by their readiness to enter a variety of program options.
     
     
   • Foundations for learning: This refers to learners who have a core of foundation or essential skills linked to personal goals and community participation. Success in this area will be measured by the percentage of learners who achieve this foundational level, who report an increase in personal growth, who report an increased involvement in their children's education and/or who complete their short-term LBS goals.
     
     
   • Program goal achievement: This refers to the successful completion of transition path outcomes or individualized planned outcomes. Success will be measured by the percentages of learners who achieve their stated goal.
     
     
   • Learner skill attainment (LSA) or essential skills gain: This refers to the percentage gain using the Essential Skills scale in areas of Reading Text, Document Use and Numeracy. Success will be measured according to that gain. For more information on LSA, please see CLO's December newsletter at www.nald.ca/litweb/province/on/clo/newslet/dec07/1.htm.
     
     

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