U.S. Results From the 2023 International Computer and Information Literacy Study

 

The National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) is releasing the U.S. Results From the 2023 International Computer and Information Literacy Study (ICILS) Web Report. The U.S. Results From the 2023 International Computer and Information Literacy Study (ICILS) Web Report describes results from the third cycle of the ICILS, a computer-based assessment sponsored by the International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement. ICILS is designed to measure eighth-grade students’ capacities to use information communications technologies (ICT) productively for a variety of different purposes beyond a basic use of digital technology. It consists of a computer and information literacy (CIL) assessment and an optional computational thinking (CT) assessment. The United States participated in both components in 2018 and 2023. In all, 35 education systems assessed CIL and 24 education systems assessed CT in 2023. The U.S. Results From the 2023 International Computer and Information Literacy Study (ICILS) Web Report describes selected results from the study, comparing U.S. students’ information and communication technology (ICT) knowledge and skills internationally and during two time periods, 2018 and 2023. The report also provides contextual data on factors that may influence students’ CIL and CT performance such as student opinions about the use of ICT and the frequency of ICT use in different subject areas at school, in addition to looking at their performance by gender, free or reduced-price lunch status, and race and ethnicity. The report also examines teacher usage of ICT and principals’ priorities for facilitating the use of ICT in schools. As the 2023 ICILS results show, the average score for U.S. 8th-grade students was not measurably different from the average of students across other education systems (the ICILS average2) in computer and information literacy and was 22 points below the ICILS average in computational thinking. The U.S. average score was 482 for computer and information literacy and 461 for computational thinking. The scores on both scales were lower in 2023 compared to U.S. performance in 2018. U.S. female 8th-grade students outperformed their male peers in computer and information literacy, but female and male scores in computational thinking were not measurably different. Among U.S. 8th-grade students, while 76 percent agreed that using ICT at school makes learning more fun, 54 percent hoped that using ICT would be an important part of their future job. A smaller percentage (37 percent) hoped that their future job would involve programming. More than half of U.S. 8th-grade teachers reported using word-processor software (58 percent) and presentation software (57 percent) in most, almost every, or every lesson (higher percentages than the ICILS averages). Higher percentages of U.S. 8th-grade teachers also rated their ability to produce presentations (91 percent), create computer-based assessments (87 percent), use a spreadsheet program (83 percent), use a learning management system (80 percent), and edit video content (66 percent) moderately or very well than the ICILS averages. Finally, 52 percent of U.S. students attended schools where principals reported that teachers’ willingness to use ICT in their teaching substantially increased because of COVID-19 experiences.