ARCHIVED – Language Instruction for Newcomers to Canada – Client profile and performance indicators

Section 3: LINC Performance Indicators [ Note 19 ]

To measure the performance of clients who have enrolled in the LINC program, a composite measure of language ability based on CLB (Canadian Language Benchmark) entry and exit scores is used. The composite measure is derived using CLB scores upon entry and exit of a completed LINC course. [ Note 20 ] The difference between these composite measures is then used to measure client performance.

It should be noted, again, that the number of observations in the performance indicator analysis is greater than what is observed in demographic section 1 which describes the demographics of the LINC population (number of clients who have completed a LINC course). The demographic analysis looks at unique clients who have completed a LINC course as compared to the performance indicators’ analysis which examines all completed courses (a unique client may therefore have more than 1 completed LINC course). This was done to in order to maximize coverage of completed LINC courses.

The entry-level composite measure is calculated as the sum of the assessment tests (CLB scores) of the four language competencies prior to beginning LINC training. The four competencies included in the assessment are:

  • Speaking,
  • Reading,
  • Listening, and
  • Writing.

The exit-level composite measure is calculated as the sum of the exit-level scores (CLB scores) for the four language competencies after the completion of a LINC course. The four competencies included in exit scores are:

  • Speaking,
  • Reading,
  • Listening, and
  • Writing.

Performance Score – Difference of Composite Measures

For this analysis, LINC performance scores are calculated by subtracting the exit-level composite measure from the entry-level composite measure. The performance scores are put into ranges that correspond to 3 different performance groupings as outlined below:

  1. Meeting LINC level requirements
  2. Not meeting LINC level requirements
  3. Exceeding LINC level requirements

Data exclusion – Some data has been excluded from the LINC performance score analysis. Data prior to 2005 is not used due to a large number of missing exit scores during 2003 and 2004. Since 2005, the requirement to fill exit scores has been mandatory. As a result, the LINC performance score analysis will look at data from completed LINC courses during 2005, 2006, 2007, and 2008. Also note that a small number of completions (497 or 0.3 percent) were excluded from the 2005-2008 analysis due to either incomplete entry or exit level scores for at least one of the four language competencies.

Average Hours Taken to Complete a LINC Course

This analysis also examines an adjusted average (mean) number of hours taken to complete a LINC course. Note that adjustments have been made to exclude records that are inconsistent with “normal” durations associated with LINC language training. As a result, records with negative, zero, very small or extremely high numbers of hours taken to complete a course have been excluded. [ Note 21 ]

To be consistent with the analysis of performance scores, the average hours taken to complete a LINC course in this analysis are for completed LINC courses during 2005-2008 and for LINC clients who have measured performance scores for a LINC level.


19. See Appendix B for greater detail regarding the methodology of the LINC performance indicators used in this analysis.

20. A composite measure is calculated for every completed LINC course. Therefore it is possible for a unique client to have more than 1 completion with associated entry-level and exit-level scores.

21. For this analysis, it is assumed that the average hours taken to complete a LINC level reflects a normal distribution that clusters around the mean. However, due to the nature of administrative data and the possibility of data-entry errors, outliers were removed and the mean scores represent the mean of the centre 99.7% of the distribution.

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