It has become almost a cliche that in postindustrial economies and so-called information societies, being literate is more important than ever before (Levett and Lankshear 1994; RassooI 1999). This increased significance is associated partly with the idea that the capacity to manipulate symbols is fundamental to practically all forms of contemporary work and, increasingly, of leisure as well. It is also, however, associated with implications of the move from big to small government, from a welfare state to a more "minimal" one. Many previously existing personnel, public sector social services, and forms of welfare provision for individuals, families, and targeted groups have disappeared in the wake of neoliberal policies of fiscal restraint and a rampaging cult of performativity. In the context of a reduced welfare safety net, individuals have to become more self-sufficient and conform to an ethos of "responsibilization" (de Alba et al. 2000). Achieving self-sufficiency and "responsibilization"-where governments make individuals responsible for health care, welfare, and education-requires people to negotiate diverse and often complex and sophisticated uses of language, texts, information displays, images, and other kinds of symbols and semiotic systems involved in the everyday practices they encounter. In this context the importance of ensuring that all learners achieve effective literacy has enjoyed increased emphasis and centrality within education policy demands on schools and in public perceptions ofschool accountability.