Quinsigamond Community College's (QCC's) Adult Community Learning Center is located in Worcester, Massachusetts, and offers ESOL and ABE/GED classes to students who reside in Worcester and the surrounding towns (urban area). Its ABE/GED program has historically had low retention and persistence. Students often left before the end of the year or…

In this qualitative research study, we sought to better understand the experiences of adult learners in adult education centers. We conducted eight focus groups with 104 adult education students from 25 adult learning centers. Five groups were made up of English-speaking ABE students; learners in the three ESL groups spoke Spanish. We used an…

This study investigated informal learning activities among low-education adults, using data from the 2005 National Household Education Survey. Survey respondents were asked about their participation in six types of informal learning activities, from reading books to using computers to attending conventions. Respondents with the lowest educational…

In 2006, this author decided to make multiple intelligences (MI)-inspired "activity menus" a regular part of her ESOL/Civics classes. She first tried this technique in a single class session to review what students had learned about industrialization, and it was a huge success. Since 2006, the author has introduced MI-inspired activity…

A two-year evaluation of the Advancing Young Adult Learning (AYAL) project was conducted. AYAL is a professional development process for teachers working with 16- to 24-year-old students preparing for their General Educational Development Test (GED). It combines Youth Cultural Competency (YCC), Project-Based Learning (PBL), and strengths-based…

We conducted a pilot study to see how the GED Mathematics Test could be administered on computer with embedded accessibility tools. We examined test scores and test-taker experience. Nineteen GED test centers across five states and 216 randomly assigned GED Tests candidates participated in the project. GED candidates completed two GED mathematics…

Adult educators are well aware of the need to understand the communities they serve. This is important, not only to improve teaching, but also to make programs more accessible. The Adult Learning Research Project (Goto, Martin, Goulet, Robinson, and Furtado, in press) was designed to gather preliminary information about communities that are…

Since 1991, the U.S. has had a national research and development (R&D) center focused on programs that help adults to improve their language, literacy, and numeracy skills; to acquire a General Educational Development (GED) or other high school certification; and to transition into postsecondary education or training. For the first five years,…