This study examined African American students' persistence rates in an adult basic education and literacy (AEL) program by juxtaposing teacher disposition that predicts student retention in an AEL program with an AEL Integrated Education and Training program (IET) as a predictor of student success. The Teacher Attribute Survey was administered to…

In order to improve on the curriculum and participation rate of adult learners in the current Adult Basic Education (ABE) program in Nigeria, this explorative study investigated the entrepreneurial (or vocational) training needs of illiterate women in Cross River State (CRS). Three research questions were posed to elicit from the participants…

This study examined the reliability and validity of administering Dynamic Indicators of Basic Early Literacy Skills (DIBELS) to adult basic education (ABE) students. Ninety ABE participants were administered DIBELS measures, the Woodcock-Johnson III Broad Reading (WJ III BR) measures, and four orthographic ability tests. Since ABE students are a…

The literacy skills of General Educational Development (GED) program graduates were compared to those of high school graduates and high school dropouts who did not pass the GED test. The sample of 1,012 young adults (ages 21 to 25 years) studied was obtained by selecting all Whites, African Americans, and Hispanics who were studied in the Young…

A study examined systematically the relationship of 40 teacher characteristics and the reading improvement of adult basic education (ABE) and adult secondary education (ASE) students. Subjects were 50 adult basic and secondary education teachers and 663 of their students from a dozen adult literacy programs in a Southern state. A multiple…

A study examined the attrition and persistence of students enrolled in adult basic education literacy programs. The study population consisted of 1,407 adult learners who had completed intake interviews and/or been enrolled in learning programs at the Technology for Literacy Center in St. Paul, Minnesota, during a two-year period. The dependent…

A study was conducted to determine: (1) if instruction correlated to the Tests of Adult Basic Education (TABE) resulted in improved basic skills for participants in the Job Opportunities and Basic Skills (JOBS) Program; and (2) to determine the impact of selected factors on grade-level advancement (pre- versus posttest TABE scores). A literature…

The factors influencing development of basic skills from birth to age 37 were examined by analyzing a sample of 1,700 people who were part of the National Child Development Study (NCDS), a longitudinal study in which data on more than 17,000 people who were born in Great Britain in a single week in 1958 were collected when they were 7, 11, 16, 23,…

For seven years, the Test of Adult Basic Education (TABE) was the primary standardized assessment instrument used by the adult education program of the Midwestern Intermediate Unit IV (MIUIV) of the Pennsylvania Department of Education Bureau of Adult Basic and Literacy Education. While reviewing its current assessment procedures, the MIUIV's…

Anticipated demographic changes in the United States adult population in the decade between the National Adult Literacy Survey (NALS) of 1992 and the National Assessment of Adult Literacy (NAAL), which is scheduled for 2002, were reviewed. Next, the implications of those changes for the NALS and NAAL were analyzed. The analysis focused on births,…

Data drawn from 3 cycles of data collection for the International Adult Literacy Survey (IALS) were analyzed to identify the levels and distributions of literacy skills in the adult populations of 20 countries. The following were among the main conclusions: (1) in 14 of the countries, at least 15% of all adults have literacy skills at only the…