Adult literacy has been on the margins of postsecondary education for so long that many in our field assume our ongoing struggle for adequate funding and a better image is somehow "normal." It is "not normal" that some 107,000,000 adults across North America are marginalized, with many hidden in society due to low literacy.…

In the United States, adult and workforce education (AE) seems to be located, simultaneously, both everywhere and nowhere in particular. Ongoing shifts in national economic demands and changes in requirements for training and education have brought learning in the adult years into the federal public policy arena. Sometimes referred to as lifelong…

Living in an age of communication, literacy is an extremely integral part of our society. We are impacted by literature during our infancy, childhood, adolescence, and adulthood. "Literacy for the New Millennium" includes information from specialists in the field who discuss the influence of popular culture, media, and technology on…

This is a congressional hearing on H.R. 11, a bill to extend several expiring education programs. The focus is on the Adult Education Act, a program that provides grants to states to help provide basic skills to illiterate adults and adults without a high school diploma. The text of H.R. 11 is provided. Testimony includes statements, prepared…

Project Homebound, a pilot demonstration program in the use of volunteers as a means of attacking adult illiteracy, proved operational in Butte, Montana. Home bound instructors were divided into six teaching teams, each comprised of a certified teacher who served as team leader and designed the materials used, two teacher's aides who recruited…

Media reports suggest widespread illiteracy among adults who may not be able to read, write, speak, or otherwise communicate competently enough to meet the demands of modern society. No consensus has been reached regarding a definition of illiteracy or supporting statistics. Estimates of adult illiteracy range form 0.5% to 50%, meaning that of the…

An examination of the effects of the Adult Education Act (AEA) 25 years after its passage reveals the growth of the adult basic education (ABE) enterprise in the United States. The AEA provides funding to states to develop and maintain adult basic education programming. Because ABE was recognized as a means of improving the economic status of the…

A portrait of illiterates and literacy programs in the United States in the 1980s is derived from this summary of the most up-to-date, valid information that could be obtained from a literature review. The first section on adult illiterates identifies data sources, numbers of illiterates, and characteristics of the five main groups (the elderly,…

A BRIEF DESCRIPTION IS GIVEN OF THE FEDERAL ADULT BASIC EDUCATION PROGRAM, UNDER THE ADULT EDUCATION ACT OF 1966, AT THE NATIONAL AND STATE LEVELS (INCLUDING PUERTO RICO, GUAM, AMERICAN SAMOA, AND THE VIRGIN ISLANDS) AS PROVIDED BY STATE EDUCATION AGENCIES. STATISTICS FOR FISCAL YEARS 1965 AND 1966, AND ESTIMATES FOR FISCAL YEAR 1967, INDICATE…

This plan seeks generally to improve literacy skills and specifically to aid adults in progressing through three adult performance levels to obtain the general educational development (GED) diploma. The introduction discusses the general growth of adult basic education; a chart depicts that growth in Kansas. The document is then divided into five…

The Adult Education and Literacy System (AELS) has been systematizing and promoting adult education in the United States since 1966, when the Adult Education Act (AEA) was passed. Today, some 4,000 organizations operate under the rules and regulations of the latest reauthorization of the AEA, the Adult Education and Family Literacy Act (AEFLA).…

For the past 18 years, Federal policy for adult literacy has been contained principally in the Adult Education Act of 1966 and in the administration of the program it supports. When this Act was passed, few programs for adult literacy existed in the states; thus, the Act authorized 90 percent Federal funding in order to encourage states to develop…

Reported here are the continuing hearings on H.R. 15 (a bill to extend for five years certain elementary and secondary education programs and the Adult Education Act) which examine the accomplishments and problems of the Adult Education Act since it was last amended in 1976. One-half of the content consists of the testimony, statements, and…

A literature review examined the extent to which public funds for adult basic education and the guidelines under which funding is granted are meeting the needs of the target population as delineated by law. Research was limited to adult basic education programs funded by Federal and state monies and operated through the public school systems of…

The National Adult Literacy Initiative calls for a collaborative effort among the public, private, voluntary, and military sectors to address more effectively illiteracy through adult education. One of the first points in the initiative calls for continued educational services funded by the federal government and administered by the states. Other…