The California Department of Education (CDE) provides adult literacy services to one-fifth of adults enrolled in the Adult Education and Family Literacy Act (AEFLA) program in the United States. The adult education program addresses literacy needs of individuals by providing adults with the skills and knowledge necessary to (a) gain employment or…

The California Department of Education (CDE) provides adult literacy services to one-fifth of adults enrolled in the Adult Education and Family Literacy Act (AEFLA) program in the United States. The adult education program addresses literacy needs of individuals by providing adults with the skills and knowledge necessary to (a) gain employment or…

This new report by Migration Policy Institute's (MPI's) National Center on Immigrant Integration Policy examines the funding formula used to distribute Workforce Investment Act (WIA) Title II federal funds for adult education, literacy, and English as a Second Language instruction. Though all adults with limited English proficiency (LEP) are…

The National Commission on Adult Literacy proposes creating a new Adult Education and Workforce Skills System with the capacity to effectively serve 20 million adults annually by the year 2020. The primary mission of this new System will be to move out-of-school adults to readiness for postsecondary education and job training and enable their…

On April 7, 2011, Jobs for the Future (JFF) Policy Vice President Raymond Uhalde testified before the U.S. House Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services, Education and Related Agencies about the success of workforce development projects for youth and adults funded by the Workforce Investment Act (WIA) and the importance of sustaining…

This newsletter, published five times a year, features articles on issues of concern to adult, family, and youth literacy practitioners, as well as recommended resources, announcements, and teaching strategies. This issue includes: (1) Career Pathways for High School Dropouts: A National Survey (Jon Steinberg); (2) Work (Elyse Barbell); (3) Peer…

There is a strong and growing argument for higher educational attainment in the United States. The jobs that are expected to support the economy in the coming years will depend on a skilled workforce that is able to learn and adapt quickly to new challenges. However, demographic patterns demonstrate that relying on the traditional K-16 pipeline to…

This theme issue addresses the systemic and institutional barriers that impact urban adult basic education learners and programs in the United States. Focuses on provisions of the Workforce Investment Act (1998) and literacy education. (SLD)

The Workforce Investment Act uses measures of labor market outcomes to drive program performance. This paper examines the relationship of participant characteristics with key program outcome measures and evaluates the impact of different training interventions of program outcomes while controlling for participant characteristics. The paper…

Over the past several years, a number of new programs, policies, and initiatives designed to promote the employment of people with disabilities have been implemented by state and federal agencies, and are being evaluated to greater and lesser degrees. The purpose of this report is to provide a review of the recent evaluation activities being…

This policy brief identifies and describes the provisions of the proposed regulation describing the responsibilities of a state vocational rehabilitation (VR) agency to design and operate the state VR program as an integral component of the statewide workforce investment system, as envisioned by the Workforce Investment Act of 1998 (WIA). The…

This book describes a 10-state study of work force development efforts in Florida, Iowa, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Oregon, Texas, and Wisconsin. The book is organized in eight sections. Section 1 describes the overall visions and practices that states have created, examining the difficulties in implementing these…

This document includes comments on the adult provisions of the Workforce Investment Act (WIA), informed by research conducted with employers, employer organizations, and others on the strengths and weaknesses of the current workforce development system from the perspective of employers and low-wage, low-skill employees. Jobs for the Future is…

A study examined the job-training needs of high-risk adults to determine who they are, what they need in order to obtain productive careers paying a living wage, what is available, what works and doesn't, and what South Carolina should do to assist this population. Data were obtained from several dozen focus groups across the state, discussion…

Workforce Investment Act (WIA) and the TANF (Temporary Assistance to Needy Families) programs can be coordinated in a number of ways, some of them especially focused on women. For example, research suggests the following: (1) WIA and TANF can be coordinated to improve low-income women's human capital development; (2) many states and localities…