According to the instructors and administrators at a local adult education (AE) program in Houston, Texas, retaining and graduating general education development (GED) students has been a constant challenge. Locating GED attendance barriers could enable AE programs to develop techniques that increase student retention and graduation rates. The…

The English "Skills for Life" strategy symbolises the prominent place that adult basic skills have claimed in education and training policy in England since the beginning of this century. The strategy aims to improve the skills of a large number of learners over a ten year period (2001-2010). This paper explores what we can learn about…

This is the second of three interim reports from the National Evaluation of Adult Education Programs. The first interim report, completed in March 1992, describes the adult education service delivery system. This report describes the clients who entered adult education programs during the evaluation's 12-month intake period beginning April 1991.…

A study investigated the low rates of attendance and retention that had beset Atlanta's Family Literacy Program since its inception. To establish a meaningful dialog with participants, a qualitative interview approach was used. The sample was composed of current students, dropouts from Years 1 and 2, and graduates of Year 1. One-third of the…

This study compared the effectiveness of Learning 100 (L-100) with that of a conventional reading program in the Bedford Stuyvesant section of Brooklyn. L-100 is a multimedia, multimodal, multilevel communication skills system designed for use with undereducated adults, out-of-school youth, and potential dropouts. There were 49 in the experimental…

Statistics show that illiteracy in the United States is still a problem, particularly for adults over forty-five years of age. To test the effects of preferred-interest lessons on attendance in an adult reading program, a group of 20 adults received reading instruction by traditional teaching methods (large group arrangement and commercial…

This booklet presents a collection of seven practitioner research reports conducted by individuals employed through adult basic education (ABE), Graduate Equivalency Diploma (GED), and English as a second language (ESL) programs and funded by the Iowa State Staff Development Committee. The practitioner research presented in the collection gives…

In a case study of four urban adult basic education programs in a northeastern state, large increases in the participation of 16- to 20-year-old students were found. Many of these students were reading below the fifth-grade level despite aspiring to the General Education Development (GED) diploma. Reasons for youth participation included increased…

THE ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY IS A JOINT PUBLICATION OF THE ERIC CLEARINGHOUSE ON ADULT EDUCATION AT SYRACUSE UNIVERSITY AND THE ADULT EDUCATION CLEARINGHOUSE OF THE NATIONAL ASSOCIATION FOR PUBLIC SCHOOL ADULT EDUCATION. DOCUMENTS CONCERNED WITH TRAINING AND RETRAINING OF ADULTS AND OUT OF SCHOOL YOUTH IN THE AREA OF ADULT BASIC AND SECONDARY…

By 1971, Texas had attained the largest enrollment of adults in adult basic education (ABE) of all States. This report provides a descriptive profile of ABE teachers and students and analyzes factors determining student enrollment, attendance, and program completion. An exploratory search, the study assesses the relationship of situational,…

DATA FROM THE DEPARTMENT OF SOCIAL SERVICES AND SCHOOL FILES ARE PRESENTED ON 99 STUDENTS (90 PERCENT) REFERRED BY THE AGENCY TO THE BASIC EDUCATION PROGRAM AT THE JOHN ADAMS ADULT SCHOOL. OVER 60 PERCENT WERE NEGROES, WITH WHITES, MEXICANS, AND AMERICAN INDIANS ALSO REPRESENTED. THE MAJORITY WERE FROM SOUTHERN STATES, 37 PERCENT WERE DIVORCED OR…

During the spring 1992 term, James Monroe High School piloted Learning 100 On-Line, a remedial reading/literacy computer program developed by Educational Developmental Laboratories, Inc. The program, which was developed for junior high and high school students and adults reading at or below grade level, was implemented in two…

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…

An adult workplace program of literacy and basic skills is described and evaluated both for its effectiveness in the year 1992-93 and as a model for similar program efforts elsewhere. The evaluation addresses three specific program objectives: (1) establishment of a governance structure to assess actual workplace literacy requirements at the…