In recent years, the Norwegian government has invested heavily in improving basic skills in the adult population. Initiatives have included legislation, the introduction of work-based adult education programs, and reforms in schooling. In light of this investment, we explore trends in adult literacy and numeracy, by comparing data from two…

The U.S. Department of Education's Policy to Performance project was funded in 2009 to build the capacity of state adult basic education (ABE) staff to develop and implement policies and practices that would support an ABE transition system. Policy to Performance states were selected though a competitive process. State adult education directors…

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…

Research has documented that many new entrants to the workforce from adult basic education (ABE) programs are critically lacking in the preparation and technology skills needed for workplace success. To address this problem, this basic interpretive qualitative study was implemented to examine and identify the basic technology skills perceived by…

This literature review examines current practice in reporting school dropout rates and the impact that school dropout may have on adult education programs and policies. First, I investigate the five dropout estimates commonly reported by the U.S. Department of Education (USDOE), examining how these measures vary in their estimation of school…

The "Policy to Performance Toolkit" is designed to provide state adult education staff and key stakeholders with guidance and tools to use in developing, implementing, and monitoring state policies and their associated practices that support an effective state adult basic education (ABE) to postsecondary education and training transition…

The extant literature offers little to describe the processes for screening students in adult basic education (ABE) programs for potential learning disabilities, referring adult students for diagnostic assessment, or barriers to obtaining diagnostic assessment for a learning disability. Without current documentation of a learning disability, ABE…

This descriptive case study explored how repurposing and a pedagogical-based instructional design model, the multimodal model (Picciano, 2009), were used to create quality courses in a rapid development setting at a Midwestern land grant university. Data triangulation was used to secure data from faculty member interviews, course syllabi, and…

The current study merges theory and research in higher education and organizational psychology in order to investigate student retention in adult learners. Factors that are associated with student retention were examined and points of intervention are recommended. Specifically, this study focuses on the role of campus environment, classroom…

A critique of the annual report from the National Center for Educational Statistics, Adult Basic Education Program Statistics: Students and Staff Data." (EB)

Distance education is not a new concept for all kinds of learners in the modern societies. Many researchers have studied traditional distance education programs for adult learners in the past, but little research has been done on Web-based distance education (WBDE) for adult learners. There are also many popular online universities in the U.S. or…

In 2007, Michigan undertook a bold mission: to retrain tens of thousands of adults to qualify for jobs in emerging and expanding sectors of the economy. The state's proposal to jobless, dislocated, and low-income residents was simple but appealing: enroll in up to two years of postsecondary education, and Michigan would cover up to $5,000 in…

An outcome of a study of adult basic education programs initiated three years ago by the Columbia University Center of Adult Education, the evaluation guide with its step-by-step instructions can be used for both formative and summative evaluations of adult basic education programs. Background research involved in this publication included direct…

This document, which is designed to provide Iowa literacy service providers and funding agencies with information about the distribution of adult literacy proficiencies over various regions of Iowa, presents and discusses synthetic estimates of adult literacy proficiencies. First, the procedure that was used to develop synthetic literacy estimates…

Described in this technical note is a 2-week workshop designed to train Indonesian community education workers (peniliks) to develop and use case studies in their work with village learning groups. The peniliks are described as mostly male, from a variety of backgrounds, but with backgrounds similar to that of their clients. Learning groups are…