Lists and describes the criteria used by the Toronto Public Library in selecting basic reading materials for functional illiterates. (CHC)

Apparent reading deficiencies among entering workers, combined with increasing demands for highly skilled workers, have led business and industry to increase their training and education efforts. One aspect of this effort requires understanding the reading demands people in various occupations are likely to encounter. This study examines the…

This report contains the proceedings of the International Literacy Day Conference held in Washington, D.C., on September 8, 1978. It contains a program of conference events, an executive summary, a message from the vice president of the United States, and the text of the proceedings. The proceedings include introductory remarks by Edwin Newman; a…

In order to assess various reading and writing abilities of adults, for comparison with corresponding abilities of pupils in grades 7 through 12, and to investigate the extent to which adults' reading and writing abilities can be regarded as satisfactory, answers to a series of tests and questionnaire data were obtained from random samples of…

Discusses the minimum competency movement and suggests standards for constructing and implementing exit competency requirements. (MKM)

These statements, letters, and supplemental materials were provided by: (1) Janet Jones Ballard, Assault on Literacy Program; (2) Representative Jim Cooper, Tennessee; (3) Mitch Snyder, Center for Creative Non-Violence; (4) Garrett Murphy, Division of Adult and Continuing Education Programs, New York; (5) W. Wilson Goode, mayor of Philadelphia;…

The functional literacy of various groups of 17-year-old students was assessed to discover whether the reading skills which are usually taught in the schools are adequate for functioning in everyday life. Eighty-six test exercises were classified according to the various formats of reading materials they represent and according to the types of…

Proposes redefining the problem of illiteracy in terms of a "social-interaction perspective" that would emphasize the need "to acculturate students to the practices of reading in their communities" and the broad range of reading competencies required by today's society. (JBM)

Presents a taxonomy of graphs, including lineal, quantitative, spatial, pictorial, hypothetical, and omitted graphs. Provides illustrations of each kind of graph and suggests that reading teachers take the responsibility for teaching graph reading and drawing skills. (MKM)

Argues that the obligatory nature of functional literacy does not deprive the individual freedom of thought and opinion, and that voluntarism in basic adult education in the United States has greatly contributed to putting the nation at risk and to keeping it a nation at risk. (HOD)

This document contains a collection of direct quotations from the nearly 50 participants at a roundtable on workplace literacy. It also includes an executive summary, a list of participants, a list of related publications, and a synopsis of a presentation made at a follow-up activity.) The participants included business people, literacy experts,…

Twenty-four adults participated in an experiment to determine the difficulty of conditional sentences of the kinds frequently found in the instructions in government forms. The stimulus materials were 128 sentence frames of the form, "If you are X, press button Y," where X was replaced by sixteen different coordinate structures. These…

The major goal of the Right-to-Read program is to increase functional literacy so that, by 1980, 99% of the people in the United States who are under 16 years of age and 90% of those over 16 will be sufficiently competent as readers to function effectively as adults. This booklet suggests ways in which groups and organizations can initiate and…

Discusses the decisions made in the development of a functional literacy test used in Philadelphia. (MKM)

Presents a fictitious dialogue in which a teacher of a college methods course in reading points out to her students that (1) people read for different purposes, (2) reading needs vary from community to community, and (3) teachers should investigate the reading needs of people in their communities. (GT)