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…

Adult education has historically been called to serve as a means to an end in promoting federal and social policy. As such, adult education seems to be shaped by current trends and national needs. Most recent, are the work-first policies of the 1990s. This qualitative case study explored ABE program administrators' perceptions of the impact of…

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…

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…

This article examines a longitudinal case study exploring the experience of a cohort of part-time, adult, work-based learners, mostly experiencing higher education for the first time. A wide range of instruments, including diaries and interviews, were used to collect data to explore, in some depth, the nature of the learning experience. Data…

As first step in evaluation of basic education programs funded through Adult Education Act of 1966, analyses of interviews with students in first few months of 1972 are reported. 90 interviewing sites, located in 15 states representing all U.S. geographic areas were used. Program, class, and student test data are not reflected in this report.…

This handbook, which is intended for educators, managers, and union leaders responsible for workplace development, outlines a four-phase collaborative approach to assessing a work organization's overall education needs and specifying a range of activities to meet the identified needs. Discussed in the introduction are the purposes of the handbook,…

This document is a guide to the use of alternative assessments (surveys, interviews, observation measures, and performance samples) in a family literacy project. This resource guide focuses on using alternative approaches to identify learners' needs, determine learners' ongoing progress in meeting project objectives, ascertain overall success of…

This guide, which is intended for volunteer literacy programs in Alberta, Canada, details a four-step process for evaluating volunteer literacy programs and using evaluation results for program development. The guide begins with an introduction, underlying principles and assumptions, and a glossary. Sections 1-4 detail the steps of the process,…

The purpose of this study was to investigate how Canadian adult students collaboratively learn with peers in both formal and non-formal adult literacy programs. A multisite case study research design was used involving several local literacy organizations. Data collection occurred over a four-month period and focused on nine different program…

This paper provides a brief implementation guide to assist programs that wish to replicate the project (a literacy tutoring program that sought to determine student needs and encourage student input), as well as an abstract of the project that created it and summaries of the results and participants' responses at two sites. The guide presents…

This handbook, which is based on a self-directed format, is written for adult education specialists, curriculum designers, and learning facilitators who want to help adult workers develop the basic skills needed for improved job performance. Discussed in part 1 are reasons for teaching basic skills in the workplace, considerations in developing…

A study examined the literacy needs and activities of prison inmates in Australia. To gather data for the study, the researchers interviewed and administered questionnaires to 62 inmates from five Australian prisons. This report consists primarily of the comments and views of the individual prisoners who were clients, potential clients, and…

The Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act ("welfare reform") and the Workforce Investment Act (WIA) have influenced greatly the provision of services in adult basic education (ABE). WIA and welfare reform provide two excellent cases for the study of questions related to how federal legislation affects ABE…