In the United States, adult and workforce education (AE) seems to be located, simultaneously, both everywhere and nowhere in particular. Ongoing shifts in national economic demands and changes in requirements for training and education have brought learning in the adult years into the federal public policy arena. Sometimes referred to as lifelong…

This publication reviews and summarizes the findings of the major benchmark studies and reports in adult literacy--beginning with the University of Texas' Adult Performance Level Study of 1977 and continuing through the 2006 NAAL survey results, A First Look at the Literacy of America's Adults in the 21st Century.