The goal of this meeting was to discuss the challenges of adult education and mechanisms to better understand and address those challenges through research. The meeting was structured around three panel discussions representing the perspectives of State directors of adult education programs, adult education researchers, and education research…

The Attleboro (Massachusetts) Workplace Education Program, a partnership of four area companies and Bristol Community College, is intended to provide workers with education that will improve the quality of their lives and their work. Housed in a corporate office building in the Attleboro Industrial Park, the program offers classes in English as a…

The experiences of adult educators in Massachusetts who have integrated a health unit into adult literacy classes were examined in an exploratory study. Over a 5-year period, 31 adult learning centers in Massachusetts received funding to incorporate health topics into their adult literacy curriculum. A total of 31 teachers from 24 of the sites…

To help states learn from each other's experiences, this report focuses on what three states--Arizona, Massachusetts, and Pennsylvania--are doing to improve and expand family literacy services. It also includes background information on family literacy, resources, and names and addresses of state directors of family literacy. The case studies show…

An evaluation of the fifth cycle of operation of the Massachusetts Workplace Education Initiative had several purposes: (1) to identify the indicators of quality in workplace education; (2) to begin to design an evaluation system for each program; and (3) to assess the indicators of quality for workplace education programs against the national…

The Global 2000 project was a 3-year project aimed at improving literacy in five Massachusetts manufacturing companies. To help determine the project's effectiveness, a team of external evaluators analyzed the relationship between the knowledge students gained in the classroom, their actual performance on the job, and the resulting business impact…

An evaluation (involving questionnaires, telephone interviews, focus groups, site visits, e-mail questions, and lab observation) assessed the success in implementing a statewide technology plan for adult literacy programs in Massachusetts that grew out of a set of recommendations developed by the Massachusetts Adult Literacy Technology Team…

The principles set forth in these guidelines articulate a clear standard, endorsed by the Massjobs Council, of what constitutes effective service delivery and program management for literacy and basic skills. They are of use to local agencies in developing programs and to Regional Employment Boards in evaluating them. Section I sets forth the…

The Global 2000 project was a 3-year project aimed at improving literacy in five Massachusetts manufacturing companies. At four of the five Global 2000 program sites, an external evaluator conducted focus groups and open-ended interviews with members of the projects' employee involvement teams, previous students, and teachers. The evaluator also…

An evaluation of the Massachusetts Workplace Education Initiative brings together three phases: (1) a pilot outcome study conducted with a sample of six local workplace education programs and featuring the perspectives of workers, labor, and management; (2) program profiles for seven federally funded workplace education programs coordinated by the…

The authors carefully followed for a year or more the inner experiences of learning and change of 41 ABE/ESOL (Adult Basic Education/English for Speakers of Other Languages) learners from all over the world. They were enrolled in three distinct U.S. programs (a community college, a family literacy site, and a workplace site), each oriented to…

The role of adult education in sustaining economic growth and expanding opportunity in Massachusetts was explored. The analysis focused on the new basic skills needed for a new economy, groups lacking the new basic skills, the demand for adult basic education (ABE), funding for ABE, building basic skills through adult education, ABE's costs and…

How do ABE/ESOL (Adult Basic Education/English for Speakers of Other Languages) programs shape adult learners, and how do adult learners, in turn, shape their programs? Beyond the acquisition of important skills (such as greater fluency in the English language) what are the bigger internal meanings for adults of participating in ABE/ESOL…