Coalitions have key roles in helping their communities accomplish the following: (1) Track the level of literacy in the community; (2) Use that information to help identify what, and how much, literacy assistance is needed; (3) Assess the extent to which community literacy programs are meeting the need, including how well existing literacy…

An evaluation of the VISTA (Volunteers in Service to America) Literacy Corps was conducted to provide a description of the Literacy Corps, numbers of persons served, strategies used, volunteer activities, and project results; to determine the degree to which the program is meeting its goals; and to identify the strengths and weaknesses of the…

An evaluation was conducted of the Arkansas adult education for homeless persons program funded through the Stewart B. McKinney Act. Evaluation activities included the following: a review of program applications; onsite inspection of the classrooms and materials for the homeless; observation of class activities; and interviews with program…

The National Literacy Campaign of Zimbabwe was launched in July, 1983. The objectives of the campaign were to enable adults (1) to understand information about themselves, their localities, and their country; and (2) to become effective leaders and productive members of their cooperatives, village committees, management committees, and other…

The purpose of this project was to strengthen a volunteer literacy council's ability to offer an innovative curriculum and program monitoring system that meets the total literacy needs of O-4 level students, thus increasing student and tutor motivation and retention. The project designed volunteer staff training seminars to meet these objectives.…

This interview guide can be used to determine whether a workplace literacy provider has the skills to develop and deliver a successful workplace literacy program that will meet the needs of a business and build the productive capacity of its employees. It can be used to assess the capabilities of a wide variety of literacy providers, including…

The VISIONS project, a workplace literacy program held in two manufacturing plants and a regional medical center, was conducted during an 18-month period from July 1, 1993 to December 31, 1994. During the project, staff were hired and trained, task analyses and orientation sessions were held, and tests and curricula were developed. Employees were…

Philadelphia's Center for Literacy (CFL), in an effort to improve recruitment and retention of volunteers for programs in tutorial literacy and English as a Second Language (ESL), conducted the following activities under its 1980-81 Section 310 grant: (1) installed a telephone recording machine for after-hours calls; (2) produced an informative…

This product checklist can be used to determine whether a particular workplace literacy product (such as a series of instructional workbooks, curriculum guides, or computerized instructional systems), follows best practice and will meet the needs of a particular business firm and build the productive capacity of its employees. The checklist was…

An adequate description of the infrastructure system of adult literacy education needs to address three levels: national, state, and local. At the national level, infrastructure is currently shaped primarily by the Adult Education Act (AEA), amended by the National Literacy Act of 1991. Given that the AEA is a state grant program, state literacy…

An evaluation was conducted of a summer institute on assessment in adult literacy held at the University of Pittsburgh. The summer institute was designed to enable program administrators and instructors to hear experts in the field of adult assessment discuss, in depth, the issues that are common to all adult literacy providers. Participants had…

During the 1989-90 school year, 978 adult learners received basic and remedial instruction at the 19 sites of the adult basic education (ABE) program of the School District of the City of Saginaw (Michigan). The program's objectives were specifically aimed at adults who are urban residents from high unemployment areas, rural residents, members of…

Project POWER is a workplace literacy program conducted by Triton College. The project offers courses in English as a Second Language (ESL) and Adult Basic Education (ABE) to employers who are willing to pay their employees for half their class time and for 15 percent of the instructional costs. By the end of January 1990, the project had…

In its second year of operation (1986-87), the Missouri Coalition for Adult Literacy (MCAL) greatly expanded its scope and services. Factors contributing to this expansion include the attention generated by Project Literacy U.S. (PLUS) and the use of the Job Training Partnership Act as a funding source. Program accomplishments include the…

EQUAL (Educational Quality or Adult Literacy) is Pennsylvania's program improvement initiative that measures performance by the quality of education learners receive. For 3 years, Project EQUAL was piloted in adult education agencies throughout the state. Beginning in 1997, the pilot projects helped to develop a process for continuous program…