This guide raises and discusses questions to guide workplace literacy. The historic context for this handbook is the progress of Project REACH from its inception in 1986 to the present. An introduction considers how an workplace literacy. An introduction considers how an organization's history affects program decisions. Chapter 1 looks at…

This guide, which is intended for project directors, coordinators, and other professional staff involved in developing and delivering workplace education programs, explains the workplace education evaluation process, the main approaches to evaluation, and considerations in selecting appropriate evaluation instruments. Discussed first are the…

Research has shown that an effective assessment of workplace literacy programs requires both formative and summative evaluations. Workplace literacy program impact is best measured using a mixture of standard assessment tests and custom-designed instruments. A broader conception of adult literacy learning can be assessed by using interviews and…

This evaluation guide resulted from a 2-year project that conducted literacy audits at 10 manufacturing companies, assessed 3,291 workers, developed customized assessments and curricula, and provided 104 courses to 948 participants in the Chicago area. The guide is a hands-on resource to assist companies, unions, or educational agencies in setting…

An external evaluation of the Champaign County (Ohio) Workplace Literacy Project used the Triphase Evaluation process based on Stuffelbeam's decision-making model (1971). During the input phase, emphasis was on determining needs of workers and employers in order to develop a training program to meet specific identified needs. The process phase was…

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…

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…

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…

This guide describes a collaborative approach to high quality and relevant evaluation of a workplace basic skills program that can be carried out as part of normal program operations. It is designed for use by educators, union representatives, managers, supervisors, participating employees, and funders. The guide is organized into five phases. In…

A project was conducted to improve the productivity and efficiency of 10 manufacturers by providing workplace literacy instruction to workers lacking basic skills required for their jobs, and to improve the capability of educational programs to meet the basic skill needs of the manufacturing industry by developing an evaluation manual for basic…

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…

Directed at persons who are not experts in program evaluation or workplace literacy, this handbook provides various options and processes that can be used for formal evaluation of workplace literacy programs. The handbook is organized in six sections. An introductory section acknowledges the weaknesses of any evaluation attempt. In the second…

Basic issues in workplace education evaluation can be structured into five discussion questions. The first is who wants to know what information for what purpose. The "who" constitutes the program's stakeholders both at and beyond the program level. Further inquiry is then needed to determine what kind of information these stakeholders typically…

This document presents key findings about the team evaluation process used in seven workplace basic skills programs in 1993 and 1994. An introduction summarizes the methodology used to develop the case studies and key findings about the team evaluation process. These key findings present the strengths and challenges of using evaluation teams,…

This issue contains five articles about assessment in adult literacy programs. The first article, "Living Literacy: Rethinking Adult Learner Assessment" (Susan L. Lytle), focuses on developing alternative forms of assessment such as literacy portfolios to identify changes in four dimensions of adult literacy over the course of literacy…