This literature review examines current practice in reporting school dropout rates and the impact that school dropout may have on adult education programs and policies. First, I investigate the five dropout estimates commonly reported by the U.S. Department of Education (USDOE), examining how these measures vary in their estimation of school…

The purpose of this manual is to aid an educator in evaluating the Learning 100 (L100) system within his instructional setting. It includes information on the procedures necessary for evaluation, including planning for evaluation, stating objectives in operational terms, preparing a research design, administering the study, analyzing and…

A survey instrument developed in 1991 by the Massachusetts Job Council to ascertain basic information regarding funds spent on job training and to provide state policymakers with information about those being served and what services are being provided was used as a model to develop a program assessment instrument. The program assessment…

This paper offers recommendations to the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) on the development of the background questionnaire for the National Assessment of Adult Literacy (NAAL). The recommendations are from the viewpoint of a researcher interested in applying sophisticated statistical models to address important issues in adult…

This paper, which is intended to assist adult literacy practitioners interested in conducting research about their programs, discusses the four stages of the action research process: identifying questions to guide the research, collecting information to answer the questions, analyzing the information collected, and sharing the results with others.…

Three teams of teachers and administrators from three adult basic education programs in Tennessee, Kentucky, and Virginia participated in a 2-year action research project that focused on developing approaches that local programs can use to document the outcomes of student participation in adult education programs. Facilitators helped the teams…

The National Reporting System (NRS) is a project to develop an accountability system for the federally funded adult education program. The system includes a set of student measures to allow assessment of the impact of adult education instruction, methodologies for collecting the measures, reporting forms and procedures, and training and technical…

An 11-point plan was developed by the Comprehensive Adult Student Assessment System (CASAS) in cooperation with the California Department of Education for the 1990-91 year. Major program objectives were designed to enhance agency involvement, identify underlying causes of student attrition, examine test administration and security practices,…

The National Reporting System (NRS) established reporting requirements for the adult education program required by Title II of the Workforce Investment Act. The NRS defines the measures local programs must collect, the methodologies for collecting them, and state reporting requirements. This document presents the guidelines for conducting the NRS…

A study focused on researchers' use of the English-Language Background Questionnaire (EBQ) portion of the National Adult Literacy Survey (NALS), the results of which were released in 1993. Data were gathered by surveying NALS data users about how they have used the EBQ data, their perspectives on the strengths and weaknesses of the EBQ, and their…

The National Workplace Literacy Program (NWLP) was a federal grant program that was initiated in 1988 to promote the following: contextualized, job-specific instruction in basic skills; joint governance through partnerships between employers, education providers, and employee organizations; and attention to individual workers' needs. The NWLP's…

A project was undertaken to develop standardized procedures for use in conducting follow-up and assessment of adult education students, including students in basic and secondary education, general educational development (GED) programs, and vocational training. The major activities of the project included the following: review of the literature…

This manual, which is intended for practitioners involved in the Asia and the Pacific Programme of Education for All, explains the basic concepts and procedures involved in monitoring and evaluating literacy and continuing education programs. The following are among the topics discussed in the manual's eight chapters: (1) understanding monitoring…

Anticipated demographic changes in the United States adult population in the decade between the National Adult Literacy Survey (NALS) of 1992 and the National Assessment of Adult Literacy (NAAL), which is scheduled for 2002, were reviewed. Next, the implications of those changes for the NALS and NAAL were analyzed. The analysis focused on births,…