The Haywood County Public Library (Waynesville, North Carolina) used a 1-year grant to strengthen a library-initiated adult literacy program by hiring a staff coordinator to develop techniques for recruiting students and tutors and raising funds in order to meet the community's adult literacy needs. The Adult Literacy Services Coordinator who was…

A project in Iberia Parish, Louisiana, investigated whether the use of computers along with Laubach literacy materials could significantly raise the reading level of adults presently reading at the 0-4 grade levels. Adults in a control and an experimental group (15 in each) worked one-on-one with volunteer tutors using the "Laubach Way to…

Moravian College in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, received a grant and organized a recruitment campaign to obtain college student volunteers for area literacy councils. The campaign structure included: (1) contacting education departments in eastern Pennsylvania colleges and acquainting them with literacy councils, adult basic education, and the…

Project Access was developed to provide Adult Basic Education (ABE) and General Educational Development (GED) classes for visually and muscularly impaired adults in a totally accessible and supportive environment. Existing instructional materials were adapted to several formats, e.g., large print, cassette tape, and Braille; instruction was…

After the Castro revolution of 1959, the new Cuban revolutionary government began a massive literacy campaign that taught 700,000 persons to read in about a year. Twenty years later, Nicaragua, facing an even more serious literacy problem, conducted a similar literacy campaign. In approximately six months, Nicaragua had reduced illiteracy by 37…

During the past 40 years, the definition of literacy and the needs of adult literacy education have changed. Before World War II, adult literacy programs usually focused on teaching totally illiterate adults to read and write at the simplest levels. Later, functional literacy at about the fifth grade level was promoted through the programs. Now,…

This report provides research on the ramifications of implementing computer-assisted instruction (CAI) within the established framework for conducting adult basic education. The first part is narrative beginning with an historical overview of CAI. Topics include the availability of computer hardware in public schools, teacher preparation for CAI,…

This Congressional hearing deals with the views of the private sector concerning adult illiteracy. Included among those organizations and firms represented at the hearing were the following: the Free Library of Philadelphia, B. Dalton Bookseller, the Hispanic Higher Education Coalition, Polaroid Company, Laubach Literacy Action, and the…

A reading immersion program was conducted for 23 Memphis Defense Logistics Agency employees using the Navy Reading Improvement Program. Participants ranged in age from 30-71 and in schooling from 7 years of formal education to some college. Pretesting with the Gates-MacGinitie Reading Tests yielded scores ranging from 3.0 to 7.4 with a mean…

An estimated 850,000 Canadian adults lack basic literacy skills. An examination of the profile and achievements of the students enrolled in the literacy education program at the Alberta Vocational Centre in Edmonton indicates that like the many other types in the broad range of adult literacy programs, the highly structured nature of the Edmonton…

A study was conducted to find out about the people who conduct and work in adult literacy programs in New York City (NYC). Through a questionnaire distributed to NYC literacy practitioners working in programs operated by public libraries, the City University of New York, the New York City Board of Education, and community-based organizations, the…

A study was conducted to describe and analyze the types of curricular and instructional approaches currently being used in adult literacy programs in New York City. A small representative sample of 16 programs and 48 staff members were selected for study. Information was gathered through onsite observation and interviews with 39 staff members.…

The six case descriptions of adult education programs in Sweden contained in this document are part of a set that reflects a cooperative effort by adult educators to increase international understanding of various educational programs for adults in their societal context. A face sheet for each program provides this information: name, organization,…

These instructor's materials consist of a handbook directed to the teacher and 33 worksheets teachers can use with adult students in order to use the cloze procedure to assess how readily they can read materials of differing complexity. The handbook introduces the materials by considering such questions as What is meant by reading?, How could…

Although it is being taken in greater numbers and by increasingly younger people, the General Education Development (GED) test is viewed skeptically by the military, college admission officials, and some employers. The public perception of the GED tends to give it second-class status compared to a high school diploma. However, studies of GED…