This study compared performance of 300 mildly handicapped and 300 nonhandicapped adolescents on the Florida State Student Assessment Test, Part II, a test measuring functional literacy in math and communication skills. Substantial differences indicate severe consequences for handicapped students forced to pass minimum competency tests to graduate…

Examines the question of illiteracy in the Caribbean relative to international trends in adult education. Identifies Jamaica's JAMAL literacy program and Grenada's Centre for Popular Education as the dominant influences on the development of adult education programs. Views strategic planning, as found in these programs, as a necessity for success.…

Discusses the value and use of an ecological inventory designed to determine the vocabulary that teachers and parents should emphasize with students with moderate to severe handicaps or who are culturally and linguistically diverse. (NH)

Assesses illiterate and semiliterate speakers of Serbo-Croatian on reading, writing, phonological, and control tasks. Three groups, categorized with respect to the subjects' ability to identify the letters of their Cyrillic alphabet, differed on phoneme deletion and phoneme-counting tasks, but not on syllable-counting, picture vocabulary, or…

Analyzes the obstacles to universal literacy in Africa including the colonial creation of a two-tier society, rapid population growth, and multiplicity of languages. Suggests that the power structure is such that it has a vested interest in the providing a limited amount of literacy without raising the populace's consciousness. (Contains 30…

Discusses three forms of literacy--functional literacy, the ability to read and write, and workplace literacy. Includes "The Magnavox Experience" (Ford); "Aloha Means Goodbye to Workforce Illiteracy" (Beil); and "A Hospital's Prescription for Illiteracy" (Solovy-Pratt, Vicary). (JOW)

Language planning for literacy has typically focused on models of provision of print-based literacy programmes in order to develop widespread literate capabilities in reading and writing. This paper argues that contemporary literacy planning needs to consider more than models of delivery and engage with issues related to defining the nature of…

This paper summarises findings and lessons from a recently conducted evaluation of an adult functional literacy program in Ghana. The study attempted to assess learners' literacy and numeracy skills, and ascertain participants' knowledge and skills in various development aspects as well as their impact. The literacy and numeracy skills assessment…

This document, which is designed to provide Iowa literacy service providers and funding agencies with information about the distribution of adult literacy proficiencies over various regions of Iowa, presents and discusses synthetic estimates of adult literacy proficiencies. First, the procedure that was used to develop synthetic literacy estimates…

This document reviews progress in the nine high-populations countries towards the goal of Education for All (EFA). The nine countries are Bangladesh, Brazil, China, Egypt, India, Indonesia, Mexico, Nigeria, and Pakistan. Since the Thailand conference in 1990, most countries have shown improvement with primary education increasing by over 40…

This anthology/textbook is part of a Mexican series of instructional materials designed for Spanish speaking adults who are in the process of becoming literate or have recently become literate in their native language. This document presents a collection of works from important writers directed to the population of Baja California, especially to…

This manual is part of a Mexican series of instructional materials designed for Spanish speaking adults who are in the process of becoming literate or have recently become literate in their native language. Its objective is to strengthen reading and writing skills while teaching basic nutrition and food preparation techniques. The manual provides…

Guidelines for Hebrew language proficiency are presented in two companion volumes which are identical except that one gives examples of various linguistic forms in Hebrew and the other provides them in Roman script. These guidelines are based on the generic guidelines published in 1986 by the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages.…

The National Adult LIteracy Survey was a nationwide survey of a random sample of approximately 26,000 adults. The survey collected information about individuals' social, economic, and educational histories and their literacy activities. Their functional literacy was also assessed using simulated functional or real-world tasks designed to determine…

A study described and analyzed the uses of literacy at school, home, and work of two working adults labeled functionally illiterate, as measured by a score of 5.0 or less on a standardized reading test. Data were collected over an 18-month period by observation at five sites, which included the classroom, work sites, and homes of the participants.…