Today, nearly 1 billion adults are totally illiterate; the large majority are women. Varying and vague definitions of literacy abound in the literature and in practice. Literacy is only a potential tool that can be used for a variety of economic, social, political, and cultural purposes. Three principal state objectives for launching literacy…

Texas' overall goal must be to reduce the percentage of its population without basic literacy and numeracy skills to no more than the percentage of jobs available to these underprepared workers. With only 14 percent of tomorrow's jobs projected to require less than a high school education, nearly one Texas worker in five will be unemployable. The…

The Colorado Adult Literacy Commission assessed the status of illiteracy in Colorado and the degree to which current programs met students' needs. Participants at regional meetings identified these issues: (1) low basic skills hamper economic development; (2) low literacy levels represent a threat to health and safety; (3) illiteracy and crime are…

This technical assistance guide contains information on adult learners and how they differ from learners who are children and the related program implications. The first section describes characteristics of adults that affect the attitudes adults bring to the classroom situation. These include bringing life experiences; having self-concept as a…

The Career Skills Enhancement Program (CSEP) was a National Workplace Literacy Program offered to Santa Clara County (California) Office of Education (COE) employees. A job skills study involved personal interviews, job shadowing, and examination of job descriptions and materials used by employees. Based on the study and initial needs assessment,…

Technological change and other innovations affect the way Canadians work. These changes demand increasingly higher levels of literacy for today and for the future. Basic skills are not enough. A low level of schooling is associated with higher unemployment. People who invest in their own higher education are likely to reap the reward of higher…

This document examines the problem of illiteracy. The first chapter provides background and general information about illiteracy, while the second chapter distinguishes between "illiterate" and "functionally illiterate," and provides a new look at the concept of functionality. The third chapter begins with a section about illiteracy in the United…

This guide is the result of three projects that have been working to address the problem of intergenerational illiteracy in writing. While writing skills are limited among the general population, they are even more limited among limited-English-speaking students (both school-aged and adult learners). The guidebook is a self-help manual for…

Intended as a working document for communications professionals and as reference material for planning administrators, the study compared comic books and fotonovelas, and analyzed their use in health and nutrition, family planning, agriculture, and literacy programs in developing nations. Most of the somewhat limited efforts to use comics and…

This document addresses issues related to the problem that many U.S. citizens do not have literacy skills adequate to meet their needs and ambitions. The first section of the paper provides an overview of the problem, discussing how to define literacy, how it has been measured, some estimates of how many people are illiterate, who they are and…

A study of illiteracy in Melanesia (Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands, Vanatu, New Caledonia, and Fiji) brings together current statistics and projections on illiteracy and schooling and interprets them in light of sociocultural and sociolinguistic factors. An introductory section describes Melanesia's sociolinguistic background and linguistic…

Created by the Project Literacy U.S. (PLUS) organization to combat adult illiteracy, this guide offers suggestions for enhancing local adult literacy programs or establishing new ones. Following an introduction to the problem of illiteracy and a call for a national effort to alleviate it, the guide focuses on how to begin a literacy program,…

Section 1 of this report develops the thesis that while illiteracy is deeply entrenched in certain areas of India, it is also confined to specific pockets of the population. Recognition of this fact should be the basis, according to the author, of literacy strategy. Section 2 provides a history of the levels of priority given to adult education…

The National Governors' Association's Making America Work initiative had a dual focus. Five task forces spent a year developing action agendas to address five barriers to self-sufficiency and productivity: teenage pregnancy, adult illiteracy, welfare dependency, alcohol and drug abuse, and dropping out of school. The second phase of the initiative…

This report is adapted from a letter sent to President-Elect George Bush in early January 1989. The report was published to stimulate a broad public discussion of the role that the Federal Government might play in developing the skills of the Nation's people. The priority of preventing damage to young children is the topic of the first section. In…