The state of adult literacy programs, including the Chicago Public Library Literacy Initiative, is described. After the Vietnam War, Congress passed adult education legislation, and Laubach Literacy Action and Literacy Volunteers of America became the nation's largest network of literacy providers. These and other literacy programs have problems:…

The Delta Adult Literacy Council, Inc. (DALC) is a volunteer, nonprofit organization that seeks to recruit, assess, train, match, and support volunteer tutors and adult new readers. Its accomplishments, its history as a literacy organization, and its tutor training process are described. The process of student recruitment and support involves…

An evaluation model for workplace literacy programs was developed and applied at two industrial plants. Development of the model included a literature review and consultation with plant managers. The model included interviews, questionnaires, Cloze tests, class observation, plant-gathered productivity indexes, and supervisor ratings. The…

A project in British Columbia, Canada, explored a deeper understanding of what it would be like to become literate and probed how that experience related to the life of the educator. The phenomenological study began with a literature search. It focused on and explored the stories of three adult learners, using the journals of two and extrapolating…

This manual is designed to guide literacy providers through the process of producing a book of writings by their adult literacy students. The book is organized in seven chapters. Chapter 1 advocates the value of writing and provides a rationale for a book of writing by literacy students. Chapter 2 provides details of a workshop to be conducted to…

Two bibliographies that review 18 books and resource materials that adult educators can use to teach mathematics in adult literacy classes are included. The materials are suggested to help teachers implement an effective, successful mathematics program, using many of the strategies recommended by the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics.…

This report summarizes for fiscal year 1995 the adult education activities implemented throughout the state of Florida in response to and in support of the Florida Model Literacy Program Act of 1978 (Florida Adult Literacy Act). In addition, the report presents a summary of the activities initiated under Blueprint 2000, legislation that…

The general focus of a course on adult literacy and community service at a large state university was to increase students' understanding of adult literacy as a societal issue and to support their involvement as tutors in local adult literacy programs. To understand what students learned from their experience in the course, the instructors began…

This handbook was designed for educators of adults at varied levels with varying needs. The techniques discussed in the guide can be used in groups, pairs, or individually. The booklet contains two sections: (1) a brief review of different learning styles and the types of activities that work well for each, including visual, auditory,…

Due to fragmentation of the field, framing and engaging in debates over adult literacy standards have been particularly difficult. The discourse of adult literacy standards reflects this fragmentation. The terms content standards and opportunity-to-learn (OTL) standards have typically not been used. The term performance standards has been used…

Compared to most countries assessed in 1994, the United States had a greater concentration of adults who scored at the lowest literacy levels across prose, document, and quantitative literacy domains. However, it had one of the higher concentrations of adults who scored at or above level 4 on the prose scale. The proportion of adults who scored at…

Developed by students at Harrison Elementary, Cedar Rapids, Iowa for a web site celebrating Iowa's sesquicentennial, this booklet presents a variety of material about literacy in Iowa. The first section of the booklet provides information on professional and state organizations dealing with literacy and presents the school's home page. The next…

A study investigated provision of workplace literacy courses available for women in female-dominated industries and women's access to and participation in those courses. A literature review revealed very little research on the required increased literacy skills in Australia and no previous studies on women's access to workplace literacy courses in…

This publication reprints the text of the Accountability Framework for the Adult Literacy Education System and Core Quality Standards for Programs in Ontario. The framework describes how the Ontario Training and Adjustment Board (OTAB) is accountable to Ontario's adult literacy education system and explains how OTAB-funded programs are accountable…

This guide is designed to help Ontario's literacy program coordinators implement the Core Quality Standards in their literacy programs. It provides ideas about simple approaches to evaluation which they can use. The first part of the guide discusses what program evaluation is and what it can do for the program coordinator. The second part…