This report documents the progress made by the South Carolina State Library in providing volunteer programs and services for illiterate adults, promoting the cooperative development and planning of literacy services throughout the state, and assisting local literacy programs with tutor training, program development, management, and recordkeeping…

This book identifies appropriate reading material for adults who read at levels through grade seven. An introduction lists criteria used for selection and discusses emphases in selection of nonfiction. To make this recommended list of 748 entries most useful to libraries, titles are arranged in a very general Dewey Decimal Classification. Each…

This document summarizes the first New York State conference on adult education for the homeless. The conference addressed issues facing homeless people, such as education, social services, employment and training, housing, drug and substance abuse, and mental health. Successful programs, policies, practices, and the latest research were…

External factors in the development of adult education include the social context, contributions from other disciplines, and associations and government. There are four points in the evolution of adult education between 1925 and 1964: (1) the difference between its origins as a field of study and its genesis as a field of practice; (2) the impact…

This guide is intended to help people improve their reading, writing, and numeracy skills within existing organizations, services, or community activities. It is divided into two sections. The first gives some background information on literacy in Canada, adult learners, and the rationale for integrating learning into existing opportunities. The…

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…

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 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…

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…

An ethnographic study of five clerk-typists and five applications clerks in a large federal agency included observations, interviews, and a 3-week job literacy program. Both in their performance on job tasks and in the tests and exercises in the literacy program, the clerks demonstrated a number of strategies by which they quickly locate…