Applicable to all levels of education, the eight digests and four FAST (Focused Access to Selected Topics) bibliographies included in this special collection focus on testing and assessment in the fields of reading, writing, listening, and speaking. The material in this special collection is designed for use by teachers, students, administrators,…

This manual outlines the procedures for recruiting, preparing, scheduling, presenting, and evaluating a workshop for tutors participating in a program to help nonreaders develop job search skills. The following topics are discussed: an overview of the program; recruitment of tutors; recruitment of students; preparation for the workshop (space and…

This manual is intended to assist tutors participating in a program to help nonreaders develop job search skills. The first two sections give an overview of the program and present general guidelines for working with students. Detailed suggestions are provided for working with students in sessions addressing the following questions: Am I ready to…

This report describes certain assumptions and tentative conclusions made by an Advisory Group of the Adult Literacy and Basic Skills Unit (ALBSU) about work with the mentally handicapped from a nonspecialist perspective. With the basic education organizer in mind, the report addresses six major issues. A definition of the term mentally handicapped…

This report summarizes the results of a feasibility study of the Bay Area Literacy Referral Network (BALRN), a local literacy referral system established in 1985 by the coordinators of the 13 Bay Area literacy projects, which in turn were established by the California Literacy Campaign initiated in 1983. Funded with Library Services and…

Because reading is first and foremost a language comprehension process focusing on the visual form of spoken language, such teaching strategies as language experience and assisted reading have much to offer beginning readers. These techniques have been slow to become accepted by many adult literacy instructors; however, the two strategies,…

This guide describes a model for a community-based literacy program for older adults that uses older adults as tutors. Guidelines are provided to program sponsors for implementing literacy education for older adults. Chapter I provides an overview of the problem of illiterate older adults and literacy education for them. Chapter II addresses the…

In March 1988, the Institute for Literacy Studies at Lehman College, New York, initiated a short-term, participatory research project in alternative assessment. It consisted of two major components--a five-session seminar held for two hours on Wednesday afternoons in May and June and two rounds of interviews with Adult Learning Center (ALC)…

This report presents the steps and actions that public libraries may take to begin to meet the needs for literacy training in their individual communities. Outlined are three major approaches that libraries can consider when addressing the literacy needs of their communities: (1) initiating a literacy program; (2) cooperating with an existing…

The Ryedale Adult Literacy Paired Reading Project pairs tutors and adults with reading difficulties. In the Ryedale program, tutees choose reading material that is within the tutor's readability level. The tutor and tutee read aloud together at the tutee's pace until the tutee has made enough progress to read aloud alone. When tutees feel ready,…

This booklet provides guidelines for setting up workplace programs to strengthen employee basic skills. It is intended to help employers who are contemplating the establishment of basic skills training programs and those with programs already in place who seek to improve their current designs. Part I addresses the basic skills problem in the…

Adult illiteracy is a complex, costly, and growing social problem. Three common areas of controversy related to the problem are: (1) definitions of adult literacy, (2) characteristics of illiterate adults, and (3) the purposes of literacy education. Illiteracy can be understood only in relation to a culture's definition of literacy. Due to…

This annotated bibliography contains listings of 7 publications on literacy, 16 on reading, and 14 on writing. These professional materials include books, collections of articles, research reports, proposals, program descriptions, descriptions of teaching methods, dictionaries, teacher guides, and exercises/strategies for the learner. Materials in…

The Adult Learner Competencies Project included literature and consultation with adult education practitioners in Pennsylvania to establish competencies that can be used by all Adult Basic and Literacy Education (ABLE) providers in the state. The lists that were developed through the project, and which form the major part of this document, are…

This document lists the national quality standards for volunteer literacy programs that were developed by Laubach Literacy Action in a 2-year project that began in 1994 and involved the following activities: extensive review of existing literacy quality standards and guidelines; analysis of previous national efforts to identify the elements…