For adults with low literacy skills, the role of phonology in reading has been fairly well researched, but less is known about the role of morphology in reading. We investigated the contribution of morphological awareness to word reading and reading comprehension and found that for adults with low literacy skills and skilled readers, morphological…

Adult Basic Education programs are under pressure to develop and deliver instruction that promotes rapid and sustained literacy development. We describe a novel approach to a literacy intervention that focuses on morphemes, which are the smallest meaningful units contained in words. We argue that if you teach learners that big words are comprised…

This paper documents a year in the life of an ESOL adult literacy teacher. It is a work of narrative inquiry, an examination of reflective teaching in action. As such, it includes commentary on the cycle of observation, reflection, research, and action. In particular, this narrative examines the relationship between literacy practice and…

The goal of this meeting was to discuss the challenges of adult education and mechanisms to better understand and address those challenges through research. The meeting was structured around three panel discussions representing the perspectives of State directors of adult education programs, adult education researchers, and education research…

This study examined the reliability and validity of administering Dynamic Indicators of Basic Early Literacy Skills (DIBELS) to adult basic education (ABE) students. Ninety ABE participants were administered DIBELS measures, the Woodcock-Johnson III Broad Reading (WJ III BR) measures, and four orthographic ability tests. Since ABE students are a…

This dissertation focuses on the educational aspirations and expectations of a heterogeneous group of women who were enrolled in, or had graduated from, adult education and literacy programs in Boston, Massachusetts. The research questions guiding the inquiry are: (1) Why do educationally disadvantaged women value education--how are these values…

This newsletter, published five times a year, features articles on issues of concern to adult, family, and youth literacy practitioners, as well as recommended resources, announcements, and teaching strategies. This issue contains: (1) Using a License to Drive Improvement: Professional Development in Massachusetts (Jon Steinberg); (2) Building…

This report summarizes key findings from the 2003 Massachusetts State Assessment of Adult Literacy (SAAL). Administered in Massachusetts in 2003 and early 2004, the assessment measures the prose, document, and quantitative literacy of Massachusetts's adults. The Massachusetts SAAL was conducted in conjunction with the National Assessment of Adult…

Librarians in Stamford, Waterbury, Syracuse, and Southbridge (Massachusetts) are all involved in a program called Literacy Volunteers of America. This private nonprofit agency has one overriding concern, and that is to help adults and teenagers who are inadequate readers, or "functional illiterates." (Author)

The purpose of a state report card is to provide the general public and policymakers with information to assess and improve post secondary education in each state. "Measuring Up 2008" is the fifth in a series of biennial report cards that evaluates states in six overall performance categories: (1) Preparation for post-secondary education…

This report describes a mentoring pilot project developed by the Massachusetts Department of Education to meet the staff training and development needs of workplace educators in a National Workplace Literacy Program. The mentoring concept was chosen because one-on-one relationships between experienced and less experienced workplace educators were…

The Attleboro (Massachusetts) Workplace Education Program, a partnership of four area companies and Bristol Community College, is intended to provide workers with education that will improve the quality of their lives and their work. Housed in a corporate office building in the Attleboro Industrial Park, the program offers classes in English as a…

Four papers concerning the Lawrence (Massachusetts) Literacy Coalition, a consortium of 12 two- and four-year colleges supporting adult literacy activities in the region, are presented. The first paper offers an overview of the coalition, including the reasons for its formation, a definition of literacy, the scope of the coalition's work, and…

This compilation presents material related to a Library Literacy program, which was designed to collect, publish, and distribute the writing of new adult readers and whose target audience was students, teachers, tutors and librarians involved in library-based literacy programs in Massachusetts. The first part of the compilation presents the final…

The hypothesis of this study was that a predominantly localized visual-aural recruitment package would be effective in attracting and recruiting functionally illiterate adults into Adult Basic Education programs. In order to test this hypothesis, data pertaining to past and current methods of recruiting students to Adult Basic Education programs…