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…

Background/Context: Educational researchers have long sought to understand the factors that enable or constrain persistence in non-formal family literacy and adult education programs. Scholars typically posit three sets of factors influencing persistence: situational (learners' life circumstances), institutional (programmatic factors), and…

The recommendations from a two-part, formative evaluation of Pennsylvania's Bureau of Adult Basic and Literacy Education professional development system are reported here. The first phase of the evaluation studied the relationships between the vision for professional development held by planners and facilitators and the ways in which participants…

This collection of selected reminiscences of a volunteer teacher in the Pennsylvania prison system recounts her experiences teaching illiterate and near-illiterate prisoners (and others) how to read. The collection describes several different individuals (in and out of prison), their diverse reactions to reading, and their understanding and use of…

A project designed an operational system and develop a skilled pool of trainers, in conjunction with Pennsylvania's Regional Professional Development Centers (PDCs), to deliver high-quality, uniform training modules in needed content areas to adult basic and literacy education (ABLE) staff throughout Pennsylvania. Procedures for identifying,…

The School Library Media Services Division of the Pennsylvania Department of Education administered the operation of AdvancE as Pennsylvania's adult education clearinghouse. The goal of the project was to provide Pennsylvania's adult educators with prompt access to information and resources to help them implement the most effective administrative…

This study was designed to include a segment of phonemic awareness in a multi-level English-as-a-Second-Language (ESL) classroom as learning progress seemed to be inhibited in part by a lack of understanding of the structure of the English language. A survey was developed and administered to measure student progress to establish a baseline.…

Lehigh Valley (Pennsylvania) business, education, and service representatives offered residents of a two-county work force a chance to take the General Educational Development (GED) test for free and improve basic skills. Lehigh Valley census data indicated that one-third of the 650,000 population lacked a high school diploma, yet fewer than 500…

Seminar materials are provided from the Bethlehem (Pennsylvania) Area Chamber of Commerce's Literacy Sensitivity Program, which assists managers in identifying workplace basic skills training needs. The document includes the following sections: seminar overview; conducting the seminar--the presentation, the video, the group discussion, and…

This project was conducted to determine whether using videotapes, designed for the purpose of teaching English pronunciation, would improve the pronunciation of English as a second language learners at the Lebanon Adult Education Center in Pennsylvania. The videotapes used were entitled "Perfect English Pronunciation." Learners were…

The Adult School for Cuban Refugees, operated by the Central Susquehanna Intermediate Unit in 1980, supplied services to approximately 1,200 Cuban refugee students in the six weeks of its operation at Fort Indiantown Gap, Pennsylvania. The program offered basic oral English classes to adults ranging in age from 18 to 81 years. The classes were…

The Adult School for Cuban Refugees, operated by the Central Susquehanna Intermediate Unit in 1980, supplied services to approximately 1,200 Cuban refugees in the six weeks of its operation at Fort Indiantown Gap, Pennsylvania. The program offered basic oral English classes to adults ranging in age from 18 to 81 years. The classes were conducted…

Field experience reports are provided for exemplary adult education programs in Connecticut, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Virginia which were each visited by an adult education administrator from another of the programs. Each report overviews the program, makes observations on unique aspects of the program (such as programs,…

The bulk of this issue consists of five articles providing insight into various phases of adult continuing education. "The Meliorist Position as a Philosophic Base for Adult Education" (Gordon Clay Godbey) examines these questions about meliorism: should we accept as natural improvement of the human condition, the constant wars, the…

This publication consists of the complete set of 23 monographs developed by the Pennsylvania Action Research Network to supplement the 67 monographs produced over the past 3 years. The specific audience are literacy, General Educational Development (GED), and English-as-a Second Language (ESL) practitioners. The titles are: "Use of…