One major report after another shows that the United States needs a large, innovative, and effective adult education and workforce skills system. It is essential to the national security, economic stability, and democratic way of life. To address this need fully a leadership agency focused on a singular national goal is required, one with a…

The National Commission on Adult Literacy proposes creating a new Adult Education and Workforce Skills System with the capacity to effectively serve 20 million adults annually by the year 2020. The primary mission of this new System will be to move out-of-school adults to readiness for postsecondary education and job training and enable their…

In this update, Linton provides a report on what transpired during the invitational technical assistance training meeting for State adult correctional education programs titled "Making Data Work for You," which was hosted by the Department of Education a year ago. As a key part of that training, States shared their efforts to utilize…

America is becoming a less educated nation (National Commission on Adult Literacy, 2008). While this is frequently measured through comparisons of the number of adults with college degrees, strategies to address sagging educational attainment statistics in the United States are typically focused on K-12 reforms--mostly through expanded definitions…

Living in an age of communication, literacy is an extremely integral part of our society. We are impacted by literature during our infancy, childhood, adolescence, and adulthood. "Literacy for the New Millennium" includes information from specialists in the field who discuss the influence of popular culture, media, and technology on…

This bibliography was compiled for the 2006 Summer Institute at The Centre for Literacy-"Accountability and Public Trust: Restoring the Balance." The selections include lectures, research studies, policy papers, and government documents that describe and analyze recent concepts of accountability in the context of government funding in…

In this chapter the authors' primary aim is to describe the general workings of the system of adult literacy and learning as it exists in the United Kingdom today. To better illuminate that system, they take a little time delving into its past--that is, showing how it arrived at its current state of operation. A secondary aim is to compare and…

This chapter seeks to provide the field of education for adult English speakers of other languages--at local, state, and national levels--with a timely overview of the state of assessment in adult English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL) programs in the United States. It also seeks to provide a brief description of assessment reform…

This book contains eight papers on adult learning and literacy. "The Year 1998 in Review" (Fran Tracy-Mumford) examines educational legislation and policy and developments in adult education program development, program accountability, strategic alliances and partnerships, and instructional methodologies and technologies. "Lessons…