The United States confronts the problem of a large and growing prison population, the majority of which is insufficiently literate. Added to the general effects of educational disability are the marginalizing factors of ethnicity, class, socioeconomic deprivation, and other handicaps. Historically, the situation in prison literacy is 150 years of…

The curricula and methods used in workplace literacy programs were reviewed through a search of the ERIC database. The search was intended to identify the following: literacy skills recommended for teaching literacy through workplace curricula; skills that have been taught through workplace literacy programs; and criteria used to determine program…

Concern that Canadian Native illiteracy was being ignored or addressed ineffectively prompted this report, which includes a literature review, findings from a survey in several Native communities, and an overview of innovative practices and illustrative programs. The survey, conducted with 56 potential literacy learners from 8 geographically and…

Workplace literacy is literacy training provided in the workplace, incorporating basic skills training with job-related instructional materials. Early research efforts to define the literacy requirements of jobs began with two military projects, Operational REALISTIC and Project 100,000, in the late 1960s. Subsequent studies have focused on the…

This paper presents the preliminary results of a short-term longitudinal study of the impact of literacy instruction on the lives of 76 adults enrolled in a literacy program at the Center for Literacy in Philadelphia. It begins with an extensive review of literature on literacy, adult literacy and adult literacy assessment. It describes the…

Although competency-based adult education (CBAE) has been practiced by teachers for centuries, the term was defined more fully and formal programs were developed around 1971. One of the prime forces in the growth of CBAE was the Adult Performance Level (APL) project at the University of Texas, a project that defined CBAE and produced suggested…

Factors affecting companies' readiness to implement workplace training were identified through a survey completed by 50 selected partner companies of the 44 National Workplace Literacy grantees during 1995-1996. Selection of the business partners to whom the survey was administered was left to the grantees' discretion. A 25-item questionnaire…

An overview of the salient issues in adult English-as-a-Second Language (ESL) literacy is presented as reported in the literature on adult education and applied linguistics. Emphasis is on programs that have implemented promising practices and effective approaches to help ESL students develop their literacy skills. Characteristics of effective…

This book, intended to serve as a professional reference work, proposes to define the field of Adult Basic Education in its evolution, its contribution to professional education, and the principal problems and issues. The volume contains the following treatises: "Definitions and Evolution of the Concepts" (Thomas); "Selected…

This document addresses issues related to the problem that many U.S. citizens do not have literacy skills adequate to meet their needs and ambitions. The first section of the paper provides an overview of the problem, discussing how to define literacy, how it has been measured, some estimates of how many people are illiterate, who they are and…

High school noncompletion is a complex problem that requires complex solutions that schools are often inhibited from implementing quickly. Alternative educational services are often necessary for students who are able to complete high school but who find school an unrewarding place in which to learn. A loose network of public and private programs…

This book surveys currently available software for English language learners and identifies future directions in the development of such software that are likely to prove fruitful. Discussed first are ways in which computers add to the learning experience. Stand-alone programs are compared with authoring systems, and "purpose-made" and…

Interviews were conducted with 4 members of the Task Force of the Adult Beginning Reader Project, 6 program officials, and 13 heads of adult basic education (ABE) programs; site visits were made to two ongoing ABE programs; and the literature pertaining to adult literacy programs in this country was reviewed in order to identify factors associated…

In the United Kingdom, the increasing sophistication of money management and financial services' increasing reliance on information and computer technology (ICT) have made financial literacy education particularly important for older people, who are less likely to be engaged in the ICT revolution and more likely to be living on a low income.…

Since independence in 1947, India's educational goals have included expansion, improved quality, and equal opportunity. The author analyzes India's successes and failures in reaching these goals in the context of its limited economic resources, the traditional educational values of its people, and its traditionally stratified social system. (SJL)