The Long Island Workplace Literacy Partnership was established to provide workplace literacy programs for adult workers with inadequate reading, mathematics, communication, English language, and decision-making skills. Four corporations cooperated with the Board of Cooperative Educational Services of Nassau County in the project. The service…

Presents a case study that focuses on effects of an extensive reading program on an adult English language learner. Describes subject's reactions to the extensive reading approach using a qualitative framework. Discusses implications for the teaching of adult literacy. (RS)

Singapore students scored highest on the Third International Mathematics and Science Study. Any nation that "outsources" its poverty (Malaysian street sweepers) and its low-achievers (who study in Malaysia) can get high test scores. U.S./Japan score differences stem from Japan's effective teaching practices. Among 13 occupations in the…

This paper examines a discussion among a teacher and four Latin-American women in a family literacy class who engage for the first time in the practice of peer-editing a learner's text. In the analysis, it becomes evident that they have different ideas of and responses to the text. Whereas the teacher's focus is on revising the textual elements,…

From April 1990 through September 1991, the Rural Workplace Literacy Project (RWLP) provided migrant and seasonal farm workers from 15 agricultural worksites in California with literacy training. The training, designed to develop reading and job skills, involved 282 enrolled farm workers and 109 nonenrolled class attendants. Of the 13 classes…

The Appalachia that many metropolitans claim to know was discovered or invented between the Civil War and World War I. The idea of the Appalachians as impoverished, illiterate, and in desperate need of moral, economic, and educational uplift disseminated during those years was, in fact, a creation of the urban imagination; hence, discourse on…

This publication presents the results of the Iowa State Adult Literacy Survey as referenced in the publication "Adult Literacy in Iowa: Results of the State Adult Literacy Survey" in graphic form. The State Adult Literacy Survey was a research project in which 12 states assessed the literacy skills of their adult populations. As a…

This paper reviews results of a questionnaire distributed to literacy workers in rural Alberta (Canada) to ascertain their views on rural literacy. The questionnaire was designed to identify: (1) distinctive features of the issue of adult illiteracy in rural areas; (2) the strengths of literacy efforts in rural Alberta; (3) the weaknesses of…

According to U.S. Census data, in rural Pennsylvania, 37% of adults did not complete higher school, and 21% did not go beyond 8th grade. As a consequence of present demographic and literacy trends, the proportion of the workforce with low levels of basic skills is growing. At the same time, a changing labor market is creating new jobs that demand…

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…

This brief article reports information gathered at a symposium on issues and challenges in assessment and accountability for adult English language learners, hosted ny the National Center for ESL Literacy Education (NCLE). Teachers, program administrators, researchers, test developers, and policy makers gathered to discuss the field's vision for…

The National Literacy Summit 2000 was convened in Washington, DC, to develop a national vision and plan of action for adult literacy in the United States. Following that meeting of literacy professionals from across the country, a group of professionals working in adult ESL education and research came together at the Teachers of English to…

According to Statistics Canada, as many as 8 million Canadians do not have the literacy skills necessary to prosper in a knowledge-based society and economy. For most of these Canadians, the challenge is not simply in "decoding" text, but in "understanding and working with" it. The demands of the knowledge-based society are…

Mixed results for U.S. adults on the First International Adult Literacy Survey reveal the worthlessness of posting international test scores without considering cultural, social, and economic contexts. In the Third International Mathematics and Science Study, U.S. eighth-graders' performance was average, but fourth-graders' results were…

This study extends the knowledge garnered from work with younger populations to determine the reading comprehension strategies most important to adults' success on outcome measures and to align them with previously researched interventions. According to an analysis of competence-based standardized tests of literacy (such as the General Educational…