This document reports how the Council of State Policy and Planning Agencies (CSPA) Academy process helped nine states develop workplace literacy initiatives involving their governors' offices, the Job Training Partnership Act system, and the educational system. The states were Florida, Idaho, Massachusetts, Michigan, North Carolina, Tennessee,…

Faced with the fact that over 50% of its citizens are illerate, and recognizing the link between illiteracy, poverty, and disease, the government of Kenya, in 1963, created an adult literacy program. The program's objectives were (1) to train literacy teachers, (2) to produce materials for teaching and learning and for continuing education after…

In accordance with the national aims for adult literacy programs, an Adult Performance Level (APL) project was devised whose primary goal was to produce sequential tests of APL objectives derived from the requirements of adult living in four major areas: reading, writing, computation, and general knowledge. To document these abilities and skills…

The first year report summarizes the activities of Project ERA (Enrollment, Retention, and Advancement), an adult basic education demonstration project in the Providence Model Cities area. The program was committed to demonstrate an effective and imaginative effort in the Model Cities area for recruiting and instructing hard-core functionally…

This book contains eight case studies of critical literacy in action in Victoria, Australia. The following papers are included: "Preface" (John Dewar Wilson); "Introduction" (Delia Bradshaw); "Making the Time and Space for Critical Literacy: Why Bother?" (Barbara Comber); "Questioning Text: Critical Literacy in…

The first phase of a longitudinal study of the factors that encourage adults to enter and remain in adult literacy programs and the effects program participation has on their lives obtained information on students in a sample of 70 classes in 1988-89. The sample was stratified on literacy provider agency, whether the class was basic education (BE)…

This collection of abstracts is part of a continuing series providing information on recent doctoral dissertations. The 19 titles deal with a variety of topics, including the following: (1) the relationship of perceptual training and reading achievement; (2) compensatory education for community college students; (3) comparative analysis of…

The late commissioner of education, James Allen, proclaimed the "Right to Read" as the educational target of the current decade. The object was to inculcate and improve reading skills among 25 percent of the American population who either lacked or were deficient in them. Has this goal been at least half-way attained? Midway through the…

This second report from the International Adult Literacy Survey (IALS) builds on the data analysis of seven countries presented in the first IALS publication in 1995 and adds literacy data for five additional countries--Australia, Belgium, Ireland, New Zealand, and the United Kingdom. The introduction presents an overview of new key findings and…

To clarify and examine conventional wisdom and stereotypes about adult literacy, this paper focuses on the approaches of individually oriented and community-oriented programs. An examination of the literature base (encompassing research reports, informal accounts, manuals and handbooks, and theoretical, philosophical, and policy articles) leads to…

The issue of adult and continuing education in New Jersey has been examined as part of a Federal project (Project Next Step: Mutuality of Planning). National role, trends, and problems of adult and continuing education are summarized briefly in the first section while the next section includes a summary of the adult education programs in New…

The 1-year project reported here was undertaken for World Literacy of Canada to survey the nature and extent of functional illiteracy in Canada, with a focus on those activities currently being undertaken in Anglophone Canada. An introduction provides background on the extent of the problem, comparing 1961 and 1971 Census statistics, and defines…

During a 1-year period, a study investigated the contributions made by 3 literacy-based supports (support circles, cognitive compensatory tools, and cognitive enhancement tools) to the lives of 5 young adults, aged 16-34, with FAS/FAE (Fetal Alcohol Syndrome/Fetal Alcohol Effects). Four of the five subjects had IQs (intelligence quotients) above…

A study established the extent of literacy deficits among participants in Victoria's Job Network, Job Search Training (JST) programs, and the impact that identified literacy deficits are having on job seekers' ability to participate in the Australian Job Search program and on their job seeking potential. Data were sought from 35 programs (with…

This paper reviews issues in fostering closer connections between higher education and the workplace and summarizes results of a 1995 survey of 404 New Jersey employers concerning the knowledge, skills, and abilities that New Jersey employers expect from higher education graduates and their suggestions for improving college-based workforce…