Described in this paper is the development and evaluation of the Employability Skills Series by the Florida Department of Education, 1975-1977. Focusing on skills involved in getting and keeping any job, the series is intended for use with secondary students and adults and is on approximately a fifth grade reading level. It consists of six student…

In their presentation, at the start of the seminar, the authors note that their focus is on the relationship between cultural needs and the operation of the educational enterprise, and some potential contributions of psychological research to the formulation of educational and social policy. Their case rests on three arguments: (1) schooling has…

This Policy Brief is intended to help the National Commission on Adult Literacy consider state and federal policy strategies that hold promise for increasing the number of lower-skilled adults, including those with limited English skills, who earn postsecondary credentials that can open the door to family-supporting jobs and careers. It examines…

This report provides an overview of Hispanic participation in education at the national level, in the state of Wisconsin, and in the Wisconsin Technical Colleges (WTCs). The first section provides national statistics, indicating that in 1990 Hispanics had a high school completion rate of 54.9%, more than 20 points below Black and 30 points below…

Although a large number of adults in the United States are assumed to need literacy training, little agreement exists on that number. Adults who attend literacy instruction are assumed to acquire the skills, but little is known about program effectiveness. Another assumption is that adults should define their goals, but this does not ensure that…

This study investigated whether or not recent educational reform efforts might be related to the level of academic skills of individuals entering teacher preparation programs. A sample of 1991 beginning teacher candidates (n=377) was compared with a sample of 1985 beginning candidates (n=358) entering the same large midwestern institution using…

This study compared college seniors' self-evaluation of skills considered important for lifelong learning from the mid-1980s to the mid-1990s. The study used data from the College Student Experiences Questionnaire (CSEQ), a national database begun in 1983 which includes over 200,000 student records from over 600 colleges and universities. An index…

To test whether elementary social studies texts have changed in response to the back-to-basics movement, a content analysis was made of selected basal texts series published between 1969-1972 and reissued between 1979-1982. Quantitative data, anecdotal data, and educational criticism were used to compare eight matched text series for knowledge…

At-risk program participants, those students who are in danger of not making a successful transition from school or preemployment training programs to productive lives, usually remain on the fringes of the economy. Instruction in school-to-work curricula is designed to help students obtain jobs, but seldom addresses the issues of the ongoing use…

The 7000l Training and Employment Institute offers self-paced instruction through the use of computers and audiovisual materials to young people to improve opportunities for success in the work force. In 1988, four sites were equipped with Apple stand-alone software in an integrated learning system that included courses in reading and math, test…

This document considers whether postsecondary education can change the way it operates. The introduction identifies six challenges of the 1990s, including heterogeneous student populations; quality of working life competence, basic competence, employability competence, learning-to-learn competence, common core competencies, and the arts and…

The context of learning with computers is different from that of more traditional educational media because the computer is a new medium whose interactivity supports dynamic, evident, and malleable representations of abstract ideas. The model proposed addresses some mediating factors of the environment in which computers are used that affect…

Basic skills tests in which measurement of growth is defined in the context of national norms are discussed. An integral part of the construction of norms is the production of a trait or ability score which is normed. Test publishers define a multidimensional trait by including items which measure it. The trait as a construct is a distinct…

The developmental program at the Community College of Philadelphia (CCP) has a stable core of teachers who value independence rather than conformity and who seek to transform deeply anxious students into students who love learning. The instructors' goals of improving basic skills, fostering independent thinking, and promoting greater knowledge and…

A reliability study of the Brigance Comprehensive Inventory of Basic Skills (CIBS) is presented. All test-data collectors were provided onsite training in the administration and scoring of the CIBS. The sample included 85 black and 319 white students from grades two through eight, from parochial and private schools, in a southeastern metropolitan…