Illiteracy, the inability to communicate or receive information through the medium of print, has not been dealt with effectively by society, yet it is estimated that there are 23 million illiterate adults in America. Two major problems exist: diagnosing illiteracy, and attracting illiterate adults to adult literacy programs. With the development…

This guide provides materials to help adult educators in organizing and developing volunteer literacy programs for the functionally illiterate adult. Introductory materials include a brief history of the Volunteer Adult Reading Program (VARP) and the philosophy and rationale of the program. A list of questions and answers follows that are intended…

Community-based, or inmate-run, literacy programs are a significant alternative to literacy programs run by those outside the correctional institution. Such programs provide meaningful self-involvement and opportunity for the development of problem-solving skills for the inmates. Beginning in the spring of 1984, the Institute for the Study of…

Maine's State Division of Adult Education began setting up a regionalized Adult Basic Education (ABE) program in rural Franklin county in 1974 to serve the area's functional illiterates. Located in the building housing the Franklin County Community Action Program (CAP), linkages were developed with a large number of agencies; initially the 10 CAP…

A study of why adult literacy students stopped attending beginning reading tutorial programs was conducted at nine sites that were part of the Pittsburgh Literacy Initiative. A total of 192 adults were identified as having discontinued their reading programs, all of which were one-on-one tutorial programs. The reading level of these dropouts had…

The Literacy Volunteers of America-Danbury, Connecticut, is a nonprofit community organization that provides free instruction in English for those to whom English is still largely a foreign language. For 10 years it has also provided free instruction in reading and writing for English-speaking persons whose education has not provided these skills.…

Evaluation of adult literacy programs requires different criteria from those used to judge regular schooling. Indicators for evaluating adult voluntary programs with individualized curricula are recruitment; retention, including absenteeism; one-on-one tutoring with volunteers; training in a context; support services; the "quick-fix" syndrome;…

This final performance report for the Sanford Library Association's Project Literacy U.S. (PLUS) begins with quantitative data. Background information on the community is then provided. Actual accomplishments are compared to project objectives for 1991-92 in the following areas: (1) continuation of individualized literacy instruction or promotion…

An evaluation was undertaken of the second year's work of a pilot adult literacy program called Project REACH (Reading, Education, Achievement), which was begun in 1987 in New York by the Governor's Office for Employee Relations (GOER) and the Civil Service Employees' Association (CSEA). The following findings were reported, among others: (1)…

This document describes a pilot adult literacy program called Project REACH (Reading, Education, Achievement), which was begun in 1987 in New York by the Governor's Office for Employee Relations (GOER) and the Civil Service Employees' Association (CSEA). Following an executive summary, an introduction sets the stage by explaining the need for the…

A study evaluated the effectiveness of the Templates for Literacy manual, which is designed to help the adult beginning reader integrate computer and literacy learning. The manual contains guidelines and strategies for incorporating word processing, spreadsheet, database, and graphics software into literacy curricula. The draft manual was…

The Horry County, South Carolina, Reading Crusade, a joint effort of the Literacy Council and the school district, was begun in 1979-80 with the intent of raising the literacy level of adults. The school district's Adult and Community Education Department provided office space, telephones, lab space, salaries, and mileage for the coordinators. The…

"Collaborations for Literacy" is a project conducted at Boston University (Massachusetts) that uses college work-study students to teach adults to read through reading to and with a child. This instruction is provided at two Boston neighborhood sites (Jackson-Mann Community School and the Brighton branch of the Boston Public Library).…

The LEX [language experience] Process for English Reading Instruction, a pilot project of the Guadalupe Educational Programs, Inc., Salt Lake City, Utah, during 1980-81, is presented in this 300-page manual that describes how the LEX Process model may be replicated by educational agencies seeking to provide survival and functional English as a…

This handbook was written by college students at Boston University (Massachusetts) about their experiences as adult literacy tutors in a program called "Collaborations for Literacy." The project teaches adults to improve their reading skills through reading to and with a child, using the "Reading Rainbow" television series and…