Data from the 1992 National Adult Literacy Survey (NALS) were used to assess the prospects of California's welfare population versus those of the U.S. welfare population. Welfare recipients were found to have substantially lower basic skills than other adults do. Although 58% of California adults with basic skills and demographic characteristics…

For seven years, the Test of Adult Basic Education (TABE) was the primary standardized assessment instrument used by the adult education program of the Midwestern Intermediate Unit IV (MIUIV) of the Pennsylvania Department of Education Bureau of Adult Basic and Literacy Education. While reviewing its current assessment procedures, the MIUIV's…

This guide, which is intended for volunteer literacy programs in Alberta, Canada, details a four-step process for evaluating volunteer literacy programs and using evaluation results for program development. The guide begins with an introduction, underlying principles and assumptions, and a glossary. Sections 1-4 detail the steps of the process,…

The Small Business Learning Group Program, which is known by its Indonesian initials KBU (Kegiatau Belajor Usala), was undertaken as part of the Indonesian Third Nonformal Education Project. The KBU program was designed to promote local development of microenterprises through nonformal education. The KBU program's impact was assessed in a…

U.S. citizens can get two to three times the educational and employment benefits now being obtained if all government funding for youth and adult basic education and job skills training is required to be directed to two investment strategies. The first is to increase intergenerational transfer of cognitive skills. Evidence from studies suggests…

This report summarizes the activities conducted in 1994 in relation to the 23 recommendations included in Ohio's Action Agenda for Adult Literacy. The recommendations are grouped into the following categories: coordination/collaboration, public awareness, research, program resources and support, advocacy/funding, and accountability. Some of the…

These materials include a report, evaluation, and book written about a workplace literacy project involving education (Alpena Community College), business and industry (Besser Company and Alpena Power Company), and labor (Thunder Bay Labor Council). The report specifies objectives; accomplishments, including development of eight courses in math,…

This book, which is intended as a practical guide to functional literacy at the grassroots level, addresses a range of issues encountered by literacy workers when mobilizing, planning, teaching, supervising, and evaluating adult literacy programs. The following topics are discussed: adult literacy, literacy teachers, and literacy work; the many…

The papers in these proceedings include a number of themes such as enduring and progressive social change, good practice and positive outcomes, and strategies of survival, resistance and subversion. They are: "Achievement, Personal Development, and Positive Outcomes" (Viv Anderson); "Raising Standards" (Paul Armstrong);…

The relationship between literacy and "people's power" within the context of Mozambique's project of socialist reconstruction was explored through an ethnographic analysis of literacy education practices at the Matola Industrial Company, which is considered one of many embodiments of Mozambique's colonial past. First, the role of the…

This report documents how the Business/Training Institute of Northwest Iowa Community College and Coilcraft, Inc., of Hawarden, Iowa, worked as partners to establish a basic workplace skills program for Coilcraft's workers. The project goals were to develop and offer a workplace literacy program that would enroll 160 workers and prepare them to…

This two-part document summarizes and analyzes the implications of a national study of adult literacy in Canada that included home interviews with a representative sample of 13,571 Canadians between the ages of 16 and 69. Part 1 summarizes the study's objectives, methodology, and findings. Among the main findings are the following: (1) 16% of…

This document profiles six successful literacy partnerships between Canadian community colleges and public/private agencies. The following partnerships are examined: an adult basic education program provided through a partnership between New Brunswick Community College and the Correctional Service of Canada; a workplace literacy program offered…

Developed by the ABCs of Construction National Workplace Literacy Project, these curriculum materials for the occupational area of pipefitting contain a lesson that deals with reading charts and graphs. The lesson consists of an objective, instruction, and seven exercises. Three types of problems are provided in each exercise: "try…

This guide contains reviews of 49 selected books and pamphlets of special interest to women that were identified as good Canadian materials for women learning to read by a working group of the Canadian Congress for Learning Opportunities for Women. Among the types of materials reviewed are the following: books about contraception and reproductive…