Compared to most countries assessed in 1994, the United States had a greater concentration of adults who scored at the lowest literacy levels across prose, document, and quantitative literacy domains. However, it had one of the higher concentrations of adults who scored at or above level 4 on the prose scale. The proportion of adults who scored at…

Based on material received by the International Institute for Adult Literacy Methods during the first half of 1984, this issue contains selected summaries of books, articles in periodicals, and conference and seminar reports published in the field of literacy and adult education. Some of the issues addressed include (1) the role of adult education…

This guide provides step-by-step instructions to facilitate a multi-session study circle for practitioners on the topic of accountability. Practitioners will read and analyze research and discuss how to apply it in their classrooms and programs. In the first session, the Study Circle group will examine the concept of performance accountability in…

This booklet is intended to help new adult literacy practitioners in Australia explore the possible meanings of the term "literacy." The booklet begins with the question, What is literacy? The next (and largest) section of the booklet considers various metaphors of literacy. A table detailing some ways of talking about literacy is…

In the fall of 1993, a study was begun on how adult basic and literacy education (ABLE) students reacted to working in groups. The research was conducted through a joint vocational school's ABLE program using three target groups at two of its ABLE centers. The groups met two times per week and were facilitated by three different teachers. More…

A comparison study used the National Adult Literacy Survey (NALS) to describe the English-language literacy skills of individuals who passed the Tests of General Educational Development (GED Tests) and of those who did not. The research explored what the GED and NALS instruments measured in common and what was measured separately. Findings…

A study identified the characteristics of women in an adult literacy program who had been successful in their return to studies. It was designed to learn more about the needs of women learners and what literacy programs can do to help women be successful in their return to studies. The literature review focused on these topics: women's knowledge,…

The validity of the Southam News 1987 survey of literacy in Canada was questioned relative to its content and structure. The survey viewed literacy as a set of complex information processing skills and adopted a hierarchical view of these skills. This hierarchy model set up illiteracy as a deficiency. The Southam study's underlying assumption was…

This document provides information on two services established on the Internet by the National Center on Adult Literacy (NCAL): electronic mail (e-mail) communication with NCAL and a Gopher server that makes it possible to access and download information, documents, and software relevant to adult literacy. A recent "NCAL Connections" article,…

This paper reports on nine research projects conducted by 12 adult literacy practitioners with Literacy South in North Carolina in 1993. The focus of the project was to engage literacy practitioners in self-directed research that generated staff training and development. This report is a chronological account of the research projects with a…

Between-group designs constitute the experimental methods traditionally applied in the field of education. Another level of analysis, however, is commonly used in clinical psychology but seldom applied in educational settings: single-subject designs (actually applied to small groups). This design allows a researcher to evaluate the influence of an…

To evaluate the Adult Literacy Organization of Zimbabwe (ALOZ), an organization whose aim is to achieve universal literacy in Zimbabwe, a study interviewed officials at ALOZ, the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), and other institutions involved in literacy development; reviewed relevant literature and documents;…

This book develops an understanding of literacy and illiteracy through the life stories of 12 adults from diverse backgrounds living in the United States, 6 in Appalachia and 6 in California. Part 1 provides a summary of three areas of research offering insights and descriptive data about literacy: ethnographic studies of everyday literacy,…

Explores government adult basic education (ABE) statistics in one fundamental area, the present level of illiteracy in the United States, concentrating particularly on changes in illiteracy levels during the 1960's. (WL)

A field experiment conducted to make a comparative study of two adult literacy primers indicated that if two comparable groups of adults are subjected to a literacy training course using the two different primers for an equal period of time, there is no significant difference between the literacy attainment level of the two groups. (TA)