Philanthropists and policymakers sometimes opt to fund childhood education to "stop illiteracy at the source" at the expense of funding for adult literacy education. In 2000, "The New York Times" published an article about a gift of $100 million being given to schools in Mississippi to promote the teaching of reading to…

This paper and the four commissioned works on which it is based are guided by the important question: How can we start valuing practices and outcomes of teaching and learning that are difficult to reduce to numbers? As the process of developing indicators for the Post-2015 education targets unfolds, some of the targets are at risk of being dropped…

The purpose of this paper is to review recent developments related to the development of indicators of educational progress in the context of the Post 2015 deliberations to generate a new international architecture for educational investment through to 2030. There have been a plethora of suggestions and several parallel consultation processes…

Attention has been focused on whether U.S. competitiveness in a global market can be sustained if the work force has deficient reading skills. The U.S. Department of Education estimates that 90 million adults (50 percent of the adult population) do not have the literacy skills they need to function in society. These persons have limited reading…

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)

These state profiles for Program Year 1988 contain information based on 1980 Census data and information taken from the Annual Financial and Statistical Reports submitted to the Department of Education by the states, Puerto Rico, and the Virgin Islands. State profiles are arranged alphabetically by state. For each state, these demographic…

A study investigated the distribution of education levels in Tennessee's counties and examined factors affecting that distribution. It considered first the impacts of the changing global economy on Tennessee and the implications for education. The study found that Tennessee was likely to be harder hit than most states because of its dependence on…

Four major types of approaches to learner assessment are standardized testing, materials-based, competency-based, and participatory assessment. Standardized tests are easy and inexpensive to administer. Objections are their intrinsic defects and misuse. Materials-based assessment, the practice of evaluating learners on the basis of tests following…

Conducted in Wisconsin, this study evaluated two literacy programs--the Mott Basic Language Skills Program and the Sullivan "Programmed Reading for Adults"-- in order to develop a more effective adult basic education (ABE) curriculum. Attention was also given to relationships between selected student characteristics and measured…

As an evolving program of action research, this Project for Adult Literacy focused on the complex problems of adult illiteracy and its mitigation in a major urban community (Boston, Massachusetts). It was undertaken to teach reading; assess the use of volunteers in adult literacy education; evaluate two reading methods for use with adult…

Data from the fifth sweep of Britain's National Child Development Study were analyzed to investigate the relationship between parents' literacy and numeracy problems, other parental characteristics, and their children's reading and mathematics abilities. Strong relationships were found between parents' self-reported literacy problems and their…

This publication presents statistics on educational attainment and illiteracy by country, age, sex, and other characteristics where available. Data are derived from censuses and surveys carried out since 1945, supplemented by a limited number of estimates. Most of the basic data is taken from the "Demographic Yearbook Population Census"…

A 1970 census revealed that approximately half of the male population in the state of Georgia, 25 years of age or older, had completed fewer than eight years of school, the minimum requirement for literacy according to the United States Office of Education. In addition to the yearly income lost by these males (which amounts to 175 million…

Using the Rokeach's Dogmatism Scale (DS) the researcher attempted to show that the farther an individual proceeds in his education, the less authoritarian he becomes. The population comprised 96 functional illiterates, aged 20 to 60 years; and 36 graduate students, aged 20 to 60 years. The instrument, which was validated by 7 out of 10 previous…

This report is adapted from a letter sent to President-Elect George Bush in early January 1989. The report was published to stimulate a broad public discussion of the role that the Federal Government might play in developing the skills of the Nation's people. The priority of preventing damage to young children is the topic of the first section. In…