The goal of this meeting was to discuss the challenges of adult education and mechanisms to better understand and address those challenges through research. The meeting was structured around three panel discussions representing the perspectives of State directors of adult education programs, adult education researchers, and education research…

A project provided technical assistance to the Pennsylvania Department of Education's Bureau of Adult Basic and Literacy Education (ABLE) in selecting and recognizing 10 outstanding ABLE students via an awards ceremony and publication of a booklet and flyers in celebration of the 20th anniversary of the Success Stories project. In addition to the…

The School Library Media Services Division of the Pennsylvania Department of Education administered the operation of AdvancE as Pennsylvania's adult education clearinghouse. The goal of the project was to provide Pennsylvania's adult educators with prompt access to information and resources to help them implement the most effective administrative…

A study examined the degree to which former students of Pennsylvania adult basic education (ABE) programs are maintaining and using the literacy skills that they developed while participating in ABE programs. During the study, researchers examined former students enrolled in ABE programs in 1974, 1976, and 1978. After analyzing demographic data…

The Community Action Education Case Management program was developed in Fayette County, Pennsylvania, to provide 50 homeless, undereducated adults and their families with case management services. These services were to include: individual, group, and in-home counseling; advocacy; service coordination; and evaluation. During the program, 58…

A project was conducted to add computer-assisted instruction to a one-to-one adult literacy program conducted in public libraries in Bradford and Wyoming Counties of Pennsylvania. During the project, software was selected for literacy instruction in reading, mathematics, grammar, spelling, and English as a second language. Laubach Way to Reading…

This project continued a 2-year project that had focused on development and implementation of training in content areas needed by staff from ABLE (Adult Basic and Literacy Education)-funded agencies in Pennsylvania. The project continued to coordinate the review and selection of training materials for professional development in designated content…

An evening adult literacy program was developed to provide pre-General Educational Development (GED) instruction to residents of a men's shelter who desired to become dry cleaners pressers. Because an intake assessment of the 32 enrollees revealed that only 34% of them were high school dropouts and more than 50% had some college background, the…

This publication presents the stories of 10 men and women who overcame seemingly insurmountable obstacles to become self-supporting citizens of Pennsylvania. Their stories tell how, through their participation in Pennsylvania's adult basic education and literacy programs, they were aided in their successful struggles to enhance their reading and…

The Pennsylvania Adult Literacy Practitioner Inquiry Network (PALPIN) was developed to improve the practice of adult literacy teachers, tutors, and program administrators throughout Pennsylvania. The project to develop PALPIN was initiated in 1995-1996. The primary objectives for the PALPIN project's third program year were as follows: adapt and…

EQUAL (Educational Quality or Adult Literacy) is Pennsylvania's program improvement initiative that measures performance by the quality of education learners receive. For 3 years, Project EQUAL was piloted in adult education agencies throughout the state. Beginning in 1997, the pilot projects helped to develop a process for continuous program…

To help states learn from each other's experiences, this report focuses on what three states--Arizona, Massachusetts, and Pennsylvania--are doing to improve and expand family literacy services. It also includes background information on family literacy, resources, and names and addresses of state directors of family literacy. The case studies show…

The International English Training for Adults Program is an intensive ESL (English as a Second Language) program for foreign students. Students in the program take 18 hours of classes per week, including Conversation Partners, a 3-hour course designed to give students an opportunity to practice using English with Americans in a structured,…

An adult educator in Butler, Pennsylvania, noticed that, although students who took the General Aptitude Test Battery (GATB) seemed highly motivated to improve their basic skills in mathematics and spatial relations, only 2 of her 20 students who took the GATB made a concerted effort to develop their vocabulary. Thinking that those two students…

A study investigated the teaching of grammar in an advanced English as a Second Language (ESL) class in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. For a week, the instructor taught the students on the topic of comparatives, superlatives, and equatives. The instructor gave a written pretest, posttest, and a delayed posttest to the whole class of 15-25 immigrants and…