This document is a republication of the Aylesbury Report, first published and distributed almost secretly in 1981 as the result of an action research project in a large housing project (the Aylesbury Estate) in southeast London. The project offered employees of a local education authority the opportunity to question, criticize, and experiment with…

This report describes a low-cost, adaptable methodology for assessment of basic learning competencies (BLCs) in diverse cultural contexts. Following the introduction, section 2 provides a policy framework and covers priority populations; policy and assessment needs; challenges for policy-driven assessments; and questions policymakers might have.…

The Assessment Tools for Adult Education project was designed to provide training and support to staff of the Pennsylvania Bureau of Adult Basic and Literacy Education (ABLE) funded programs to help them use assessment tools and procedures to document the learning gains of the adult students they serve. The following candidate assessment…

"Contested Ground: Performance Accountability in Adult Basic Education" (ABE) is one of the most important books on adult literacy policy at the turn of the century. In it, Juliet Merrifield examines the critical issues of policy, practice, and theory with which the field is currently consumed. She and her colleagues maintain that the concept of…

This book is intended to broaden awareness of the instructional innovations and adaptations taking place in college and university writing classes designed specifically for working adults. Through case studies of five established writing programs for adults, the book provides a historical context for today's college-credit writing programs for…

The following papers are included: "Editorial" (Heribert Hinzen); "Skills and Literacy Training for Better Livelihoods: A Review of Approaches and Experiences" (John Oxenham, Abdoul Hamid Diallo, Anne Ruhweza Katahoire, Anna Petkova-Mwangi, Oumar Sall); "'Learning to Read Woke Me Up!': Motivations, and Constraints, in…

This publication presents case studies of two sites--one with and one without a history of involvement in Workplace English Language and Literacy (WELL)-funded training programs. Case study 1, "Partnership, Flexibility, and Experience: Key Elements in Successful Training" (Jenny McGuirk), investigates a food processing company in New South Wales…

The Equipped for the Future (EFF) framework describes adult performance along these four dimensions: structure of the knowledge-base; fluency of performance; independence of performance; and range of conditions for performance. When completed it will include a developmental sequence of descriptions of learner performance for each EFF standard;…

This document presents a training module designed to help adult literacy program providers in New York and elsewhere to use the principles of social marketing to improve recruitment and retention in adult education programming. Literacy program providers are taught to view the social marketing process as a process of exchange between themselves as…

A hearing was held to discuss the prior four years of implementation of the Adult Education and Family Literacy Act, and to recommend further improvements. The opening statements of Chairman Howard McKeon and Dale E. Kildee introduce the meeting and discuss the importance of promoting an educated populace that will maintain the United States'…

Skills For Life, since 2001 the United Kingdom's national adult basic skills strategy, aims to improve literacy, numeracy, or English for speakers of other languages (ESOL) skills among people over the age of 16. Basic skills programs may be full- or part-time and are delivered in colleges, community venues, neighborhood learning centers, adult…

Perceptions of success in teaching and learning adult literacy in England were examined in a study that included interviews with 30 learners and 10 tutors. The teaching approaches most often cited by the tutors as leading to success were as follows: (1) base tutoring on individual interests; (2) personal and social support for each student; (3)…

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…

This publication consists of the complete set of 23 monographs developed by the Pennsylvania Action Research Network to supplement the 67 monographs produced over the past 3 years. The specific audience are literacy, General Educational Development (GED), and English-as-a Second Language (ESL) practitioners. The titles are: "Use of…

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…