Racial illiteracy is widespread in America, and as adult literacy educators our mission is to address illiteracy in all its manifestations. We teach literacies in reading and writing, numeracy, computer, speaking, listening, visual, health, and media, each vital to making sense of our world and functioning effectively in it. Racial literacy is…

Stress in adult learners is a neglected topic, despite practitioners observing that their adult learners often display psychological discomfort. We address the effects psychological stress has on learning, then define the constructs of stress, trauma, resilience, and psychological distress. Twenty-three adult learners reading at elementary levels…

The science of reading refers to the extensive body of research on how we learn to read and the most effective methods for teaching reading. Our knowledge of what works in reading instruction is based on decades of rigorous, scientifically based research in the fields of education, cognitive psychology, and neuroscience. This research digest…

Immigrants in their later years can succeed at learning English and becoming citizens if they have access to instruction that considers their particular interests and stage of development, including their distinct cognitive, physical, and psychological profiles. Step One, a new age-friendly curriculum, helps older newcomers take the first steps in…

In response to high demand from program participants for both health literacy and digital skills support, the Literacy Connects English Language Acquisition for Adults program in Tucson, Arizona, created a mock patient portal (ELAA Med+) for use in their free, community-based, volunteer-taught English language and computer basics classes. Built…

Adult literacy skills are critical assets of individuals as well as societies in terms of economic (e.g., human capital) and social well-being. Thus, it is important to monitor the long-term trends and sources of skill gain/loss. Yet, temporal sources of adult literacy skill variation are understudied. The current study analyzed three comparable,…

An individual with digital financial literacy has the knowledge and skills to use digital devices to make better financial decisions. The pervasiveness of financial technology (fintech) in the daily lives of adults in the United States creates digital literacy training and educational opportunities. This report from the field offers a brief…

Adult education instructors are as diverse as the students they teach. Their professional backgrounds, training, licenses, and modalities of teaching (online, in person, open vs. closed enrollment, etc.) vary widely, which can make the planning of meaningful, effective professional development challenging. Universal Design for Learning (UDL) is a…

This study analyses how older (mostly 60 years or over) women who are literacy students at Youth and Adult Education Program in a small village of Brazil appropriate school numeracy practices during a class about the discursive genre "label" and the information it conveys. We focus on the students' participation in the discursive…

This research digest addresses digital health literacies, demonstrating the important role that adult basic education instructors can play in supporting learners to adapt to a changing digital world. This review is structured by first examining the relationship between the internet and health. The report then discusses the digital health…

This essay describes the decline in the number of participants enrolled in federally-funded adult basic education (ABE), adult secondary education (ASE), and adult English Language (EL) programs. Enrollment data since 1965 indicate a steep and consistent downward trend in the number of adults enrolling in these programs since the 1990s.…

Mathematical word problems, sometimes called story problems, are generally defined as "verbal descriptions of problem situations, presented within a scholastic setting, wherein one or more questions are raised the answer to which can be obtained by the application of mathematical operations to numerical data available in the problem statement…

In this response, Suzanne Smythe imagines the role of new technologies in community-based education as we settle into a "new normal." This article builds upon and extends Jen Vanek's suggestions in Part 1 by drawing upon research and practice oriented to digital justice. Smythe describes her experiences as an adult literacy researcher in…

Generative AI (GenAI) refers to the production of entirely new creative works, such as text, pictures, music, or poetry, in response to simple prompts (Lanxon et al., 2023). Some view GenAI as a disruption to our education system, pointing to biases in the training data, concerns about misleading or inaccurate information, challenges to educators,…

Writing is a critical skill that is considered important for employment, further education, civic participation, health, and personal fulfillment. For example, a substantial percent of nearly all jobs that non-college graduates possess require some type of writing. Workers are increasingly required to use their writing skills for memos, reports,…