Twelve articles in this special issue look at changes in adult basic education (ABE) including the following: changes in policy, the overhaul of welfare, state governance, workforce development, family literacy, the connection with employment and training, contextualized literacy, health education, political and economic literacy, adult literacy…

Seven model family literacy programs in Illinois were monitored for one year to determine successful program components and characteristics and to assist local programs in developing and implementing practical evaluation systems. Six were networking programs each of which involved several agencies, and one program was designed on a center-based…

In 1980, Kentucky reported the nation's lowest percentage of adults, aged 25 and older, who had graduated from high school. Legislators were inundated with recommendations for reform. The result was the enactment of the Parent and Child Education (PACE) pilot program (1986). In the PACE program, parents without high school diplomas attend classes…

The increase in the number of youth under age 18 enrolling in federally funded adult basic and literacy education programs is a trend that is putting increasing pressures on programs designed to serve an adult population. Documenting the extent of the trend is difficult due to the way in which federal statistics on age of program participants have…

For 2 decades, the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) has sought to strengthen Nepal's formal and nonformal education systems and elevate the status of women in Nepal. The extent to which USAID women's empowerment and literacy activities have contributed to increasing and improving the basic education of girls in Nepal was examined…

The first meeting of the National Literacy Summit 2000 convened 150 leaders from adult education and literacy and other related fields for a 2-day intensive working meeting to begin building a national consensus on how to move adult and family literacy forward in the 21st century. Comments and suggestions offered by summit participants were…