Amidst diminishing federal investment in Adult Basic Education (ABE), there is growing interest in return on investment (ROI) as an economic rationale to support ABE funding. Against this backdrop, we provide an overview of the ROI concept and methods and the empirical evidence on ABE program impacts to broaden the discourse among practitioners…

More than 5 million adults lack both functional literacy (below level 1) and numeracy (below entry level 3); an estimated 11.5 million adults do not have basic digital skills; and one in five adults do not have basic financial capabilities. Around 850,000 people have English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL) needs. At the same time,…

This article introduces a waka tino whakarawea model for evaluating programmes and services for Maori learners. It is based on a set of underlying principles identified in the author's PhD study (Bevan-Brown, 2002). Explanations are provided for eight principles: kaupapa Maori; importance, relevance and beneficence; participation; empowerment,…

Background: This study was originally prepared for the African Inter-Ministerial Conference on Literacy (September 2007) with the objective of analysing the costs of successful adult literacy programmes run both by government ministries, as well as international and national non-governmental organisations. Objectives: This study aims to increase…

This article critically reviews recent studies of adult basic education (ABE), general education development (GED), vocational, and college education programs in prisons. Thirteen studies were collected from various databases across multiple disciplines to examine the types of program evaluations and statistical analysis techniques researchers…

This issue of "literacy.ca EXPRESS" focuses on poverty. The articles included in this issue are: (1) Poverty Overview; (2) Tony's Story; (3) LAN (Learner Advisory Network) Member's Story (Dianne Smith); (4) Linking Adult Literacy to Poverty Reduction; (5) MCL (Movement for Canadian Literacy) Update; (6) Highlights from the LAN; (7) Good…

With the advent of the UN Literacy Decade launched in 2003, there is increased emphasis on monitoring and evaluation of adult literacy around the globe. The present paper presents an overview of the main approaches that have been taken to measure adult literacy within and across countries. A particular focus of the present review is to compare and…

It is estimated that 22 percent, of adults in the Piedmont Triad of North Carolina have poor literacy skills, meaning that they have difficulty with tasks involving simple texts and documents. Purpose: Given this low level of adult literacy, the purpose of this exploratory research study was to analyze the perceptions of North Carolina's adult…