The purpose of this report is to present a public forum expressing the views of the people of New York and their thoughts on the role and needs of New York's Libraries. Exhibit One provides a brief overview of New York's libraries and the New York State Archives, and the roles which these systems play as part of the state's library systems.…

What can employers assume about the literacy skills of General Educational Development (GED) program graduates? A subsample of 1,012 young adults, aged 21 to 25, selected from the Young Adult Literacy Survey (YALS) was used to study this question. The sample consisted of all Caucasians, African-Americans, and Hispanics in the following categories:…

A minicourse pilot project was designed by the Massachusetts Department of Education to meet the staff training and development needs of workplace educators in the National Workplace Literacy Program. During the course, various activities and group configurations were used to help teachers apply modeled approaches to their own teaching contexts,…

This guide is designed to provide private industry councils (PICs) with information on developing workplace literacy or job-related basic skills programs. Chapter 1 contains an overview of the nation's literacy problem and how it affects business and is designed to provide PIC members with background information to use when discussing the problem…

This document consists of 6 figures and 67 tables that together present national, regional, and state profiles of those individuals aged 16 years and older who have not attained a high school diploma or equivalent and are not currently enrolled in school. Included in the tables are the following target population characteristics: number of years…

Inquiry-centered staff development requires that adult literacy practitioners (adult educators, tutors, and administrators) function simultaneously as learners, researchers, and reformers performing the following actions: forming research communities within program or across program sites; using literature and their own experiences to investigate…

A universal language is needed whereby the international community can communicate in professions of common concern, and English is such a world language. Preparing the international community to read at functionally literate levels in English will strengthen and facilitate international trade. For career education purposes, a close link between…

This handbook, in both English and Spanish versions, is intended for use with adult basic education (ABE) students. It contains five sections of basic computer literacy activities and information about the ABE computer literacy course offered at Dona Ana Community College (DACC) in New Mexico. The handbook begins with forewords by the handbook's…

This report explores one avenue for health education and promotion for audiences with low literacy levels: embedding empowerment health education directly in adult literacy programs. This approach emerged through participatory action research (PAR). The four sections correspond to the four questions around which the PAR process organizes the…

Project APEX (Adult Practitioner Excellence) provided technical assistance to the Pennsylvania Department of Education in the development of a nominations form, procedures, and criteria for the new adult basic and literacy education (ABLE) practitioner excellence awards. It proposed a three-part nomination and selection system for determining…

This document consists of a final report and two manuals developed by the Pennsylvania State Coalition for Adult Literacy's Building Communities for Learning (BCL) project, which worked to improve the delivery of adult basic and literacy education services through interagency collaboration and community-based planning at the local level. The final…

Most corporate funds for workplace literacy programs are invested in intermediate literate workers. Questions regarding these learners concern what should be expected of them; what they should expect of workplace literacy programs; who or what should determine these criteria; and ramifications of the answers. Issues that affect the answers are the…

This report describes presentations and discussions at a seminar to bring together research initiatives in the area of functional literacy and to explore appropriate ways of developing policy-driven research in all countries. Opening remarks by representatives of the European Community, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development,…

Empowering grassroots efforts in literacy is paramount in the literacy education movement. Six issues face literacy work, research, and policy in the United States today: (1) although there are many exciting and innovative literacy projects being conducted, their lessons are unexamined and they are not part of a larger organizing strategy; (2)…

This handbook brings together information on the who, what, where, when, why, and how of adult basic education (ABE) research in Australia. Chapter 1 describes the ABE Research Project that developed this handbook. It summarizes the rationale and context for the project, describes its aims and content, provides details of the information gathering…