This document provides information on two services established on the Internet by the National Center on Adult Literacy (NCAL): electronic mail (e-mail) communication with NCAL and a Gopher server that makes it possible to access and download information, documents, and software relevant to adult literacy. A recent "NCAL Connections" article,…

Proposed Senate Bill 367, the Nontraditional Employment for Women Act, contains provisions to amend the Job Training Partnership Act to encourage a broader range of training and job placement for women. The two major components of the bill are: (1) planning and reporting requirements; and (2) a 4-year demonstration program to foster the…

A bibliography of materials recommended for inclusion in a literacy library includes over 160 citations of books, textbooks, curriculum guides, and other resources on several areas related to literacy education. In each citation, basic bibliographic information is given and the item's classification as to skill level, language skill, and topic…

The Adult Education for the Homeless (AEH) program was initiated with funds provided through the McKinney Act of 1987. During its first 4 years, the AEH program served over 100,000 homeless adults. In 1991, 34,000 adults participated in AEH programs in 31 states; nearly half were women. Approximately 60% of those served were between the ages of 25…

A project was conducted to continue to provide adult educators in Pennsylvania with information about adults with learning differences and techniques for their instruction. Five new training sessions were developed as part of the project: (1) accommodating adults with learning disabilities; (2) if they think differently, shouldn't they study…

A project provided technical assistance to the Pennsylvania Department of Education's Bureau of Adult Basic and Literacy Education (ABLE) in selecting and recognizing 10 outstanding ABLE students via an awards ceremony and publication of a booklet and flyers in celebration of the 20th anniversary of the Success Stories project. In addition to the…

This brief suggests that performance accountability offers the chance to refocus on what learners accomplish by participating in adult basic education (ABE) and to reorient every aspect of the system to achieve the best results. The 1966 Adult Education Act provides little guidance in developing performance accountability. Recent research…

A study attempted to measure the academic gain resulting from 150 hours of mandatory participation in the Mandatory Functional Literacy (MFL) program. The Test of Adult Basic Education (TABE) was administered to 58 inmates at Lake Correctional Institution (Florida) prior to beginning the MFL program and again upon completion of the required…

The International Taskforce on Literacy, which is composed of nongovernmental organizations, has carried the literacy message to people everywhere. Two particularly noteworthy activities of the Taskforce are the People's Launch of International Literacy Year at the International Council for Adult Education conference in Thailand in January 1990…

Based on a case study of Project READ (Reading Education for Adults in Dayton), this handbook presents a strategic planning model for use by nonprofit groups. Its emphasis is on developing strategic cooperative plans. The handbook is organized in three main sections. The first section describes Project READ, its history, personnel and funding,…

This paper reports on nine research projects conducted by 12 adult literacy practitioners with Literacy South in North Carolina in 1993. The focus of the project was to engage literacy practitioners in self-directed research that generated staff training and development. This report is a chronological account of the research projects with a…

As part of the process of developing an assessment system for Washington State Adult Basic Education/English as a Second Language (ABE/ESL) a review of literature was conducted, the product of which is the annotated bibliography presented here. The first section of the bibliography is a review of the materials found during the course of the…

Project Re-Entry was a follow-up study of the status of more than 5,000 former students of the Tri-County Opportunities Industrialization Center (OIC) in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, who either never completed the entire General Educational Development (GED) test battery or completed the entire GED battery but still lacked enough points to earn a GED…

To shed light on reciprocal social networks for adult literacy learners, an ethnographic study sought to understand the dynamics of social networks from a sociocultural perspective, that of the adult basic education learners themselves. Subjects were a diverse population of six adult learners at a suburban adult education center (five working to…

Giving a human face to the wealth of statistical information on literacy problems in Canada, a qualitative study investigated the experiences and views of socially and educationally disadvantaged people in Canada. Open-ended interviews were conducted with 105 persons with low literacy skills from every province and territory in Canada. In…