Describes the use of alternative types of poetry and affirmations to encourage self-esteem and break down barriers to learning in an adult basic skills reading class. (SR)

Presents the history of prison education in the state of Utah from its beginning in 1853 at a territorial prison. Includes stories from "The Penwiper," a paper published in the 1930s by students of an English class of the Utah State Prison School. Describes Utah's current philosophy on inmate education and the present status of its…

Presents a rationale for utilizing picture books in adult literacy programs along with book selection criteria and suggested titles for use with emerging literate adults. (NH)

Literacy is often based on a type of need (a good to which all should have access, escape from isolation, tool of productivity). The delivery of "packaged" skills based on these approaches ignores the capacity of adult learners to articulate their own needs. (SK)

"Schools and Businesses Need to Work together to Close the 'Job Skills Gap'" (Cortina) discusses Los Angeles efforts to implement recommendations of the Secretary's Commission on Achieving Necessary Skills. "Employer-Sponsored Education Is a Win-Win Situation for Both Businesses and Employees" (Lipshutz) describes a…

The Thousand Learner Unit Project, part of the national Adult Basic Education and Training Initiative in South Africa, was evaluated with input from policymakers and program personnel. While many problems were apparent with program implementation, it was considered a success for its accomplishments in the post-apartheid era and resultant political…

Argues that metaphor, as it thrives in fiction and poetry, is relevant and even essential, to adult-literacy theory and practice. Argues that the concrete poetic images, metaphors, and stories literacy educators learn from students should help shape their theoretical discussions of adult literacy; and likewise, once learned, these should be the…

Discusses the Civilian Conservation Corps of the 1930s: the context of the time, its educational programs, instruction, teachers, and how it handled the problem of illiteracy. Examines whether this kind of program would work in the 1990s, concluding that many of the programs components would transfer well to the present. (SR)

A European project developed guidelines for use of multimedia in adult basic education, reviewed existing multimedia resources, and developed strategies for teaching literacy using multimedia. Individual learning styles and processes can be accommodated with the media, but teachers need new skills to plan and monitor individually based multimedia…

Examines mistakes in following instructions in an electronics factory. Explores the significance of the mistakes and a range of explanations for why they occur. Offers an expansive definition of what it means to be a literate, skills-rich worker, and urges vigilance against the tendency in both schools and workplaces to label and mislabel. (SC)

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…

Throughout its history, adult literacy education has been defined, researched, and controlled by external entities. Action research is now enabling literacy practitioners and learners to gain a voice through production of their own knowledge. The applicability, benefits, and inherent risks of practitioner action research are discussed. Contains 53…

The EFA Global Monitoring Report of 2002 contains two interesting paragraphs. In this article the author aims to explore what lies between those two paragraphs, in order to put forward some ideas about the role and future of literacy and its relation to human rights. The author hopes to show the continuing importance of adult literacy work and the…

The purpose of the study was to better understand reasons why some welfare recipients in adult basic education (ABE) programs do not appear to advance their skill levels and to identify strategies to help them make progress. A questionnaire was returned by 117 ABE teachers in welfare programs, who rated the frequency of occurrence of various…

In September 2006, the State Board approved a new System Direction to guide the two-year-college system for the next ten years. One of three primary goals for the system is to increase educational attainment for the economic development of the state and the economic well-being of Washingtonians. Since 2000, State Board staff has provided periodic…