The Adult Education Amendments of 1988 require the Department of Education to submit a report to Congress on the definition of literacy and then to estimate the extent of adult literacy. Literacy has been defined by self-report in early Census Bureau surveys, in a competency-based approach by the Adult Performance Level project, and as "the…

A definition of illiteracy is the inability to read and compute at the standard needed by an adult within a chosen social context. While statistics may vary depending upon the study, women make up the majority of the illiterates nationally and internationally. Three factors that contribute to illiteracy among women are social acculturation and…

Cross ability tutoring--having more advanced students work with slower learners--seems to provide the repetitions required to teach the severely retarded a skill. At the Eastern Shore Vocational and Rehabilitation Center (Virginia), students who read at grade 2.0 or better are paired with others, some of whom are working on writing their names or…

This package consists of various bilingual instructional materials for use in helping Indochinese refugees learn basic clothing management skills. Included in the package are Vietnamese and English translations of instructional booklets dealing with selecting and caring for winter clothing and reading labels explaining clothing care requirements.…

This Brief first summarizes research findings regarding computer-assisted instruction (CAI) and its effectiveness in adult literacy education programs. The following findings are given: CAI is effective for a significant number of adult learners; CAI is effective because it provides the adult learner with flexibility, control, individualization,…

Literacy is a commodity of measurable value to those who acquire it. This proposition is easy to accept if the many benefits of acquiring literacy are considered: better jobs, more productive use of leisure time, greater self-sufficiency, increased ability to help one's children with school work and hobbies. The Gannett Foundation first became…

This booklet provides 12 lessons designed to use the newspaper in an adult basic education curriculum. Each lesson focuses on a particular letter of the alphabet, provides a list of vocabulary needed for the lesson, and includes 10 steps which comprise the lesson, hints on how to teach the lesson, and suggested activities. (RS)

The Read/Write for Personal and Economic Growth program starts with the writing of three-sentence paragraphs that contain a topic sentence and two major detail sentences. The program begins with short passages so that adult learners can experience immediate success. As learners progress, they receive help on such problems as sentence fragments,…

Designed for program managers and teacher/recruiter/counselors (TRC's), this handbook provides information on Brevard Community College's Adult Basic Education (ABE) Outreach program. First, background information on the ABE/TRC concept is presented, identifying the major functions of the TRC as counseling through door-to-door contact, conducting…

These statements, letters, and supplemental materials were provided by: (1) Janet Jones Ballard, Assault on Literacy Program; (2) Representative Jim Cooper, Tennessee; (3) Mitch Snyder, Center for Creative Non-Violence; (4) Garrett Murphy, Division of Adult and Continuing Education Programs, New York; (5) W. Wilson Goode, mayor of Philadelphia;…

This pamphlet is designed to shed new light on opportunities for newspapers to help more people learn to read. For newspapers already involved in literacy education, the pamphlet suggests ways to enhance existing programs. The pamphlet contains information on community awareness, coalition building, workplace tutoring, funding, Newspaper in…

The Wisconsin Council on Vocational Education's seven recommendations, based on testimony given at a statewide public hearing at Oshkosh State Correctional Institute, are the following: (1) creation of an independent, cabinet-level corrections department; (2) establishment of an annual vocational, technical, and adult education scholarship for…

Illiteracy, the inability to communicate or receive information through the medium of print, has not been dealt with effectively by society, yet it is estimated that there are 23 million illiterate adults in America. Two major problems exist: diagnosing illiteracy, and attracting illiterate adults to adult literacy programs. With the development…

A study was conducted to determine the validity of two separate item classification schemes for the reading comprehension subtest of the McGraw-Hill Test of Adult Basic Education, Level D, Form 4. The first of the two schemes was developed by the publisher and presented as a means of classifying errors for the purpose of diagnosing individual…

Describes how, by understanding the political dimensions of reading, Paulo Freire developed materials that enabled adults to learn to read in 30 to 40 hours; this article is based primarily on Paulo Freire's "Education for Critical Consciousness," Seabury, 1973. (Author/JM)