The principal failure of attempts to reduce illiteracy in the United States lies in the conceptualization of the problem to which literacy is the solution and in an underfinanced practice that parallels dominant educational institutions, emphasizing the service of individuals. Adult education plays a critical role in liberatory action. Although…

This report provides a summary of an adult education conference in Kentucky. It contains practical information to future planning groups and to persons who may not have experience in planning large conferences. The report is organized in four sections. The introduction includes the early planning process of the conference and the conference goals.…

As part of the National Adult Literacy Survey (NALS) of 1992, the National Center for Education Statistics published a separate study that focuses on the literacy skills of older adults (aged 60 years and older) from a variety of perspectives, such as age, sex, amount of education, race or ethnic background, income, and geographic region. Some of…

This document contains two extended papers and one shorter commentary that reflect a continuing debate between two schools of thought on literacy that have been called the "autonomous" and the "sociocultural.""The Persisting Power and Costs of the Literacy Myth" (Harvey J. Graff) argues that current discourse on…

This document provides summaries of conference papers and discussions at a workshop focused on improving the quality of literacy education in developing countries. The workshop was attended by 20 project leaders and observers from 11 countries: Bangladesh, Cambodia, China, Costa Rica, India, Laos, Nepal, Pakistan, the Philippines, Sri Lanka, and…

Recently, several industrialized nations have engaged in extensive and expensive assessments of adult literacy using door-to-door surveys and tests of "functional" reading. A study examined the use of simple checklists of author's names, magazine titles, famous people's names, and vocabulary works used earlier by West, Stanovich and Miller (1993)…

This report describes adult literacy needs, the role of the libraries in meeting those needs, literacy needs and services in New York, and the contributions the City University of New York (CUNY) is making to the literacy effort. Quotations from Paulo Freire and Jonathan Kozol are used to define the nature of illiteracy and its extent in the…

This booklet, aimed at adult basic education students, pinpoints and summarizes a few common spelling rules to help make spelling easier, and includes a component on using the dictionary. In the text, each rule is presented with many examples. Exercises follow each spelling rule, allowing students the opportunity to apply the rule to specific…

The Ohio Adult Literacy Survey, like the National Adult Literacy Survey of which it is a part, aimed to characterize adults' literacy skills in English based on their performance on diverse tasks that reflect the types of materials and demands they encounter in their daily lives. To gather information on the literacy skills of adults in Ohio,…

When people seek to augment their reading and writing skills through participation in adult literacy programs, what do they expect to happen? An examination of brochures promoting adult literacy programs both nationally and in Philadelphia indicates that the programs promote adult literacy instruction as empowering learners and rescuing them from…

The Literacy Plus Project, begun in 1985, provides tutoring for English-speaking adults aged 16 and over who live in the Hayward (California) Public Library service area, and whose reading and writing skills are below eighth-grade level. During the 1988-89 program year, the program trained 84 tutors (goal: 100) using a program developed by the…

A general discussion of India's illiteracy rates and of State programs to combat it is presented, emphasizing political motivation. Other developing nation's illiteracy rates are compared with India's. (LH)

Programs, particularly, language teaching, undertaken in Sweden with a view to promoting immigrant adjustment, involve folk high schools, voluntary adult education associations, and municipal adult education. Reaching the isolated immigrant woman and arranging family courses are some of the avenues explored. (JH)

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…