We document and disseminate various results, trainings, and resources from our research, programs, and projects.
Focus on Policy is a NCSALL publication. Its purpose is to synthesize research findings and highlight policy implications of these findings. Focus on Policy forgoes the usual academic conventions to provide its readers with an easy-to understand summary of research. This first issue explores the value of a GED credential, the need to help GED…
For this issue of Focus on Basics we assembled a team of editors who represent both sides of the health and literacy partnership, including a doctor, a medical librarian, a professor of adult education who works in health and literacy, and a literacy specialist new to health and literacy. As a group we experienced many…
Numeracy, more than prose and document literacy, is the skill most associated with employability, according to a national literacy survey as quoted by Myrna Manly, a numeracy expert based in California. Numeracy matters. It matters to individuals and to the nation. Manly artfully lays out the case for strengthening numeracy in adult basic education (ABE)…
It’s fitting that the final issue of NCSALL’s Focus on Basics is filled with reports from NCSALL researchers across the country. Harvard-based John Strucker starts us off. Although adult basic education (ABE) students often have sporadic attendance, their interest in learning doesn’t waiver. If we provide more structured curriculum, he suggests, students will be able…
"Do ask, they’ll tell” is a good way of describing much of the research shared in this issue of Focus on Basics. How do adult learners feel about themselves? What works for them in terms of reading instruction? What do they read outside of class? What keeps them engaged in class? Researchers from the NCSALL…
According to the US Department of Education’s Report to Congress for the year 2002-2003, English for speakers of other languages (ESOL) students make up 43 percent of the learners served by USDOE-funded adult basic education programs, and 52 percent of the ESOL learners are at beginning levels. So it comes as no surprise that NCSALL’s…
Workplace education programs are partnerships between literacy providers and employers. In theory, these partnerships bring more resources into the system and make education more accessible to employed learners. They are maturing partnerships. Questions of “How do we get employees to enroll without feeling a stigma?” have given way over time to questions about program longevity,…
In this issue of Focus on Basics, we explore the challenge of serving youth well without sacrificing the quality of service to older students. Our cover story and the two that follow it form a trilogy: the journey from theory, through professional development, to practice. Missouri literacy program director Janet Geary and a colleague participated…
Few would debate the value of postsecondary education, especially for General Educational Development (GED) credential holders and high-level students of English for speakers of other languages (ESOL) who have high school diplomas. Making it happen is the challenge. The sad truth is that many adult basic education (ABE) students don’t perceive of college as a…
Curriculum is at the heart of adult basic education. It reflects our educational philosophy and beliefs about the goals of education. What are the different philosophical approaches to curriculum? What does research tell us about curriculum? How do teachers, programs, even states go about creating curriculum, and what lesson can we learn from them? In…
World Education strives to build lasting relationships with partners across diverse geographic regions and technical sectors to produce better education outcomes for all.
