This article describes the author's determination to incorporate learner-focused teaching techniques and explore ways to adapt them with GED math learners. The primary goal was to find ways of getting students to participate more in the classroom. This was a first step towards building community and learning as they worked together. After a few…

In this Forum article, Curry focuses on a few ways math and numeracy instructors can assure their students are ready for college and/or a career. For example, when considering the math levels of so many adult learners, teachers might focus on teaching their students how to reason mathematically, and ensure that they have a solid conceptual…

In her Forum piece, "What's an Adult Numeracy Teacher to Teach? Negotiating the Complexity of Adult Numeracy Instruction," Lynda Ginsburg set the stage of the current problem (poor numeracy levels in American adults) and the bevy of standards, legislation, and new exams that have recently been developed to address it. Ginsburg also…

In this article, we make the case for the development of a numeracy practices measure in the light of a review of relevant research and extant measures. We argue that a numeracy practices measure would acknowledge and validate adult learners' practice gains and inform teaching geared to their circumstances, needs and interests.

The Programme for the International Assessment of Adult Competencies (PIAAC) assessed literacy, numeracy, and technology-related skills of adults and found skill levels of US adults are well below the international average. In a world where advanced skills are requisite to workplace competitiveness, low skills are a danger sign. An initial PIAAC…

Selecting assessments for adults who struggle with reading can be difficult because few literacy measures used by reading researchers have been normed on this population, leaving uncertainty regarding the validity of these tests for adult learners. This study focused on the performance of 116 adults reading between the 3rd and 8th grade levels on…

A substantial proportion of participants in public adult education programs struggle with "basic" academic print literacy skills. According to the 2014-2015 National Reporting System (NRS) data, 48.7% of the national adult basic education/adult secondary education (ABE/ ASE) population tested as reading at or below the "Low…

According to Debra Bragg, Amy Pickard's article "WIOA: Implications for Low-Scoring Adult Learners" (EJ1125478) offers a provocative analysis of the federal Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA) that is important for any educator to read, especially educators who work with adult learners in postsecondary education. Pickard's…

In this article, Ellen Scully-Russ responds to St. Clair's analysis (EJ1072357) of the recent policy report from the Office of Career, Technical and Adult Education, "Making Skills Everyone's Business: A Call to Transform Adult Learning in the United States" (MSEB) (United States Department of Education [USDoE], 2015). While Scully-Russ…

St. Clair (EJ1072357) provides a summary and lays out some of the important issues inherent in the broad strategies articulated in "Making Skills Everyone's Business: A Call to Transform Adult Learning in the United States" (MSEB) (United States Department of Education [USDoE], 2015) (see ED558793). In this commentary, JoAnn Weinberger…

Despite increasing ethnic diversity globally, there has been little research into meeting the further education needs of these learners (Bidgood, Saebi, & May, 2006). In particular, the international literature provides scant understanding of how organizations go about meeting the literacy needs of adult English language learners (ELLs). It is…

The goal of this study was to compare the literacy skills of adult native English and native Spanish ABE speakers. Participants were 169 native English speakers and 124 native Spanish speakers recruited from five prior research projects. The results showed that the native Spanish speakers were less skilled on morphology and passage comprehension…

Adult immigrants are invaluable assets to our society as they bring along their cultural capital across borders. However, little is known about how their rich life histories reflect and refract their plights as ESL learners. This study is an investigation of three adult immigrants' English learning in an immigration center in the Midwest. The…

This article reports on a study that examines the effects of metacognitive reading strategy instruction on reading performance of adult ESL learners with limited English and literacy skills. The strategy instruction was implemented over a period of four months with a group of 18 learners who were enrolled in a high beginning literacy course in an…

In 1979, when the author began as an academic instructor at the Central Coast Adult School, located inside the California Men's Colony in San Luis Obispo, California, he saw his teaching role in the traditional sense of imparting knowledge through the school's curriculum. Over time, however, his viewpoint changed as he came to recognize that the…