Improving Adult Literacy Instruction Options for Practice and Research (2012) / Chapter Skim
Currently Skimming:
1 Introduction
1 Introduction
Pages 8-23
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. This report synthesizes the research on literacy and learning to improve literacy instruction for those served in adult education in the United States and to recommend a more systemic approach to research, practice, and policy.
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adults (an estimated 56 million people) possess only basic or below basic prose literacy skills.
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Prose Literacy Document Literacy Quantitative Literacy Proficiency Category 1992 2003 1992 2003 1992 2003 12a 22a Below basic 14 14 14 26 Basic 28 29 22 22 32 33 53a 33a Intermediate 43 44 49 30 13a 13a Proficient 15 15 13 13 NOTE: Data exclude people who could not be tested due to language differences: 3 percent in 1992 and 2 percent in 2003. aSignificantly different from 1992.
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Adults in Prose and Document Literacy Proficiency Categories by Educational Attainment, 2003 Below Basic Basic Intermediate Proficient Prose Less than/some high school 50 33 16 1 GED/high school 10 45 43 3 equivalency High school graduate 13 39 44 4 Vocational/trade/business 10 36 49 5 school Some college 5 25 59 11 Associate/2-year degree 4 20 56 19 College graduate 3 14 53 31 Document Less than/some high school 45 29 25 2 GED/ high school 13 30 53 4 equivalency High school graduate 13 29 52 5 Vocational/trade/business 9 26 59 7 school Some college 5 19 65 10 Associate/2-year degree 3 15 66 16 College graduate 2 11 62 25 SOURCE: Data from the National Assessment of Adult Literacy (Kutner et al., 2007)
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. The most recent national survey of adults' literacy skills in the United States shows that the percentage of adults employed full time increases with increased facility in reading prose (Kutner et al., 2007)
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These numbers include students identified as learning English as a second language: only 22 percent of them were at or above basic reading levels near the end of high school; 78 percent were below basic. Results were similar for twelfth graders with disabilities: 38 percent were at or above basic reading levels; 62 percent were below basic.
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population and fail to meet society's expectations for literacy. In fact, 55 percent of adults in the 2003 NAAL survey who scored below basic did not graduate from high school (compared with 15 percent of the entire adult population)
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identify from the research the main factors that affect literacy development in adolescence and adulthood, both in general and with respect to the specific populations served in education programs for adults; (3) analyze the implications of the research for informing curricula and instruction used to develop adults' literacy; and (4)
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In particular, the study will synthesize research-based knowledge on literacy from the multidisciplinary perspectives of education, cognitive and behavioral science, neurosci ence, and other relevant disciplines; and will provide a strong empirical foundation for understanding the main factors that affect literacy learning in adolescence and adult hood generally and with respect to the specific populations served by adult education. The committee will develop a conceptual and methodological framework to guide the study and conduct a review of the existing research literature and sources of evidence.
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If not, for what specific populations is research particularly needed? What do we know, for example, about how to deliver reading instruction to students in the lowest achievement levels normally found in adult basic education?
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We also refer throughout the report to new literacy skills and practices enabled by a digital age and include a more complete discussion of these issues in Appendix B Although we assume that literacy skills enabled by the use of new technologies are now fundamental to what it means to be literate, researchers are only beginning to define these skills and practices and to study the instruction and assessments that develop them in students of all ages (e.g., Goldman et al., 2011)
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The lack of research on learning and the effects of literacy instruction in the target population is striking, given the long history of both federal funding, albeit stretched thin, for adult education programs and reliance on developmental education courses to remediate college students' skills. As we explain in Chapter 3, although there is a large literature on adult literacy instruction, it is mostly descriptive, and the small body of experimental research suffers from methodological limitations, such as high rates of participant attrition and inadequate controls.
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These constraints on the available literature mean the committee's analysis and synthesis focus on examining instructional practices that work for younger populations that have not been invalidated by any of the available data with adults; extrapolating with caution from other research available on learning, cognition, and motivation to make additional suggestions for improving adult reading instruction; and articulating a research agenda focused specifically on learning and reading and writing instruction for adult literacy learners. The committee decided that examining the wealth of information from the research that exists with these populations could be valuable to the development of instructional practices for adults, with research and evaluation to validate, identify the boundaries of, and expand this knowledge in order to specify the practices that develop literacy skills in adolescents and adults outside school.
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society, but the pressing and important problem of how to instruct adolescents and adults outside the K-12 system who have inadequate English literacy skills. Although the report does not have an explicit focus on issues of prevention and how to improve literacy instruction in the K-12 system, many of the relevant findings were derived from research with younger populations, and so they are likely to be relevant to the prevention of inadequate literacy.
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The chapter conveys the state of research on practices that develop adults' literacy skills and identifies priorities for research and innovation to advance knowledge of adult literacy development and effective literacy instruction. Chapters 4 through 6 synthesize research from a variety of disciplines on topics that are vital to furthering adult literacy.
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This chapter points to the major challenges experienced by English language learners in developing their literacy skills and outlines the research needed to facilitate literacy development. Given that the basic principles of reading, writing, learning, and motivation have been discussed in previous chapters, this chapter focuses on issues specific to the literacy development of adults who are learning a second language.
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