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Adult English for speakers of other languages (ESOL) programs are among the first entities that welcome and orient immigrants to their new home community and its national language. Adult ESOL programs are a pathway to further education and training, and they typically maintain connections and referral agreements with a wide variety of social service agencies. Through their sustained contact with immigrants, they are also de facto facilitators of social inclusion in the local community for immigrants. Yet, these programs tend to operate outside or on the margins of existing immigrant service and advocacy coalitions. Networks for Integrating New Americans was a national initiative that positioned adult education programs as key contributors to local, multisector networks of organizations formed to advance immigrants' linguistic, civic, and economic integration. This article discusses the lessons learned from the five participating immigrant integrations networks' efforts over 22 months. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Transition to College and Careers was a two-year demonstration project that addressed both academic and non-academic barriers to college for adult learners. Of the 397 adult learners who enrolled in one of the six participating programs, 66% completed it, 69% attained college level reading skills, and the majority enrolled in college afterwards. Students who enrolled in TCC with poor math skills made the least amount of progress in math. One innovative program feature was an online 'Introduction to Health Science' course that students from all programs took as a cohort. The findings support a program design that emphasizes students' personal readiness, math, online learning, pro-active counseling and advising, and engagement with career centers and employers. Lack of reliable transportation and health issues were the main reasons for non-completion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper discusses how adult literacy educators chose to apply multiple intelligences (MI) theory. The findings fall into two categories of teachers' interpretation, MI-inspired instruction, and MI reflections. The resulting findings were that these MI-inspired teaching approaches helped to reduce teacher directedness and increase student control and initiative; to increase the authenticity of the learning experiences; and to make learning meaningful or relevant to students. Having MI-based learning choices made adult learners more confident about taking greater control of their own learning, and it pushed teachers to allow that to happen. Choice-based activities were instrumental in increasing the relevance and meaning of lessons and in reducing teacher directedness. Understanding the link between students' perceptions of their abilities and their actual academic performance, AMI teachers set out to create oppor-tunities for students to reflect about their strengths, weaknesses, and interests connecting them to the MI framework. Our data suggest that this, and other forms of MI reflections, prompted adult learners to see themselves as learners in a more positive light after identifying and reflecting on their own abilities. This was particularly the case when they were able to apply their abilities to successful learning strategies in the classroom. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Reports that the lives of Adult Basic Education (ABE) students are affected by economic and political forces of which they have little control. Participation of Rhode Island students in a mock legislative session annually; What the goal of political and economic literacy includes; Challenge of adult educators to find ways to integrate political and economic literacy.