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This monograph examines benefits, challenges, and methods of expanding access to adult literacy with online distance education (ODE). The following are among the topics discussed: (1) reasons for considering ODE (new technologies and delivery systems in education; ODE in higher education, business training, and adult basic education; state-level efforts to try ODE with adult learners; Project IDEAL [Improving Distance Education for Adult Learners]); (2) challenges of using the World Wide Web in adult education (LiteracyLink and results of field tests of its Workplace Essential Skills component); (3) the Pennsylvania experiment in building system capacity for ODE (the program's support structure; distance enrollments; implementation issues); (4) the Australian experience with ODE (federal efforts; state efforts); and (5) implementation issues in implementing ODE for adult learners (models of implementation; planning for implementation; teaching at a distance; models for teaching and learning); (6) policy issues in implementing ODE for adult learners (professional development; emerging technologies; experimentation and accountability; control and distribution of ODE); and (7) research issues in implementing ODE for adult learners. (The bibliography lists 64 references. The following items are appended: an overview of ODE products for adult education; an interview guide for programs implementing ODE; and an outline of the Project IDEAL planning process.) (MN)

An external evaluator worked with the project team of the Wisconsin Technical College System National Workplace Literacy Program to develop the evaluation design. Although she was at the project site for only limited periods of time, she and the project team maintained periodic contact during the 3-year period by telephone, fax, and email. Three technical colleges were selected for onsite study. During each site visit, the evaluator met with college coordinators, instructors, business and labor partners, supervisors, and learners. The evaluation design was planned primarily as a naturalistic inquiry that used the structured interview approach to data collection. The Kirkpatrick model (1994) was used to guide the summative evaluation. Project staff decided on procedures to collect data used as evidence for accomplishment of each of four levels of evaluation: stakeholder evaluation, mastery of basic skills, transfer of learning, and impact on organizations. Evaluation highlights were business institutionalization of their programs; a culture shift in many businesses with workers valued as equals in decision making; and dissemination through newsletters targeted to workers in the business site. (The six-page report is followed by these extensive appendixes: program benefits handbook; structured interview forms for partners, supervisors, learners, and staff; interview data; and analysis of trends in the data.) (YLB)

An independent evaluation of the College of Lake County's National Workplace Literacy Program included both formative and summative evaluations over the 3 years of the project. The evaluation design was planned primarily as a naturalistic inquiry that used the structured interview approach to data collection. An external evaluator interviewed all project stakeholders during scheduled visits over the 3-year period to identify project strengths and recommendations for improvement. In addition, the evaluator visited classes at various sites and provided feedback on the instruction. The project had several unique aspects: development of a list of learning objectives and curriculum that could be used as a model across all sites; development of an assessment instrument for use with English-as-a-Second-Language students; and inservice education provided to part-time adult educators. The evaluator provided an introductory inservice session to the project staff on the Kirkpatrick evaluation model. Interview data were entered into a Filemaker Pro Database to detect trends in data across time and sites. Included in the trends were that all stakeholders were impressed by the changes evident in the learners and that staff viewed the project as a learning experience for themselves. Findings indicated the project was well implemented and became more central to the businesses concerned as time went by. (The five-page report is followed by these appendixes: structured interview forms, interview data, and analysis of trends.) (YLB)

A project was conducted to offer customized software to adult basic education (ABE) programs in Pennsylvania and to train the program participants on software customization principles. The project produced an updated list of software publishers and products that can be customized for adult education students. Workshops were presented on customization of software through the regional staff development centers. Software was customized for local programs to make it appropriate for the needs of the learners. Guidelines were developed for instructors of the programs that use the customization service about how to do future customization on their own. As a result of the project, 169 software programs that can be used to develop customized instruction for ABE students were identified and stored in a database in FileMaker Pro format. The project concluded that at present most Pennsylvania ABE providers are primarily interested in the electronic customization of the administrative aspects of their programs; the project scope was expanded to include software customization for both instructional and administrative purposes. The project also concluded that most providers need more technical training in this area to meet their needs. (The bulk of the document is a printout of the database. Each entry includes the following: product name, company name, address, telephone, fax and electronic mail address, subject area, instruction type, cost, media, platform, language, instruction level, and description. A description of software customization methods is also appended.) (KC)

This document describes two activities of the Literacy Leader Fellowship research project, which addressed the needs of adult educators for knowledge of job skills and of business and unions for information about adult literacy efforts. The first section describes the following efforts related to skill standards and other policy initiatives: (1) 22 skill standards projects funded by the U. S. Department of Education that are attempting to define the occupational content and performance levels needed within and across industries; (2) the National Job Analysis Study, identifying cross-occupation workplace skills necessary for worker and business success, particularly in high performance work organizations; (3) the effort of the U.S. Department of Labor to replace the Dictionary of Occupational Titles, using the framework established by SCANS (Secretary's Commission on Achieving Necessary Skills) to create the Occupational Information Network (O*NET); and (4) a number of initiatives, including community efforts to set high expectations for all learners, spurred by the National Education Goals. This part of the report contains 65 references and an annotated bibliography of 10 selected resources. The second activity of the Literacy Leader Fellowship research project involved writing skill descriptions as the framework for workplace literacy skill standards, especially for those basic skills needed for work in high performance work organizations. The document contains a sample framework consisting of outlines for the following courses: problem solving, communication skills I-II, workplace math I-II, and English as a second language at work I-VII. For each course goal, the following are listed: learning objectives, workplace contexts, basic skills, possible activities, and outcomes. (KC)

Four community colleges in North Carolina cooperated to provide workplace literacy education to employees of eight plants in the state. The target population for the program was 710 adults who had not completed high school or who were functioning below high school level who were employed at one of the industry sites. The Comprehensive Adult Student Assessment System Employability Competency System was used to assess basic skill levels of students/employees along with criterion-referenced tests developed for the customized curriculum. Classes were provided on site during regular work hours, and employees were compensated for their time. The program proved successful in the following areas: recruiting more than the targeted number of employees, improving the basic skills levels of those employees who participated in the program regularly, improving job-related literacy skills, improving productivity and quality of work, improving attendance, continuing curriculum development, providing orientation to teaching staff, and meeting individual employees' needs for job-related education (resulting in job promotions and increased proficiency). An outside evaluator determined that the workplace literacy program had been successful and suggested changes in administrative structures. (KC)

A project developed a comprehensive database of Pennsylvania state adult literacy service providers that could be used to provide information on service provision to public and private organizations and individuals. The project team distributed a mailed survey to 2,911 known and potential adult literacy service-providing organizations throughout the state, including Pennsylvania Department of Education-funded programs, literacy councils, libraries, and businesses with over 500 employees. The survey questioned organizations on six areas: services, staffing, sites, outreach, technology, and funding. Findings indicated that 324 of 948 responding organizations provided services. The largest categories of service providers were community-based organizations, school districts, and literacy councils. The types of services most likely to be provided were adult basic education, general educational development or alternative secondary education, and basic literacy services. Responding organizations reported approximately 70,000 students being served across all categories of services. They reported 10,029 volunteer tutors, 1,270 part-time teachers/coordinators, and 591 full-time teachers/coordinators in adult literacy provision. Responding organizations used traditional technologies for instruction, staff training, and information sharing, and used mainly government funds to provide services. (Appendixes to the 28-page report are the survey, 17 summary tables, and 15 figures and tables.) (YLB)

A visually oriented educational model that was originally developed for use with children was adapted for use with adults in an adult basic and literacy education class. The four-step visual literacy model required students to perform the following actions while reading an entire novel: visualize, inquire, read, and apply. A General Educational Development (GED) teacher and a life skills teacher were trained to use the model with students. Ten GED and five life skills students completed the entire program, including pre- and posttests. An additional 12 students started the program but did not complete it for various reasons. A comparison of the 15 completers' pre- and posttest scores indicated that the students achieved gains in knowledge of general and Spanish vocabulary but no significant gains in general knowledge. The students' attitudes toward fiction became more positive at the end of the project. When interviewed and asked to complete attitude surveys, the teachers and students alike were enthusiastic about the program and felt that the materials and activities helped the students develop comprehension and thinking skills. (Appended are the assessment instruments, interview questions, and student attitude survey results.) (MN)

A descriptive study identified and assessed programmatic characteristics of rural literacy services in northern Pennsylvania and factors affecting participation of adult literacy students in those services. The study focused on service delivery aspects of programming and incentives/motivations as well as on barriers affecting participation. Surveys and interviews collected data on programs, students, and need for services as well as attitudes and perceptions. Results indicated that most adult literacy providers and consumers were involved in adult basic education (ABE) programming; volunteers were an important component of most adult literacy programs; computer lessons were used in two-thirds of the responding programs; and two-thirds of the participants did not have more than a 10th-grade education. Barriers to participation in and delivery of ABE services were the following: low motivation and few incentives; need for confidentiality; inadequate transportation; lack of child care services; lack of community leadership; lack of professional support; and inappropriate funding. Recommendations corresponding to these barriers were made to improve and expand existing literacy services. (Appendixes include a list of 73 references; the survey packet; a report on library-based literacy service; funding source and technical assistance information; and raw data.) (YLB)

Definitions of literacy range from school-based models to functional skills to social constructivist approaches. Assessment practices reflect particular definitions. Literacy practitioners are encouraged to adopt a social constructivist worldview that challenges the current skills-based model for accountability. (Author/SK)

Junior high school teachers (at three Pennsylvania schools--urban, suburban, and rural) who were voluntarily involved in a year-long inservice education program on content area reading instruction during 1976-77 were tested one year later after no intervention to see if significant gains made during the workshop year were retained. Posttest scores obtained in May 1977 after the experimental treatment were compared to follow-up posttest scores obtained in May 1978 after no intervention. No significant gains or losses occurred during the nonintervention year in measures of teachers' attitudes toward teaching reading in the content areas and their knowledge of reading skills. The results show that inservice education can make a difference in bringing about lasting changes in teachers' attitudes and knowledge of reading skills. (Author/JM)

As part of the work from the Content Area Reading Project (CARP), which focuses on inservice teacher education in content area reading, a study examined the effects of an inservice content area reading program that involved two three-hour workshops per month on the theory and practical application of teaching methods for content area reading instruction. Both the 25 teachers in the experimental program and the teachers not involved in the project completed measures of teachers' attitudes toward teaching content area reading and of attitudes toward the inservice program. The results showed that the teachers involved in the workshops gained significantly in their attitudes toward content area reading, while the comparison group remained essentially similar on both administrations of the attitude survey. The conclusions drawn from the study were (1) that longterm involvement in inservice training in content area reading improves both knowledge of reading skills and attitudes toward content area reading, and (2) that the role of the reading supervisor was particularly critical to the inservice programs, because the supervisor served as the main link between the monthly theory workshops and the monthly application workshops. (RL)

Materials developed by teacher participants in the Content Area Reading Project are presented in this appendix to the Project report. The first section provides group informal reading inventories developed for use in adult education, teaching English as a second language, and nine content areas; it then presents cloze tests developed for use in eight different content areas. The second section includes various plans for grouping students according to informal reading inventory scores, cloze scores, and criteria other than reading. Section three includes a variety of reading skills exercises, grouped into three categories: those designed to develop vocabulary, comprehension, and study skills. The following sections present a home economics unit on portable electric appliances, individualized learning activities packages developed to teach about ancient Egypt and to help students learn about good grooming, and activities for a learning center in which students read and learn about poetry. The concluding section provides guidelines given to teachers to aid them in developing each of the types of materials featured. (GW)

In this appendix to the Content Area Reading Project report, a large variety of materials is presented for use in the content component of the project. Among the materials are the following: a bibliography of professional materials on content reading; an annotated bibliography of junior high school materials for reading development in ten content areas; a list of materials useful in developing practical adult literacy in five areas; instructions for developing case studies; directions for administering group reading inventories; sample informal reading inventories; sample grouping plans; study guides for helping teachers learn about black language and about language and culture; examples of enabling and inhibiting teacher statements; a self directed behavior rating scale; suggestions for using the language experience approach with older students; a sample social studies unit about Mexico, with detailed lists of objectives and sample activities; instructions for constructing an individualized learning activity package; materials for teaching reference skills, map skills, and reading skills; sample cloze tests; and vocabulary guidesheets and exercises. (GW)

In this appendix to the Content Area Reading Project report, five instruments administered to teacher participants are examined: two attitude surveys, a skill test, a questionnaire to obtain demographic information, and the Purdue Teacher Opinionaire, which is a measure of teacher morale. This work first presents the attitude surveys, skill test, and opinionaire, and then examines the following topics: purpose, background, development, reliability, and validity of each of the five instruments, selection of the sample population for the project, treatment measures, evaluation measures, and limitations of the study. Findings based on data gathered during the project are then presented under the following general headings: characteristics of the junior high school teachers, attitudes among the junior high school teachers, morale levels among the junior high school teachers, skill levels among the junior high school teachers, and characteristics, attitudes, morale levels, and skill levels in the teachers of adults. Numerous tables are included in the appendix. (GW)

The Content Area Reading Project was designed to provide teachers in junior high schools and adult basic education classes with inservice workshops and on-site consultant assistance in content area reading methods. Chapter one of this report discusses the need for such a project and outlines the procedures used in developing it. In chapter two, the inservice training model used and evaluated in the project is presented. Chapter three outlines the step-by-step diagnostic teaching model by means of which project participants were taught the administration and uses of informal diagnostic procedures. Chapter four describes the seven content strands that made up the content component of the workshops: diagnosis, linguistic differences, motivation, organization for instruction, reading skills, selection of materials, and evaluation. Chapter five reports the results of the project in terms of changes in attitude and skills in experimental and comparison groups. Chapter six summarizes the project and presents conclusions and recommendations for future work with inservice content area reading programs. Numerous tables are included in the report. (GW)

The rural work force has lower basic skills to supply labor for new jobs with higher literacy demands. At all levels of education the rural population is at a disadvantage compared with the urban population. One out of five rural adults in Pennsylvania has not continued education past the eighth grade. Among the costs to businesses from employee illiteracy are costly mistakes made by employees who lack adequate basic skills, lost productivity and efficiency, decreased product quality, increased need for supervision, increased cost of training, problems in the relationship of workers with supervisors and coworkers, and accidents due to inability to follow safety directions. In 1986, 25 of the 41 Pennsylvania counties designated nonmetropolitan had no literacy programs funded under State Act 143. The minority group funding priority of the act may discourage literacy programs in rural areas. These factors should be considered in the design of rural programs: geographic isolation means higher costs to deliver services, lower population density results in fewer students per class, the sociodemographic makeup of rural populations must be recognized in program allocation criteria, rural areas have fewer organizations that could provide literacy programs, isolation can lead to low self-esteem and affect motivation to participate in literacy programs, existing rural networks must be used to recruit students, and technologies that can deliver programs over distances are particularly important in rural areas. A set of policies for delivering literacy programs to rural adults in Pennsylvania should be developed. (21 references) (CML)

This pilot study assessed the educational interests and needs of a group of older, low-literate adults with the eventual goal of developing computer-assisted literacy programs specifically designed for older adults. Subjects, 10 women and 1 man aged 60 to over 80 years who were members of a center for older adults and who were already working with tutors to improve their reading skills, completed a questionnaire and engaged in a structured interview. Results indicated that (1) the subjects exhibited a wide variety of skill levels and had diverse needs; (2) a majority had basic decoding skills and wanted to develop higher-order skills; (3) many expressed interest in reading materials related to leisure interests; (4) most usually read a wide variety of materials at some level; (5) their writing needs were taken care of by others close to them; (6) the majority of subjects expressed a desire for self-improvement and self-sufficiency; and (7) the tutor's role was crucial in providing motivation and encouragement. (The survey instrument and the explanation of the study--which was read to the subjects--are attached.) (RS)

According to U.S. Census data, in rural Pennsylvania, 37% of adults did not complete higher school, and 21% did not go beyond 8th grade. As a consequence of present demographic and literacy trends, the proportion of the workforce with low levels of basic skills is growing. At the same time, a changing labor market is creating new jobs that demand higher skills and job performance from entry-level employees than in the past. Inadequate workforce literacy is expected to be a costly drain on businesses and industries in the future. A variety of federally legislated programs focus on the literacy problem. In addition, a state program funded by the Pennsylvania Adult Literacy Act of 1986 is aimed at adults with a 5th grade reading level or less. However, 25 of Pennsylvania's 41 nonmetropolitan counties offer no literacy programs under this act, perhaps due to a priority to serve minorities. The act also seems to favor funding to urban areas with their greater numbers of undereducated adults, while neglecting the greater proportion of undereducated adults in rural areas. Designers of literacy programs for rural areas must take into account the unique features and inherent disadvantages of rural areas: geographic isolation, lower population density, social and demographic composition, lack of organizations to provide programs, low self-esteem and motivation, the need to use existing rural networks to recruit students, and the need to incorporate distance education technologies. This report contains 21 references. (SV)

The Penn State Adult Literacy Courseware project uses a "whole word" approach with some word-building activities in teaching 1,000 high frequency and functional words to adult beginning readers whose children participate in Chapter I programs. The aim of the project is to counteract the intergenerational effects of illiteracy. The courseware runs on an Apple IIe microcomputer and is interactive, branching, and responsive to the user's answers and needs. The objectives for the 1986-87 fiscal year were: (1) summative evaluation and monitoring of the courseware in parent literacy sites; (2) revision of the teacher's manual to include various models for using the courseware in parent literacy sites; (3) further development of teaching activities to facilitate the transfer of words recognized on a computer screen to recognition in print; and (4) completion of the interactive audiodisk version with formative evaluation in sites serving non-native speakers. In meeting the first objective, a group of parents and their children participated in the program. Comparison of pretests and posttests indicated that the 52 parents completing 20 hours of instructional time gained more than 1 year in reading level, compared to at least 50 hours of instructional time to make comparable gains in traditional programs. The remaining three objectives were met. Teachers in the program have noted significant attitudinal shifts in both parents and children. (RS)

A study evaluated the effectiveness of the Templates for Literacy manual, which is designed to help the adult beginning reader integrate computer and literacy learning. The manual contains guidelines and strategies for incorporating word processing, spreadsheet, database, and graphics software into literacy curricula. The draft manual was pilot-tested for 18 weeks in three adult learning programs in New York City; Salem, Oregon; and Weirton, West Virginia. Data were collected through site visits. Limitations of the study include the fact that methods for determining student learning varied among the sites, and pre- and posttest data were not always available. The following results are reported: (1) tutors and teachers were enthusiastic about the manual as a tool for helping to teach low-level literacy students; (2) almost all instructors limited their teaching to the word processing templates, with very few students attempting database templates and no one using spreadsheets or graphics; (3) students were highly motivated by using the computer and reported that the templates helped them improve their reading and writing; (4) students at all reading levels learned computer skills by using the templates; and (5) there was evidence at all sites that having an opportunity to work with computers was very desirable and a motivating force in recruiting students as well as tutors. (The document contains three case studies, interview guides, a reporting form, questionnaires, and photocopies of photographs showing the manual being used.) (CML)

A study examined the use of the Penn State Adult Literacy Courseware, which teaches sight vocabulary to beginning adult readers, in a volunteer tutoring situation with three male and two female unemployed adults whose average grade level in reading was 1.1. All students were white, their average age was 37, and the highest grade any of them had completed in school was the 10th. The five tutors were all female and received 14 hours of training on the use of the courseware before giving 20 hours of tutoring. Pre- and posttest measurements were taken with the Slosson Oral Reading Test (SORT), an attitude survey of tutors and students concerning the use of computers, and two sections of the Baltimore County Design, which measured how well the students could identify words in isolation and in context. Limitations of the study include the small number of subjects (N=9) and the fact that there was no control group, so the results cannot be considered statistically significant. Analysis of the pre- and posttest results showed positive gains on all three measurement instruments. The average reading grade level had risen to 1.76 after only 20 hours of instruction, as compared with a minimum 25 hours that traditional programs take to make comparable gains. Students increased their positive attitudes about computers. Starting with less positive attitudes, the tutors also increased their positive feelings. However, no tutors indicated they would prefer the computer over any other method. (The document includes results of a tutor survey on how the courseware could better serve the needs of displaced workers and on the role of the tutor, as well as a 13-item bibliography.) (CML)

The effectiveness of using computer courseware developed for adults reading below the fourth-grade level was investigated with inmates at Rockview State Correctional Institution. Data were collected both to establish multiple baseline data and to permit experimental group comparison with a control group. The multiple baselines portion of the study involved 11 male inmates with reading levels of 0-4 who completed 18-25 hours of work with the courseware. The Wide Range Achievement Test (WRAT) and the Slosson Oral Reading Test (SORT) were used as pre- and posttests. The courseware was considered effective. Testing 10 months later showed that students' retention level was about 90 percent. In the experimental/control group portion of the study, 27 inmates were tested with 2 sections of the Baltimore County Design, the Bader Reading and Language Inventory, the SORT, and a test of incidental learning of computer words. The experimental group each used the courseware for 10-22 hours whereas the control group received small group and tutorial instruction using traditional beginning materials for adult reading instruction but was not exposed to computer-assisted instruction. The 23 men who completed the work were given posttests using the same measures used for the pretests. Analysis of variance for repeated measures was used to analyze the test differences. The only measure that showed a statistically significant difference was the Bader Reading and Language Inventory. The control group showed no improvement on the posttest measure and had fallen behind the experimental group at that time, even though they had started out at a higher level. (Two references and three tables are included.) (CML)

A 6-month study examined the attitudes of older, low-literate adults toward using computers to learn to read and tried to determine the effectiveness of Penn State Adult Literacy Courseware for beginning readers with older, low-literate adults at a community-based senior center. The students were 10 black adults, aged 66 to 86 and educated at the 2nd- to 11th-grade level. They were tutored by 10 females, 8 of whom were black, who ranged in age from 64 to 72. All tutors were educated at the secondary level or beyond, seven of them had tutored before, and three said that they had had some experience using computers. The Attitudes toward Computers for Reading Instruction questionnaire and the Slosson Oral Reading Test (SORT) were used as pre- and posttests. The tutors were trained in the courseware before working with the students. The range of actual instructional hours was 6 to 19, and only 7 tutor-student pairs were active at the end of the study. No strong conclusions about the effectiveness of the courseware and the attitudes of the students can be made, due to the absence of a control group and the small sample size. Gains on the SORT occurred for all but two of the seven students. The mean gain was 2 months. Overall, changes in the students' attitudes toward computer-assisted reading were in a positive direction. (CML)

This document is the final report of the first year's operation of a project designed to train literacy and adult education providers and organizations in business, industry, and labor to develop and implement effective workplace literacy programs. The program, which operates in Pennsylvania on the state and regional levels, initiates the establishment of partnerships between providers and organizations for collaborative efforts in the assessment of workplace literacy needs, the design of job-specific basic skills instruction, and the implementation of appropriate workplace literacy programs. The first nine pages of the document consist of an abstract that reports the program's first-year accomplishments (including the training of four consultants to conduct regional workplace literacy workshops and to provide one-to-one mentoring upon request); an introduction; a statement of the workplace literacy problem; a list of first-year goals and objectives; a procedures section; and recommendations for future projects. The remainder of the document is an appendix containing a brochure; workplace literacy workshop materials; an 11-item resource list; logs and evaluation forms; and summaries of project workshop evaluations. (CML)