The following discussion announcement is posted on behalf of David Rosen, 
Moderator of the Special Topics Discussion List.

To subscribe for the duration of the discussion, visit: 
http://www.nifl.gov/mailman/listinfo/specialtopics

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Colleagues,

On the Special Topics discussion list from July 10th-18th, Dr. John Comings, 
Director of the National Center for the Study of Adult Learning and Literacy 
(NCSALL), will be a guest to discuss his research on student persistence in 
adult literacy education.

John introduces the discussion this way:

"When a group of us at World Education were preparing to write the proposal 
for the funds that have supported NCSALL, we surveyed practitioners and policy 
makers around the country to help us design our research agenda. Almost 500 
people participated in the survey. We asked the survey participants to send us 
the questions that they wanted answered to help them improve practice in ABE, 
ESOL, and GED programs. One question was at the top of the list for teachers 
and second on everyone else's list. One teacher phrased it this way, "Just 
when they begin to make progress, many students leave the program. How can I 
keep those students long enough that they can meet their educational goals?"

That question formed the basis of a three-phase study of persistence. The 
first two phases are complete. The first phase surveyed the literature, 
interviewed 150 students in the six New England states, and identified ways 
that programs were trying to support the persistence of their students. The 
report of that first phase can be found at:

<http://www.ncsall.net/fileadmin/resources/research/report12.pdf>;

In the second phase, 9 library literacy programs were provided with funds to 
implement interventions that might help improve persistence, and our study 
team observed the programs and interviewed their staff and students. We also 
followed a cohort of 180 students for 14 months. The report of that second 
phase can be found at:

<http://www.mdrc.org/publications/401/overview.html>;

We are prepared to implement the third phase, but NCSALL no longer has funding 
to begin a new research project. This next phase would test three 
interventions. One would add persistence supports to existing classroom 
programs, one would use a wide range of modes of learning (in programs and 
through self study on-line and in other ways) that more closely match the way 
adults manage their learning, and the third would combine these two 
approaches. I believe the third approach is a promising way to solve the 
persistence problem, as well as it can be solved.

I'm looking forward to your questions, but I would also be interested in 
practical ideas of how to build support to persistence and how to expand 
opportunities for learning."

-----

Special Topics is an intermittent discussion list. The topics open and close 
throughout the year, so there are periods where there will be no discussion or 
postings. You can subscribe to the e-list for a particular topic of interest, 
and then unsubscribe, or you can stay subscribed throughout the year. To 
participate in this topic, you can subscribe by going to:

http://www.nifl.gov/mailman/listinfo/specialtopics

David J. Rosen
Special Topics Discussion List Moderator
djrosen at comcast.net