Research and Evaluation | Noteworthy Practices | Additional Links

While significant advances have been made in understanding the abilities young children must acquire to develop reading skills, a relatively small body of research is available on Adult Basic Education reading instruction. It has been frequently stated that learning to read may be more difficult after age nine; however, the factors that might explain this decrease in learning ability are not well understood.

Federal funding for reading and other initiatives is targeted to support those programs and teaching methods that have been proven effective through rigorous scientific research and that have improved student learning and achievement. Partnerships among diverse institutions are working to raise literacy levels so that all adults have the academic skills they need to be productive workers, parents, and citizens.

Research and Evaluation

• Applying Research in Reading Instruction for Adults is an introduction to research-based principles of reading instruction for instructors in adult education and literacy classes. Developed by the National Center for Family Literacy in 2005, it is intended as a first resource for those with little knowledge of reading instruction and is written with the needs of teachers in mind, particularly those who want to improve their ability to provide reading instruction for adults in family literacy and other basic education programs.

• The projects within the Adult Literacy Research Network are studying the effectiveness of adult literacy interventions for low-literate adults, including the role of decoding, vocabulary, fluency and comprehension instruction and explicitness of instruction--components that have been shown to be essential in teaching reading to younger students, but instructional methods for teaching them to adults have not been thoroughly investigated. Learn more about the six funded research studies.

• The The Partnership for Reading offers information about the effective teaching of reading for children, adolescents, and adults, based on the evidence from quality research. This site provides information on the research and principles about reading instruction.

• The book Research-Based Principles for Adult Basic Education Reading Instruction PDF (703 KB) by John Kruidenier represents the work of the Reading Research Working Group, a panel of experts on reading research and practice convened to identify and evaluate existing research in adult literacy reading instruction and provide a summary of scientifically based principles and practices.

• Adolescent Literacy Research Informing Practice: A Series of Workshops was sponsored jointly by government and private sector entities in 2002 for the purpose of developing specific recommendations for a program of research on adolescent literacy.

Noteworthy Practices

• Two Initiatives in Family Literacy involve the creation of professional development opportunities and tools related to reading skills development for use by family literacy service providers.

• The Partnership for Reading's Adult Reading Instruction presents evidence-based practices for teaching reading to adults in adult basic education and family literacy programs.

• The STudent Achievement in Reading (STAR) Project is a partnership with six states to translate and disseminate evidence-based reading practices through a series of local pilot programs. Each state selects several local pilot programs whose teachers and administrators will receive intensive training on reading strategies and on implementing a data-driven change model. Please see the STAR newsletter MS WORD (99.5 KB) for additional information.

• The Adult Reading Components Study (ARCS) was conducted by researchers at the National Center for the Study of Adult Learning and Literacy (NCSALL), who tested the reading ability of 955 adult learners on eleven skills components that contribute to reading ability and came up with a profile of each learner's strengths and instructional needs.

• The National Center for Family Literacy-sponsored Family Partnership in Reading Project will create and disseminate research-based professional development strategies to enable staff in Head Start, Early Head Start, Even Start and other programs providing family literacy to support family literacy.

• The Knowledge Loom "spotlights" are organized collections of resources on selected education topics. The collection on adolescent literacy provides research-based literacy strategies that benefit adolescents and other resources are continually added.

Additional Links

• Among the seven topics chosen for review by the What Works Clearinghouse during its first year of operation was Programs for Increasing Adult Literacy, one of our nation's most pressing issues. The systematic review will focus on programs that teach the literacy and language skills that adults need to function effectively. The review will include programs that serve adult nonnative speakers of English and adults who are proficient in spoken English but who lack basic literacy skills.

• LiteracyLink's Workplace Essential Skills provides online lessons and activities that cover four general areas of workplace preparation: Employment Strategies, Communicating at Work, Reading at Work, and Math at Work. These sections are divided into units on specific topics, with each unit presenting two kinds of activities--Internet and video.

• The ERIC (Educational Resource Information Center) is a national information system funded by the U.S. Department of Education's Institute of Education Sciences to provide access to education literature and resources.

• The Center for Adult English Language Acquisition (CAELA) focuses on building the capacity of states with emerging English as a second language populations to provide systematic training and effective, ongoing technical assistance to teachers and administrators in adult English language acquisition programs. CAELA also provides and disseminates research-based resources and promising practices at the national level for more effective adult English language acquisition instruction.

For Additional Information

Lynn Spencer
U.S. Department of Education
400 Maryland Avenue, SW
Washington, DC 20202-7240