Adulthood

The Institute's programs and services encourage the development and provision of high quality adult education and literacy services. Individually, they address some of the most important challenges facing the field, including how to improve accountability, use technology to its full advantage, and meet the needs of adults with learning disabilities. Together, they help build and support an integrated system that allows us to serve adults as effectively as possible.

• Bringing technology to the literacy field through LINCS, a state-of-the-art Internet-based information and communication system. LINCS operates through a network of partners nationwide to provide a single point of access to a broad array of literacy-related information and public discussion lists as well as technology training opportunities. For more information about LINCS and to review grant quarterly reports, please go to About LINCS.
• Improving services to adults with learning disabilities through Bridges to Practice, a four volume research-based guide. The Institute has provided training in more than 30 states in the use of Bridges and is now focusing on training trainers.
• Connecting those in need of adult, child, and family literacy services with information about programs in their communities through America's Literacy Directory, an easy-to-use on-line searchable database.
• Developing and disseminating scientifically based reading research and research-based products to educators, parents, policymakers, and others through the Partnership for Reading, a collaborative effort among NIFL, the US Department of Education (ED), and the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD), and the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS).

• The Institute has recently published two research-based publications on adult reading instruction: Applying Research in Reading Instruction for Adults: First Steps for Teachers and Teaching Adults to Read: A Summary of Scientifically Based Research Principles. Designed for teachers and tutors, First Steps provides ideas and examples of how to use research-based instructional approaches in the adult education classroom. The summary focuses on findings from the scientific literature on teaching adults to read.
• The Institute will launch a new newsletter in Winter 2006 that offers information on topics in adult reading instruction for teachers of reading and basic skills.
• The Institute offers an online reading assessment tool to help adult education teachers understand their students' reading strengths and needs so they can provide more targeted instruction. The instrument can be found at (www.nifl.gov/readingprofiles) and provides a mini-tutorial on teaching adults to read.

• Supporting Research to Improve Reading Instruction
  The Institute is contributing $10 million to a national research program to build understanding of how adults learn to read and how to teach reading to adults effectively. The Institute has partnered with the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development and the U.S. Department of Education on this five year, six-study effort.
• Identifying Successful Adult Literacy Programs
  The Institute is convening panel of nationally recognized experts to devise a rigorous approach to identifying and studying literacy programs with positive student outcomes. The project is expected to explore in detail what programs do and how well students learn.
• Understanding the Role of State and Local Adult Literacy Policy
  Through a national survey, the Institute is exploring the relationships between adult literacy policies and student outcomes to learn more about the contributions policy can make. The policies of interest concern: use of evidence-based practices; accountability; professional development; and interagency coordination.
• Exploring Literacy in Communities
  The Institute is convening a national summit for representatives of community-wide literacy efforts to discuss how public, private, and non-profit organizations come together to support literacy. There will be a special emphasis on evaluating community-wide efforts. The Institute also is gathering information about the measures of service quality and student outcomes used by community-based and volunteer literacy programs as well as challenges in data collection.
• Comprehensive Program Planning
  The Institute is working with nationally recognized experts and stakeholders to plan new initiatives to fill gaps in knowledge and services in the areas of adult English language acquisition, adult literacy, workforce basic skills development, and education and employment outcomes for youth with learning disabilities.
• Encouraging Evidence-Based Practice
  The Institute, working in partnership with the Institute of Education Sciences and its grantee, the National Center for the Study of Learning and Literacy, is working to strengthen the quality of adult literacy research. The initiative will culminate in the development of commissioned papers, to be shared with adult literacy researchers, on methodological challenges and piloting 3 one-day workshops for practitioners to provide opportunities to plan for changes in services based on evidence.