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."

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