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Beyond the GED: Making Conscious Choices About the GED and Your Future: Lesson Plans and Materials for the GED Classroom. Fass and Garner (April 2000). National Center for the Study of Adult Learning and Literacy. GED instructors are often working with people who are interested in getting their GED because they hope or believe it will be the key to their economic futures. This set of classroom materials is designed to provide GED preparation learners with practice in graph and chart reading, calculation, analyzing information, and writing, while they examine the labor market, the role of higher education, and the economic impact of the GED.

Cognitive Skills Matter in the Labor Market, Even for School Dropouts. Tyler, Murnane, and Willett (April 2000). National Center for the Study of Adult Learning and Literacy. From the Executive Summary: "The economic trends that have depressed the average earnings of the less skilled may have relegated most young dropouts to entry level jobs where skills matter very little. ... This report presents evidence on the labor market payoff to cognitive skills for school dropouts, and whether the payoff differs by gender and race/ethnicity."

Preparing Limited English Proficient Persons for the Workplace: ERIC Digest No.215. Wonacott, Michael E. (2000). ERIC Clearinghouse on Adult, Career and Vocational Education. A person's oral proficiency in English should not be confused with English - or native-language literacy - that is, the ability to read and write. This Digest describes cultural considerations and effective approaches to workforce development with individuals with Limited English Proficiency (LEP), including the impact of recent training legislation.

Second-Chance Strategies for Women Who Drop Out of School. Boudett, Murnane, and Willett (December 2000). Monthly Labor Review. Based on data collected in the early 1990's, this study looked at women's income ten years after dropping out of high school and found that women who obtained a GED in the third year after dropping out of high school had incomes that were 25 percent higher than those who did not pursue further education.

Turning Skills Into Profit: Economic Benefits of Workplace Education Programs. Bloom and Lafleur (1999). The Conference Board. Based on interviews in 45 national workplace education projects funded between 1995 and 1998 by the National Workplace Literacy Program, the authors list numerous economic benefits of these programs to employers. Benefits included: improved quality of work, better team performance, improved capacity to use new technology, increased output of products and services, reduced time per task, reduced error rate, better health and safety record, and more.

Welfare to Work: Considerations for Adult and Vocational Education Programs: ERIC Digest No.216. Imel (2000). ERIC Clearinghouse on Adult, Career, and Vocational Education. Education and training for welfare recipients now consists primarily of short-term training programs, with limited further training available once someone has found a job. The work-first philosophy has created challenges for adult and vocational educators. This Digest presents some considerations for developing welfare-to-work programs and characteristics of successful programs.

Workplace Literacy: Employment Issues for the Adult Learner with Learning Disabilities: LINKAGES Volume 2, Number I. Academy for Educational Development (Spring 1995). National Adult Literacy and Learning Disabilities Center. This issue of LINKAGES (Linking Literacy and Learning Disabilities) focuses on job, career, and workplace literacy issues as they relate to adults with learning disabilities. Article titles include: Tips for Workplace Success for the Adult Learner; Moving Toward Better Skills Development in Entry Level Positions; and more.

Workplace Math Skills. Lundberg (1999). Iowa Literacy Resource Center. Marty Lundberg at North Iowa Area Community College developed these ABE math materials for use in workplace literacy classes, traditional ABE/GED classes, and workforce development center classes. The materials cover eight basic math competencies. Each competency has an eight-question assessment, notes to the instructor, and sample curriculum materials. FREE copies available IN TEXAS ONLY. Also available online at http://www.readiowa.org/workplacemath/contents.html

Adult Educators' Guide to Designing Instructor Mentoring. Sherman, et al (April 2000). Pelavin Research Institute. Instructor mentoring is the process by which a more experienced instructor or administrator nurtures the growth of one less experienced through counseling. coaching, and supporting reflective problem-solving. This guide includes sections on the benefits of mentoring in adult basic education programs and how programs can develop, implement. and support mentoring. FREE copies available IN TEXAS ONLY. Also available online in PDF format at  http://www.air-dc.org/nrs/pubs.htm

Creating Beneficial Institutional Collaborations: ERIC Digest. Kuo (February 1999). ERIC Clearinghouse for Community Colleges. The process of collaboration with external organizations can transform an institution. The term collaboration refers to the act of working with a limited group in a socially beneficial effort. This Digest examines the value of existing collaborative efforts with businesses, community organizations and other educational institutions, and explores how collaborative partnerships create new opportunities as well as challenges.

How States are Implementing Distance Education for Adult Learners: NIFL State Policy Update. National Institute for Literacy (February, 2000). Update includes information about the efforts of each U.S. state and territory, and highlights the efforts of two states - California and Delaware - to provide state level distance learning programs.

Management Competencies and Sample Indicators for the Improvement of Adult Education Programs. Sherman, Weidler, Tibbetts, and Dobbins (February 2000). Pelavin Research Institute. Today's multifaceted educational challenges require program administrators to play many different roles in their organizations, including those of leader, manager, and educator. This resource identifies a set of recognized skills and knowledge areas possessed by effective program administrators.

Critical Literacy for Adult English Language Learners: ERIC Digest. Van Duzer and Florez (December 1999). National Clearinghouse for ESL Literacy Education. Everything that learners hear (e.g., news reports, public speakers, conversation) and read (e.g., newspapers, tabloids, Internet-based material) is not necessarily accurate nor unbiased. Critical literacy takes learners beyond the development of basic literacy skills such as decoding, predicting, and summarizing and asks them to become critical consumers of the information they receive. This digest examines what critical literacy means, why it is important to include in instruction for adults learning English as a second language (ESL), and how to do so.

Multiple Intelligences: Theory and Practice in Adult ESL: ERIC Digest. Christison and Kennedy (December 1999). National Clearinghouse for ESL Literacy Education. The theory of multiple intelligences (MI) maintains that all humans possess at least eight different intelligences that represent a variety of ways to learn and demonstrate understanding. This digest outlines the basic tenets of MI theory and describes how it has been applied to teaching English as a second language (ESL) to adults.

Refugees as English Language Learners: Issues and Concerns: ERIC Digest. Seufert (September 1999). National Clearinghouse for ESL Literacy Education. 78,000 to 90,000 refugees are resettled in the United States each year. This Q&A addresses some of the most commonly asked questions concerning these refugees' ethnic origins and the English language and culture orientation training they receive overseas, as well as program considerations for serving refugees.

Consumer Education for the Information Age: ERIC Practice Application Brief. Kerka (1999). ERIC Clearinghouse on Adult, Career, and Vocational Education. The Internet is increasing the potential for harm to users due to deception and misinformation. This Brief describes the new role consumer education has to play in helping people learn the skills they need to deal with these challenges of the information age. The author also presents teaching and learning strategies to prepare people to be critically literate cyber-consumers.

Health and Literacy: ERIC Practice Application Brief No. 7. Kerka (2000). ERIC Clearinghouse on Adult, Career, and Vocational Education. In the last decade, the links between health and literacy have received increasing attention, both as a topic for adult education and as the subject of research on the influence of literacy on health. This Brief identifies some forces behind this trend, explores the health-literacy connection, and describes practice for embedding health education and promotion into adult literacy programs.

Social Skills Issues: LINKAGES. Volume 2, Number 2. Academy for Educational Development (Summer 1995). National Adult Literacy and Learning Disabilities Center. This issue of LINKAGES (Linking Literacy and Learning Disabilities) focuses the impact of learning disabilities on an adult's social skills. By improving practitioners' understanding of social skills issues and instruction in social skill areas, it is hoped that adult educators and literacy providers can better meet the needs of these learners.

Adult General Education Curriculum Frameworks: Program, Courses, and Standards. Division of Workforce Development (July 200I). Tallahassee, FL: Florida Department of Education. Currently being piloted in Texas, these curriculum frameworks were developed for use by all institutions in the state of Florida that deliver adult education. Each standard is composed of two parts: a curriculum framework and the student performance standards for each intended outcome in the framework. The standards do not prescribe how instruction should be delivered. FREE hard copies available IN TEXAS ONLY. Also available online at http://www.firn.edu/doe/bin00079/ad/ad_frame.htm

Adult Education Curriculum Checklists. Division of Workforce Development (January 2001). Tallahassee, FL: Florida Department of Education. These checklists were developed as a tool to accompany Florida's Adult General Education Curriculum Frameworks. They break down the curriculum framework's general outcomes into more specific sub-skills, and can be used by teachers to track progress in individual students' portfolios. FREE hard copies available IN TEXAS ONLY. Also available online in PDF format at http://www.firn.edu/doe/workforce/adult_ck.htm