Literacy Links
Volume 9, No. 1, December 2004
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Workforce - Workplace Literacy
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Workforce/Workplace Literacy
Beyond the GED: Making Conscious Choices About the GED and Your Future:
Lesson Plans and Materials for the GED Classroom. Sandra Fass and Barbara
Garner. Cambridge, MA: National Center for the Study of Adult Learning and
Literacy, 2000. 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. The intent
is to prepare learners to make wise decisions about their work lives as
well as being better prepared to pass the GED.
Highlights of a GAO Forum: Workforce Challenges and Opportunities for the
21st Century: Changing Labor Force
Dynamics and the Role of Government Policies
Washington, DC: United
States General Accounting Office, 2004. Forum participants representing
government, business, unions, and other national experts debated the
extent of future labor shortages and agreed the US will soon face tight
labor markets in part because of projected demographic trends and the
need for higher skills in order to be competitive for higher-wage jobs.
This paper highlights key observations of participants on demographic
trends, job skills, and
potential solutions to address a tight labor market in a tight fiscal
environment. Free copies available to Texas educators ONLY—also
available online http://www.gao.gov/highlights/d04845sphigh.pdf.
Language Minorities and Their Educational and Labor Market Indicators -
Recent Trends: Statistical Analysis Report
Steven Klein, et al. Washington,
DC: National Center for Education Statistics, 2004. This report commissioned
by the U.S. Department of
Education examines trends in the characteristics of the U.S. language
minority population from 1979 through 1999. It examines changes in the
numbers and proportion of the language minority population compared to
the total U.S. population 5 to 24 years old and also discusses changes
in the
language minority population by language subgroups and English ability.
Free copies available to Texas educators ONLY.
Off to a Good Start: A Report on
High Road Workforce Investment Board Policies and Practices Washington,
DC: AFL-CIO Working for America Institute, 2004. Based on a survey
conducted with funding from the Rockefeller Foundation, this report
suggests that Workforce Investment Boards (WIBs) in a substantial number
of large metropolitan areas around the country have begun to use their
authority to set higher job and wage standards for their communities.
The findings should be useful to members of, and
staff to, WIBs as well as to other policy and program activists who are
looking for new ways to help the economy
work for working families. Free copies available to Texas educators ONLY—
also available online http://www.workingforamerica.org/documents/PDF/GoodStart.pdf.
Work and Barriers to Work Among Welfare Recipients in 2002 Sheila
R. Zedlewski. Washington, DC: Urban Institute, 2003. This paper summarizes
barriers to work among adult TANF recipients, based on the 2002 National
Survey of America’s Families (NSAF)
and comparing survey results with the 1999 NSAF. Education less than
high school is second only to very poor mental or physical health as
a barrier mentioned by respondents. Other barriers include having an
infant or
disabled child, three or more years
lapse since last employment, and lack
of English skills. Though respondents mentioning an educational barrier
have decreased by a few percentage points since 1999 (from 44.1% to 41.8%
of respondents), the number with limited English skills has almost doubled.
The Workforce Paradox for Adults with Limited Literacy and
English Language
Proficiency: A Report from the Field Diane Pinkey and Judy Hofer. Santa
Fe, NM: New Mexico Coalition for Literacy, 2003. This report documents
a qualitative study of One Stop Career Centers in New Mexico that analyzed
their effectiveness in serving adults with limited literacy and/or English
language skills. From the Executive Summary: “One Stop Career Centers
were developed to provide training and employment related services to
adults, youth, and dislocated workers. The study was designed to investigate
the extent to which a specific subset of One Stop clients, adults with
limited literacy and/or English speaking skills, received services. [Findings
suggest that the] population of need rarely gains access to job training
services [and is] unlikely to get a formal referral to ABE and literacy
programs.”
Workforce-related Publications from ERIC Clearinghouse on Adult, Career,
and Vocational Education – Columbus, Ohio
Career Education Models
Bettina Lankard Brown, 2003. This Trends and
Issues Alert reviews models of career education and the way those models
address the trends and issues involved in careers for the workplace
of the future.
Tacit Knowledge Susan Imel, 2003.
Tacit knowledge has been characterized as personal, difficult to articulate
fully, experience based, contextualized, job specific, held within,
both known and unknown to the holder, transferred through conversation
and narrative, and capable of becoming explicit knowledge and vice
versa. This Trends and Issues Alert examines perspectives about the
role of tacit knowledge in work and workplace learning.
Career Development of Diverse Populations Sandra Kerka, 2003. This
ERIC Digest examines some of the research and issues involved in multicultural
career development. Rather than trying to address all aspects of diversity,
the focus is on racial and ethnic minority populations.
Effectiveness of Short-Term Training for Self-Sufficiency Michael E.
Wonacott, 2003. This ERIC Digest reviews the literature on the outcomes
of short-term training programs for welfare recipients and the services
required to meet the self-sufficiency needs of welfare recipients participating
in short-term training.
Career Exploration by Adults Sandra Kerka, 2001. This ERIC Practice
Application Brief examines why and how adults explore potential careers
and how practitioners can support them in this process.
Job Searching in the 21st Century Sandra Kerka, 2001. How effective
is online job searching? Are traditional methods now a waste of time?
Like everything else in cyberspace, online job hunting is constantly
changing. This ERIC Myths and Realities publication investigates some
myths and realities of job searching in the 21st century.
Workforce-related Publications from National Center for ESL Literacy Education — Washington, DC. Issues in Improving Immigrant Workers’ English Language Skills
Miriam
Burt, December 2003. English language ability is related to higher wages
and more stable employment for immigrants to the U.S., yet little training
is currently offered to immigrants at the workplace. Research is needed
on the use of the native language in workplace instruction; on the efficacy
of short-term classes; and on creative ways of providing, monitoring,
and assessing English language instruction on the job.
English That Works: Preparing Adult English Language
Learners for Success
in the Workforce and Community
Brigitte Marshall, 2002. Increasingly in the United States, adult English as a second language (ESL) instructors teach language as a means to an end: to help prepare students for success in the workforce and their communities. In the process, they must balance the needs of different stakeholders: the learners, the employers, the community, and the funding agencies. This digest discusses efforts in adult ESL education to link language instruction to workforce and civic skills — skills needed for successful participation in the community. Family Literacy
The Evaluation Exchange: A Periodical on Emerging Strategies in Evaluating
Child and Family Services , Volume X Number 2 Harvard Family Research
Project. Cambridge, MA: Harvard Graduate School of Education, 2004. Early
childhood programs and evaluation are the focus of this issue of The
Evaluation Exchange. Articles chart the course of early childhood programming
and evaluation over nearly half a century. Contributing authors offer
a range of views on how best to communicate the importance of investing
in a child’s early years and how to improve early childhood programs
and policies. Several articles consider the explosion of sciencefrom
longitudinal studies of child outcomes
to a large-scale demonstration program that has helped forward our
understanding of how young children learn and grow. Finally, a number
of articles suggest that better information is needed to
close the persistent gap in achievement between children from low-income
families and those from middle-income homes.
Intergenerational Learning and Social Capital: ERIC Digest No. 244
Sandra Kerka. Columbus, OH: ERIC Clearinghouse on Adult, Career, and
Vocational Education, 2003. Knowledge has been transmitted from one generation
to another throughout history, often informally or incidentally. In the
last 40 years, more systematic and formal intergenerational programs
have arisen,
with growing recognition of their integral relationship to lifelong learning
and broader social purposes (Hanks and Icenogle 2001). Ideally, the generations
derive mutual benefits from participation and the learning is reciprocal.
Features of effective intergenerational learning have commonalities with
the characteristics of social capital. This ERIC Digest examines the
relationship between intergenerational learning and social capital and
describes research findings and promising programs illustrating how intergenerational
programs contribute to learning and the development of social capital.
Intergenerational Literacy Notebook
Karen Carr, Project Coordinator.
Denver, CO: Colorado Department of Education, 2004. This collection of
thematically based activities for adults and their children to complete
together was
designed for adult education, Even Start, and Migrant Even Start programs
in Colorado. A majority of the activities are designed for English language
learners and are life skills based. Science and social studies activities
primarily target the ABE/GED learner. Themes include: Community Services,
Consumer Economics, Employment, Health, Housing, Transportation, Science,
and Social Studies. Each thematic unit includes group activities as well
as some that require minimal teacher support and could be used as take-home
activities. Numerous reproducible elements are included. FREE copies
available to Texas educators ONLY. See online version at: http://www.cde.state.co.us/cdeadult/iglindex.htm.
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LITERACY LINKS is published quarterly by
The Texas Adult Literacy Clearinghouse,
a project housed in the Texas Center for the Advancement of Literacy & Learning
Texas A & M University, College Station, TX 77843-4477
The Texas Adult Literacy Clearinghouse,
a project housed in the Texas Center for the Advancement of Literacy & Learning
Texas A & M University, College Station, TX 77843-4477
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