California Adult Literacy Professional Development Project

Research Brief No. 16 | CALPRO Evidence to Action, September 2022

This evidence-to-action brief reviews the relevant literature on implicit bias and provides examples from agencies in Los Angeles that are working to address equity. This brief also provides research-based examples of the influence of bias on both teacher expectations and student outcomes using both a historic and a contemporary lens. Although equity can be viewed from many areas, the focus of this brief is on racial and ethnic equity.

Volume 9, Issue 2, Winter 2020-2021 | Published by the Coalition on Adult Basic Education

California leads the nation in advancing equity and integration initiatives. Through the creation and dissemination of professional development specific to equity in California, adult educators are encouraged to work with state and local governments to advocate for policies, regulations, and laws that support immigrant and social justice initiatives. The California Department of Education (CDE) Adult Education Office (AEO), and its contractor, the American Institutes for Research (AIR), are proud to be a part of current efforts to seek a more just society. Their work in this area is highlighted by several significant efforts.

Integrated Education and Training (IET) is an innovative combination of education and job skills training, used to transition adult learners beyond adult basic education and through a career pathway that can offer them job training and eventual gainful employment. This document briefly outlines two research-based models, co-teaching and alternating teaching. Both models align with the California Department of Education's implementation of the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act, Title II: Adult Education and Family Literacy Act. The document also includes case studies of adult school programs in which the models have already been implemented as well as IET planning and implementation considerations.

This digest explores issues of culture and culturally relevant practice in adult education programs and suggests strategies for educators. It highlights studies that identify issues of cultural difference, and provides recommendations for making the practice of adult education more culturally relevant.

Authors: Anthony Burik, Mariann Fedele-McLeod, Debalina Ganguli, Martin D. Griffin, Hilary Iserman, Nicole Jordan, Stephanie Kriebel, Yecsenia Lorenzo, Courtney McMahon, Katie Callahan Neginskiy, Penny Pearson, Theresa Petersen, Kristi Reyes, Thoibi N. Rublaitus, Shannon Swain, Lila Young, Carolyn Zachry

This evidence to action brief presents recent research on distance learning in adult education and provides an important contemporaneous account of how California adult education rose to meet the challenge of continuing to serve adult learners during the pandemic. This brief captures a snapshot of the current state of practice and evidence, including identified challenges and corresponding best practices. Additionally, it looks towards the future as adult education continues to address the identified challenges of distance learning in innovative ways, as well as to harness the ample benefits and potential for students.

Authors: Susan Imel, The Ohio State University, and Erik Jacobson, CALPRO, May 2006

Electronic learning, also known as e–learning, is characterized by the use of electronic technology to support learning and deliver instruction. E-learning can take place in conventional classrooms where learners and teachers are present physically, but it is commonly thought of as a model in which teachers and students are separated by time and/or space. This brief reviews ways that e–learning is used in distance education and provides recommendations for programs interested in this approach.

Authors: MPR Associates, April 2011

This report builds on the recommendations made by the National Mathematics Advisory Panel (NMAP) in 2008 for improving mathematics education and learning among K–12 students and provides updates that reflect adults’ goals in seeking basic skills instruction. Designed to be a blueprint for future work by policymakers, administrators, and researchers in the field of adult education, these guidelines outline the mathematics content adults need to know, strategies for teaching adults this content, and the preparation of adult education instructors who teach mathematics.

Authors: Sandra Kerka, The Ohio State University, and Erik Jacobson, CALPRO, May 2006

This annotated bibliography highlights studies that focus on adult numeracy practice and pedagogy, including studies of specific classroom strategies.

Authors: John R. Kruidenier, Charles A. MacArthur, and Heide S. Wrigley, October 2010
Produced by Literacy Information and Communication System/National Institute for Literacy

This report is a follow–up to the original review of adult education reading instruction, Research–Based Principles for Adult Basic Education Reading Instruction [PDF] (2002). This new report presents findings from an analysis of reading instruction research base. It is designed as a resource for adult educators and reading researchers.

Author: Susan McShane, National Center for Family Literacy, 2005

This report offers teachers a basic understanding of research-based reading instruction and offers suggestions for starting to teach reading. The author intends for this information to make teachers interested in learning even more about how to teach reading.