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Abstract:
A new IES snapshot, Adult Education Strategies: Identifying and Building Evidence of Effectiveness, summarizes a systematic review of existing, rigorous research on the effectiveness of categories of adult education strategies.
Nearly 43 million U.S. adults lack the basic English literacy skills required to succeed in the workforce and achieve economic self-sufficiency. The Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA) is the key federal investment helping adults acquire these and other important skills, as well as to earn a high school equivalency credential. WIOA encourages adult education programs to use evidence-based strategies to improve services and participant success. This systematic research review suggests a need for more rigorous studies, as there is not yet much evidence to guide decision making around instructional and support strategies for adult learners.
The appendices for the Adult Education Strategies: Identifying and Building Evidence of Effectiveness snapshot may be found here: https://ies.ed.gov/ncee/pubs/2021007/pdf/2021007a.pdf.
Benefits and Uses
This IES snapshot, Adult Education Strategies: Identifying and Building Evidence of Effectiveness, summarizes a systematic review of existing, rigorous research on the effectiveness of categories of adult education strategies. Key findings include –
- There has been little rigorous research on whether particular strategies in adult education improve learner outcomes.
- The rigorous research that has been conducted does not address the full set of outcome areas that federal policy emphasizes. Studies measuring basic skills such as literacy did not measure longer-term outcomes such as credential attainment and earnings. Studies that investigated longer-term outcomes did not measure basic skills.
- The available evidence provides limited support for the use of particular adult education strategies over others, although bridge classes and integrated education and training programs offer some promise.
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Publication Year
2021