Welcome to the Institute for the Study of Adult Literacy at The Pennsylvania State University. We are a proud part of the College of Education at Penn State. You may access the web pages of ISAL's initiatives as well as the staff contact page from the links provided below.

The Institute established the Workforce Education Research Center (WERC) to help adult education practitioners use Pennsylvania's Work-based Foundation Skills Framework to develop programs, curricula, alternative assessments, and select evidence-based instructional materials and resources appropriate for teaching pre-employed adults and incumbent workers interested in developing work-related basic skills. The Work-based Foundation Skills Framework includes basic workplace skills, basic employability skills, basic workplace knowledge, and lifelong learning skills. Various products based on this Framework have been developed and are available to Bureau of Adult Basic and Literacy Education (ABLE) agencies and partners.

The WERC is built on the Institute's long history of developing and evaluating workforce basic skills programs. Based on this experience, Institute staff also consults with agencies and organizations outside Pennsylvania that are interested in developing workforce education programs. In 2005, the Keystone Development Partnership funded the University's Office of Economic and Workforce Development to develop a white paper, summarizing current research and evidence-based practices in training incumbent workers. The Institute was hired to draft the report, Using Research and Effective Practice to Plan, Develop, Deliver, and Evaluate Work-Contextualized Foundation Skills Training for Incumbent Workers, included below.

Using Research and Effective Practice to Plan, Develop, Deliver, and Evaluate Work-Contextualized Foundation Skills Training for Incumbent Workers

The National Institute for Literacy's Literacy Information and Communication System (LINCS) focuses on providing access to the highest-quality information available on a wide variety of literacy topics, issues, and resources to support adult literacy practitioners. The Institute received a grant from the National Institute in 2006 to develop the new Workforce Competitiveness Collection, including externally reviewed, free, and on-line resources in the areas of workforce education, English Language Acquisition, and technology. Institute staff work in coordination with the other two Collections—Basic Skills (reading, writing, math and numeracy) and Program Planning (assessment, learning disabilities, program improvement), and with LINCS Regional Resource Centers and Electronic Discussion Lists. LINCS grantees are available to conduct informational and in-depth workshops and technical assistance. To provide State Directors of Adult Education with a summary of research and evidence-based practices in transitioning adults to the workplace, Institute staff recently developed a paper, Transitions to Work: Abstracts of Selected Research, Resources, and Promising Practices that Link Basic Skill Development and Lifelong Learning to Increased Earning Potential and Career Growth, available below in PDF.

Transitions to Work: Abstracts of Selected Research, Resources, and Promising Practices that Link Basic Skill Development and Lifelong Learning to Increased Earning Potential and Career Growth

Family Literacy programs address the literacy needs of all members of the family while promoting parents' involvement in their children's education as their children's first teachers and most powerful influence on their academic success. These programs improve educational opportunities of eligible families by integrating early childhood education and adult education in a unified program. They also strive to build on existing community resources, implementing and maintaining local educational partnerships for family learning. Institute staff has supported Pennsylvania Family Literacy programs since 1989, when the first federally funded William F. Goodling Even Start Family Literacy Program was funded in Reading, PA. As the number of Even Start programs increased, Institute staff continued to provide assistance in program development and local evaluation. Family literacy programs expanded further in 1998 when state funds were allocated the Commonwealth's Adult and Family Literacy Education Act (Act 143). Since then, Institute staff has conducted an annual evaluation of all of Pennsylvania's family literacy programs and was instrumental in drafting family literacy indicators of program quality and performance standards. In addition, staff continues to support the Bureau of Adult Basic and Literacy Education (ABLE), coordinating the Pennsylvania Family Literacy Consortium an assisting with the effective use of practitioner action research as a part of family literacy program improvement.

America Reads at Penn State is a project that started due to the America Reads Challenge, a national campaign calling on all Americans - including businesses, education institutions, citizens, families, and college students - to help every child learn to read well. Since its inception in 1997, the America Reads Program at Penn State has hired, trained, and placed thousands of Penn State students to provide educational support to hundreds of thousands of Pennsylvania's children throughout the Commonwealth.

The Pennsylvania Literacy Corps establishes collaborative partnerships between higher education institutions and providers of adult basic and literacy education for the purpose of engaging college students in local efforts to help overcome the illiteracy problem in the Commonwealth - there are four million adults in Pennsylvania who are in need of help to improve their basic skills.

Two publications that support the work of the Pennsylvania Literacy Corps are available from Dr. Sheila Sherow (2006). Click on the titles below to access these resources:

PA Literacy Corps
Theory to Practice: Adult Teaching & Learning Strategies For Tutors

PA Literacy Corps
Applying Research to Practice: Teaching & Learning Strategies
Second Language Acquisition & English as a Second Language