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The Division of Adult Education and Literacy (DAEL) promotes programs that help American adults get the basic skills they need to be productive workers, family members, and citizens. The major areas of support are Adult Basic Education, Adult Secondary Education, and English Language Acquisition. These programs emphasize basic skills such as reading, writing, math, English language competency, and problem-solving.

Adult education and literacy programs are funded through federal grants to the states. The amount each state receives is based on a formula established by Congress. States, in turn, distribute funds to local eligible entities to provide adult education and literacy services. Individuals and local providers cannot receive grant money directly from the Office of Vocational and Adult Education (OVAE).

The Division provides assistance to states to improve program quality and capacity.

Program Year 2004-05 Report to Congress on State Performance The Congressional Report is an annual report to Congress on the status of the state administered grant program authorized under the Adult Education and Family Literacy Act (AEFLA). It includes data on the performance of adult education nationally and by state under the National Reporting System (NRS). It also contains data on student characteristics. MS Word (2.5MB) | PDF (2.1MB)

The Department of Education, Office of Vocational and Adult Education (OVAE), has released ABE Career Connections MS Word (523KB) PDF (108KB). The Office of Vocational and Adult Education (OVAE) awarded $75,000 to each of five local ABE sites to enhance efforts to provide postsecondary education and support services that help adults become employed in occupational sectors important to local economies. OVAE will provide these bridge programs training, technical assistance, and access to national experts to plan, implement, and manage career pathways. Participants include: Blue Grass Community and Technical College in Lexington, Instituto del Progresso Latino in Chicago, Jewish Vocational Service in San Francisco, Madison Area Technical College in Madison (Wisconsin), and Montgomery County College in Wheaton (Maryland).

The Department of Education, Office of Vocational and Adult Education (OVAE), has released Support for State Implementation of Standards-Based Education MS Word (525KB) PDF (107KB)Standards in Action will produce new training materials to improve the capacity of adult education programs to use standards as guidelines for instructional practice and program improvement

The Department of Education, Office of Vocational and Adult Education (OVAE), has released the Adult Basic Education to Community College Transitions Symposium Proceedings Report PDF (2 MB). This publication recaps an OVAE-sponsored symposium held in Washington, D.C., on Sept. 14, 2006, that recognized the importance of adult learners and the needs they present as they pursue college and careers. Nationally recognized adult education experts shared their ideas about how to help adult learners transition successfully to postsecondary education and employment.

President Bush signed Executive Order 13445 on Sept. 27 to strengthen adult education in America. The order tasks Secretary Spellings with leading an Interagency Adult Education Working Group to coordinate a joint approach to addressing the education needs of adults. The working group will bring together all relevant federal agencies to strengthen existing programs aimed at improving adult participation in postsecondary education. "College access is not just about access for high school students," said Spellings, "it's about access for adult learners."

The Department of Education will launch a free, Web-based Portal to help immigrants learn English, and expand this model over time. Knowledge of English is the most important component of assimilation. An investment in tools to help new Americans learn English will be repaid many times over in the contributions these immigrants make to our political discourse.

Prisoners Have Lower Literacy Than Most Adults
Prisoners have lower prose, document and quantitative literacy skills than adults living in households, says Literacy Behind Bars: Results from the 2003 National Assessment of Adult Literacy (NAAL). This report, recently released by ED's Institute of Education Sciences, is the latest in a series of special reports based on the NAAL. Average literacy scores of prisoners in all three categories are higher than when measured in 1992. Be aware the study's design does not allow for establishing linkages between criminal behavior and low literacy.

New NAAL Report Ties Literacy, Jobs
The Department's National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) recently released its newest report based on the 2003 National Assessment of Adult Literacy (NAAL). Literacy in Everyday Life points to some strong relationships between literacy and jobs. For example, median weekly earnings increased with each level of literacy, and at each higher level of prose literacy, more adults were employed full time. Younger adults likely to comprise the new American workforce have lower literacy than adults in most other age groups. Roughly half of adults with below basic document or quantitative literacy said their job prospects were limited by lack of computer skills.

Assistant Secretary Troy R. Justesen announced that the adult education State grant program OVAE administers has been rated "effective"—the highest rating a federal program can achieve—by the Office of Management and Budget (OMB). Only three other ED programs have earned this rating. OMB uses a Program Assessment Rating Tool (PART) to look at factors reflecting program performance. OMB recently used PART to re-evaluate the adult education State grant program. The program moved from its 2002 rating of "results not demonstrated" to "effective" in 2007 because it significantly improved performance measurement and outcomes. Programs rated "effective" must set ambitious goals, achieve results, be managed well, and improve efficiency. OMB uses the ratings to help develop funding levels for the President's budget, and Congress uses them in analyzing programs' return on investment for funding levels each year.

National Conference for Adult Education State Directors Materials

The National Center for Education Statistics' Institute for Education Sciences in the Department of Education, released a special report titled The Health Literacy of America's Adults. This report is based on assessment tasks contained in the National Assessment of Adult Literacy (NAAL) that were designed specifically to measure the health literacy of America's adults. Health literacy was reported using four performance levels: Below Basic, Basic, Intermediate, and Proficient.

A First Look at the Literacy of American Adults in the 21st Century report provides results from the 2003 National Assessment of Adult Literacy (NAAL), a comprehensive look at English literacy in America's adults, and examines literacy skills by race/ethnicity, education background, age and gender, among other factors.

Adult Education and Literacy: Helping Adults Become Literate fact sheet PDF (46 KB)

The Office of Vocational and Adult Education assembled Adult Education and Family Literacy Act Program Facts. MS WORD (144 KB)

OVAE Fact Sheet Series on National Activities

Adult Education and Family Literacy Act
Program Year 2003-2004 Report To Congress on State Performance PDF (12M) | Word (7.2M) | Previous years

What's New in Workforce Investment? A new resource that provides local data on limited English proficient (LEP) populations. The Employment and Training Administration of the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) has released a special tabulation of 2000 Census data on LEP populations as a resource for One-Stop Career Centers and their education and job training partners. The data, which are disaggregated by state and for local workforce investment areas within each state, include the number of individuals who speak a language other than English at home, their native language, a self-reported measure of how well they speak English, their educational attainment, employment status, occupation, and income.

Frequently Asked Questions on Adult Basic Education State Grant Administration MS WORD (47 K).

Legislation that authorizes adult education and literacy programs

• The Department published final regulations (effective July 6, 2004) that implement Executive branch policy. Within the framework of constitutional church-state guidelines, religiously affiliated (or "faith-based") organizations should be able to compete on an equal footing with other organizations for funding by the U.S. Department of Education.

Topics in Adult Education and Literacy

• Adult Secondary Education
• Content Standards and Assessment
• English Literacy
• English Literacy and Civics Education
• Family Literacy
• Health Literacy in Adult Education
• Mathematics in Adult Education and Literacy
• People with Disabilities
• Professional Development
• Reading
• Technology and Distance Learning
• Transitions to Postsecondary Education
• Work-Based Education

Facts and Figures

• Facts at a Glance provides adult education and literacy statistics.

• The National Reporting System is the accountability system for federally funded adult education program. It includes student assessment measures, data collection methodologies, reporting forms, and program procedures.

• Profiles of the Adult Education Target Population: Information from the 2000 Census, Revised December 2005:
  Overview and National Profiles PDF (192 KB) | Regional Profiles of the Adult Education Target Population PDF (247 KB) | State Profiles of the Adult Education Target Population PDF (2,498 KB)

Related Links

• The Adult Education Related Links include relevant organizations and centers, useful resources, and journals or periodicals pertaining to adult education and literacy.

• November 2006 marked the 40th Anniversary of the enactment of the Adult Education Act.

• Education Resource Organizational Directory (EROD): State Directors of Adult Education.

• DAEL Staff Directory

• Budget information.

• OVAE News