Recruitment Issues and Strategies for Adults Who Are Not Currently Participating in Literacy and Adult Basic Education (ABE) Programs.
Adult basic education (ABE) and literacy programs have used many different strategies and tools to recruit new students. A small sampling of Tennessee ABE programs shows the more effective recruitment strategies are word-of-mouth referrals; newspaper advertisements and articles; fliers; brochures; posters, radio messages, and public service announcements; and outdoor signs and billboards. Other issues that influence recruitment of adult learners are motivation (including oblivious, uninvolved, resistant, focused, eclectic, and comprehensive motivations) ; relevance; age-related issues; and sources of referrals, especially from ABE program partners. The best method for recruiting adult learners that do not currently participate in ABE and literacy programs is probably a multiple strategy approach that uses several techniques simultaneously. Identifying a clear target market of adults whom one wishes to recruit is essential to prepare the proper materials for the recruitment process and to train individuals who are recruiters for the program. Studies, research, and practical experience make apparent that the most effective techniques tend to be those that use direct, face-to-face (personal) contacts with potential adult students and describe valuable program services that clearly meet the needs of the adult learner. (Contains 28 references.) (YLB) Reproductions supplied by EDRS are the best that can be made from the original document. Recruitment Issues and Strategies for Adults Who Are Not Currently Participating in Literacy and Adult Basic Education (ABE) Programs Aaron Kohring University of Tennessee U.S. DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION Office of Educational Research and Improvement EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES INFORMATION , X CENTER (ERIC) , This document has been reproduced as received from the person or organization originating it. 0 Minor changes have been made to improve reproduction quality. Points of view or opinions stated in this document do not necessarily represent official OERI position or policy. 2 PERMISSION TO REPRODUCE AND DISSEMINATE THIS MATERIAL HAS BEEN GRANTV BY / /(0 /115'V. TO THE EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES INFORMATION CENTER (ERIC) 1 PES 504 Instructors: Connie White Mary Ziegler May 10, 1999
Recruitment and Retention in Adult Basic Education: What Does the Research Say?.
I To identify practices that foster the progress of ABE students, a survey of the research and writings of practitioners and scholars of ABE was carried out under the auspices of the New York State Education Department through its Adult Beginning Reader Project. The survey, which culminated in a detailed report (Balmuth, 1987), focused on programs located in the United States, for English-speaking adults, aged 17 or older, who read below the 5th grade level. From the variety of instructional and administrative aspects of ABE addressed in the original report, two key aspects are here examined: recruitment and retention.
Some Effects of the 'Obvious Variable': Teacher's Race and Holding Power with Black Adult Students*
The empirical evidence that links racial/cultural similarity between teacher and student to educational outcomes is scanty. The present investigation found that black teachers of undereducated black adults were more successful in preventing dropouts and maintaining high attendance than were white teachers. Black teachers, however, placed much greater emphasis on such functional subject matter as consumer and health education. To test the hypothesis that teaching behavior was at least partly responsible for differences in holding power, an index of non-traditional subject emphasis was constructed and introduced into the analysis. Results indicated that teachers who scored high on the, index were more successful in holding black students. However, high scoring black teachers were more effective than high scoring whites. It is suggested that socio-cultural factors in the classroom environment, particularly relating to communication, underlie differential effectiveness.