The primary purpose of this project is to produce a set of guidelines on how to deliver adult literacy and numeracy education and training using a social capital approach. Social capital in this project refers to the networks that operate during resourcing, course design, recruitment, teaching and evaluation. The study focused on three specific sectors...

Family background is known to have a substantial impact on students’ literacy and numeracy results. This raises questions about whether any of the remaining differences in results are due to school performance – or whether they are merely due to random noise. This article reviews research from the OECD’s Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA)...

Most children naturally develop verbal language skills by hearing others speak and by observing the communication process. However, the ability to read and write the printed text that represents spoken language – that is, to be literate (American Medical Association [AMA], 1999; Baker, 1999; Rowe & Rowe, 1999) – does not develop as a matter...

Large national surveys are able to provide literacy estimates for national and state levels. However, due to sample size constraints, it is not possible to produce estimates for smaller geographical areas using the sample data alone. The purpose of this paper is to derive experimental estimates of adult literacy for Local Government Areas from the...

For the past 60 years the Adult Migrant English Program has been the main vehicle for newcomers to Australia from non-English speaking backgrounds to learn English. Over this period the labour market needs and the profiles of new arrivals has changed significantly. This discussion paper is a part of a review of the delivery and...