Shining a Light on Virginia’s Adult Literacy Crisis

Virginia Issues and Answers (www.via.vt.edu), a public policy journal published by Virginia Tech, has just released its summer issue, focusing on literacy.

The feature story, Virginia’s Not-So-Hidden Secret: The Adult Literacy Crisis, was written by Resource Center staff members Victoire Gerkens Sanborn and Hillary Major. The article highlights national and state statistics which reveal that more than 2 million adults in Virginia struggle with basic or below basic literacy skills.

To download the article and find information you can share with your local legislators, community leaders, funders, potential funders, and colleagues, click here or go to:

http://www.via.vt.edu/summer08/feature2.pdf.

We encourage you to download the full article to distribute to your community leaders.

Overcoming the Crisis in Our Nation’s Workforce

DVD’s Available of the Report: Reach Higher America: Overcoming Crisis in the U.S. Workforce

The National Commission on Adult Literacy’s recently published report, Reach Higher, AMERICA: Overcoming Crisis in the U.S. Workforce, calls for a dramatically revamped service system with the capacity to effectively serve 20 million adults annually by the year 2020. It also calls for resetting the educational mission of this new system to demonstrated readiness for postsecondary education and job training.

The panel presentation and Q&A are now available in 5 short DVD segments from the Commission’s website: www.nationalcommissiononadultliteracy.org. Go to the Get Reports page and scroll to the bottom for the link. You will be able to view the segments on both PC and Mac platforms with current Flash or QuickTime players.

Note that the full DVD can also be purchased from CAAL for a nominal sum (contact bheitner@caalusa.org for instructions and cost).