Voice of Adult Learners United to Educate
VALUE is updating its research on adult learner involvement throughout the U.S.
If you would like to share information about adult learner involvement in your state or in your local program, please complete the 10-question survey. Some sample questions.
~ state conferences that include students as participants or planners
~ if you have a student group, how is it structured
~ what areas of leadership have students made achievements
~ is there funding for involvement outside the classroom
~ what positions do students hold in programs
The results of this research will be posted in the "In the States" section of the VALUE web site.
Monday, May 19, 2008
VALUE: Adult Learner Involvement Survey
Friday, May 9, 2008
National Library Legislative Day: May 13-14
Support your local library. Librarians and library supporters will rally in Washington D. C. to advocate for libraries. Urge your representatives to support libraries.
Can’t travel to Washington, DC ?
You can still participate in National Library Legislative Day by organizing Virtual Library support @ FOLUSA in your state by phone, fax, and email from May 12 and 16.
F Y I
8 million questions a week answered by Reference Librarians
$ 31.00: Annual expenditure by Americans for public libraries
~ about the cost of 1 hardcover book
Return On Investment (ROI)
~ Florida’s public libraries return $6.54 for every $1.00 invested
~ Estimate your ROI for every $1.00 in taxes you invest in your library
CLICK for more:
~ ROI
~ Economic Benefits of Libraries
~ Library Facts for Legislators
Tuesday, March 18, 2008
2 Million Minutes
Two Million MinutesThe documentary by Robert Compton compares and contrasts the education experiences of six students; two from each of the countries of India, China, and the United States.
Interview with Robert Compton on Q&A on CSPAN
Tough Choices or Tough Times: The Report of the New Commission on the Skills of the American Workforce by National Center on Education and the Economy - Wiley, John & Sons, 2008
~ shows how the dynamics of the global economy will lead to a steady decline in the American standard of living if this country does not undertake the first thorough overhaul of its education system in a century.
Last Good Job In America: Work and Education in the New Global Technoculture by Stanley Aronowitz - Rowman & Littlefield, 2008
~ one of the nation's leading critics of education, the world of work, and the labor movement shows how new technologies, labor, and education all are deeply intertwined in our culture and everyday lives
Higher Education in the World 2008 by Global University Network for Innovation - Palgrave Macmillan, 2008
~ annual report explores in depth the key issues facing Higher Education institutions in the 21st Century
Thursday, March 6, 2008
Library Services & Technology Act Funding
IMMEDIATE ACTION NEEDED
Contact Your Senator
To Support Federal Funding For America's Libraries!
2 Most Important Federal Programs for Libraries
~ Library Services and Technology Act (LSTA)
~ Improving Literacy Through School Libraries Program
NEED EVERY Senator to sign a "Dear Colleague" letter from Senators Jack Reed (D-RI) and Susan Collins (R-ME).
addressed to the Senate Labor, Health and Human Services and Education Appropriation Subcommittees
Support the request for $ 214.432 M – FY 2009. Programs that don't have a vocal support network are in danger of being cut.
The deadline for signing this letter is March 14.
View the "Dear Colleague" library letter @
Find Elected Officials: President, Congress, Governors, & more @
Tuesday, March 4, 2008
Illiteracy in America
Illiteracy in America
Click on Title for Video or Story:
~ Illiterate in America
~ A Michigan City’s Literacy Crisis
~ Literacy Programs at Work
~ Living in the Shadows: Monica Baxley
~ Living in the Shadows: Roger Vredenburg
~ Silent Epidemic: Illiteracy in America
~ News You Can Use: Literacy Resources for Adults and Children
~ Out of the Shadows, Overcoming Illiteracy
Learning to Read and Write in Colonial America
E. Jennifer Monaghan, University of Massachusetts Press 2007
Cora Wilson Stewart and Kentucky's Moonlight Schools: Fighting for Literacy in America
Yvonne Honeycutt Baldwin, University Press of Kentucky 2006
Lives on the Boundary: A Moving Account of the Struggles and Achievements of America's Educationally Underprepared
Mike Rose, Viking Penguin 2005
Monday, March 3, 2008
Read Across America Day: March 3
Read Across America Day
Celebrate Dr. Seuss' Birthday !
Dr. Seuss on the Web:
~ Seussville
~ Dr. Seuss National Memorial - Springfield, MA
~ Dr. Seuss Collection @ UCSD
~ Dr. Seuss parody page
& watch a prevue of Horton Hears a Who ! @
~ release date: March 14
with Jim Carrey as Horton
Steve Carell as The Mayor of Who-ville
Carol Burnett as Kangaroo
Thursday, February 28, 2008
The End of Literacy . . .
The End of Literacy . . .
articles, opinions and comments about literacy and reading habits that have appeared since Howard Gardner's column in the Washington Post (Feb 17 2008)
The End of Literacy? Don't Stop Reading. by Howard Gardner
Washington Post, February 17, 2008
What will happen to reading and writing in our time?
Could the doomsayers be right? Computers, they maintain, are destroying literacy.
The signs -- students' declining reading scores, the drop in leisure reading to just minutes a week, the fact that half the adult population reads no books in a year -- are all pointing to the day when a literate American culture becomes a distant memory. By contract, optimists foresee the Internet ushering in a new, vibrant participatory culture of words. Will they carry the day?
~ a reaction from:The National Children's Book and Literacy Alliance
~ issue of schools, school libraries and budget cuts {just a few}
Austin: Libraries short on money, books: Austin school librarians making do with old and moldy books, aging collections.
California: The Governor plans to cut $5 billion from education over the next 18 months because of the budget crisis. I suggest we accomplish some of this by dumping the High School Exit Exam - Stephen Krashen
South Carolina: Improving the K-12 system is not enough; the greatest oppurtunity lies within adult education.
~ the value of The Big Read or One City, One Book events
Jim Henley’s Los Angeles Times (2/25/08) column: Big Read or Big Waste?
Stephen Krashen’s comment: The Big Read is a bad solution that addresses the wrong problem
Five Minds for the Future
Harvard Business School Press 2007
~ outlines the specific cognitive abilities that will be sought and cultivated by leaders in the years ahead.
Howard Gardner Under Fire
Edited by Jeffrey Schaler, Open Court Press 2006
~ leading experts who disagree with Gardner on specific issues explain their reasons, with no holds barred, and Gardner replies cogently and pungently to each one of them.











