Assessment of Workplace Literacy. Asking New Questions. Project REACH / Carol D. Young.

This guide raises and discusses questions to guide workplace literacy. The historic context for this handbook is the progress of Project REACH from its inception in 1986 to the present. An introduction considers how an workplace literacy. An introduction considers how an organization's history affects program decisions. Chapter 1 looks at definitions of literacy, examines current approaches to assessment in education and training, and considers how assessment methods in organizations differ from those in school and the implications for practice. Chapter 2 outlines the steps to conducting an organizational assessment: decide if the approach is appropriate to the situation; get stakeholders on board and committed; conducting observations, interviews, focus groups, and document analysis; and reporting assessment results to stakeholders and developing a plan. Chapter 3 outlines the strongest themes that emerged from observations and interviews in the National Institute for Literacy Survey. It focuses on motivational factors: the joy, pride, anger, and disappointment of working from the employees' perspective. Literacy issues are then examined more directly: the centrality of language to the job, uses of print, importance of speaking up, incentives for further education, role of civil service testing, organizational barriers and incentives to learning, changing organizations and increasing literacy needs, and organizational learning disabilities. Chapter 4 considers how to use these findings. Appendixes include a 26-item annotated bibliography and project instruments. (YLB)

Practitioners. ericd

Microfiche. [Washington D.C.]: ERIC Clearinghouse microfiches : positive.