Family Literacy in Adult Education: The Federal and State Support Role. A Special Perspectives Paper

Family literacy programs are a unique component of the adult education system. They work by bringing parents with low literacy skills together with their children to learn and receive instruction, reaching a cohort of people who might not be served by other adult education programs. As parents see their children's learning increase, they are often motivated to improve their own. Over the past 20 years, the federal government and many of the states have put policies in place that include family literacy as an important part of the adult education system with the intent of increasing the availability of family literacy services. The examples given in this paper show how family literacy is being incorporated into adult education programming and make evident the importance of maintaining a strong family literacy commitment. This commitment is essential to ensure that local communities have the resources they need to reach more parents and their children. Without significant improvement in the skill level of both low literate adults and their children, the cycle of low educational achievement and poverty is not likely to be broken. (Contains 17 endnotes.) [This special perspectives paper on family literacy was developed by Tony Peyton of the National Center for Family Literacy for the August 20th meeting of the National Commission on Adult Literacy.]