Relation and interactions among reading fluency and competence for adult education learners.

Statistical analyses of data from an academically diverse sample of 276 adult basic and secondary education learners extends understanding of the relation of and interactions between oral reading fluency and reading competence indices. Significant interactions between total word rate and word error rate that differed in relation to two measures of reading competence suggest that adult literacy instructors should emphasize fluency instruction to a greater or lesser degree depending on whether the major goal of instruction is academic reading (e.g., being able to comprehend a textbook) or functional reading (e.g., being able to fill out a job application).

Dispositional factors affecting motivation during learning in adult basic and secondary education programs.

Research indicates that about a quarter of adult students separate from formal adult basic and secondary education (ABE/ASE) programs before completing one educational level. This retrospective study explores individual dispositional factors that affect motivation during learning, particularly students' goals, goal-directed thinking and action based on hope theory and attendance behaviors, and self-perceptions of competency based on affective domain attributions about external and internal obstacles to learning and employment, and demographic factors. Among 274 ABE/ASE students, those learners who made an education gain in 1 year significantly differed from those who did not in only a few dispositional or demographic variables; and by educational level they significantly differed in a wide variety of dispositional and demographic variables. These findings suggest researchable questions and programmatic considerations that may lead to future innovations that improve learner persistence.

Assessment and instruction of oral reading fluency among adults with low literacy.

We statistically examined 295 low-literacy adults' oral reading fluency measured by total word and word error rates with connected prose. Based on four fluency ability groupings in relation to standardized assessments of reading-related skills (e.g., phonemic awareness, word recognition, vocabulary, comprehension, and general ability) the results suggest that adults that read at comparable correct word rates vary significantly in the number of total words and word errors. These differences were independent of assessed general ability level. Total word and word error rates, thus, offer a picture of learner reading ability that can help instructors emphasize instruction in deficit reading components.

The Kansas Medicaid Buy-In: Factors influencing enrollment and health care utilization.

BACKGROUND: Medicaid Buy-Ins are optional programs states may implement to create work incentives for people with disabilities. These programs allow participants to increase earnings without losing Medicaid eligibility-potentially moving them out of poverty without risking loss of health care coverage. They also provide the opportunity for beneficiaries to offset some of their medical costs to the federal and state governments through premiums for coverage and increased taxes paid. State and federal policy makers and administrators have speculated about who might enroll, how they might use the benefits, and whether positive health outcomes for persons with disabilities would result. OBJECTIVE: We compared characteristics and health care utilization of 184 enrollees and 158 eligible nonenrollees in Kansas' Medicaid Buy-In. RESULTS: Enrollees were older and significantly more likely to have more than one disability, with mental illness being more prevalent than physical disabilities, and to have both higher Social Security and earned income. A majority of the sample was dually eligible for Medicare and Medicaid with Medicaid paying most costs. Home health service costs were the primary difference between enrollee and nonenrollee expenditures. CONCLUSIONS: Increased Medicaid Buy-In enrollment could prevent long-term dependence on federal disability benefits.

A path analysis of reading comprehension for adults with low literacy.

Adult literacy interventions often rely on models of reading validated with children or adult populations with a broad range of reading abilities. Such models do not fully satisfy the need for intervention research and development for adults with low literacy. Thus, the authors hypothesized that a model representing the relationship between reading component skills would be predictive of reading comprehension for an adult population with low literacy and beneficial to adult literacy researchers. Using data from 174 adults participating in adult basic education and secondary education programs, the authors performed a path analysis of component skills' contribution to reading comprehension. The findings are clear that existing reading models do not describe this population. The implications are discussed in terms of instructional and curricular interventions.

Reading profiles for adults with low-literacy: Cluster analysis with power and speeded measures.

The United States' National Institute for Literacy's (NIFL) review of adult literacy instruction research recommended adult education (AE) programs assess underlying reading abilities in order to plan appropriate instruction for low-literacy learners. This study developed adult reading ability groups using measures from power tests and speeded tests of phonemic decoding, word recognition, fluency, and comprehension. A multiple cluster analysis of these reading ability scores from 295 low-literacy AE participants yielded seven reading ability groups. These groups are described in terms of instructional needs relevant to an instructor's planning and activities.