The CREATE Adult Skills Network is developing a research base about effective ways to use technology in adult learning. It develops, adopts, and evaluates interventions that use technology to build adult learners’ skills and improve their academic outcomes. The Network’s activities and resources guide practitioners, educators, researchers, and policy and funding stakeholders in their work using technology to support adult skills programming. Funded by the Institute of Education Sciences, the CREATE Adult Skills Network is a national coalition that supports evidence-based insights into technology-supported teaching and learning initiatives.
The Program for the International Assessment of Adult Competencies (PIAAC), also known as the Survey of Adult Skills, is a large-scale international study of key cognitive and workplace skills of adults. PIAAC data are collected from adults ages 16–74 in the United States and ages 16–65 in the other countries. It is designed to assess and compare adults’ skills in participating countries over a broad range of abilities, from reading simple passages to complex problem-solving skills, and to collect information on an individual's skill use and background. Cycle I of PIAAC collected data in 2012, 2014, and 2017.
For the second cycle of PIAAC, the OECD has updated PIAAC’s study instruments. The first round of the Cycle II data collection was completed in 2023, with 31 countries participating. The first round of the PIAAC Cycle II data collection in the United States occurred September 2022 through June 2023 with a nationally representative household sample of adults ages 16–74. The U.S. release of results is scheduled for December 2024.
About ILSA Gateway
The ILSA Gateway is an open-access platform that, for the first time, provides researchers a single entry point to major international large-scale assessments in education conducted by the following organizations: CONFEMEN (PASEC), the IDB (PRIDI), the IEA (ICCS, ICILS, PIRLS, TEDS-M, and TIMSS), IEA/UNESCO (REDS), the OECD (IELS, PIAAC, PISA, TALIS, and TALIS Starting Strong), SACMEQ (SACMEQ III, SACMEQ IV), SEAMEO/UNICEF (SEA-PLM), UNESCO (TERCE), and the World Bank (STEP).
For each study, users can navigate to a fact sheet that provides a quick overview; read more detailed information on the study framework, design, results, and data pages; and easily access the related resources on the external study websites. The platform also features a glossary, search tool, and paper database, of which the latter allows researchers to identify relevant articles published to date in peer-reviewed journals, including secondary analyses of the above-mentioned study data.
The website is available at https://ilsa-gateway.org/.
Download the ILSA Gateway brochure on:
https://ilsa-gateway.org/sites/default/files/ILSA_Gateway_Flyer.pdf
The Rapid Response, Innovation, and Challenges of Sustainability, in the Time of COVID-19: Reports from the Field
This 2022 publication (https://www.proliteracy.org/Portals/0/pdf/Programs/Programs/2022-07-COVIDRapidResponseReport2-2000.pdf?ver=2022-08-11-113334-560) includes information compiled by members of the E-BAES Taskforce and EdTech Center staff to describe how adult foundational education (AFE) responded to the pandemic. Findings inform the field and offer useful suggestions to AFE and literacy practitioners.
Calling all researchers: If you have a research idea that you would like to share with the ALAE SIG, please let us know. It might be an innovative proposal you are working on that would benefit other ALAE researchers, a conference you are planning, a workshop or webinar for researchers, or some other creative idea. Let us help you get the word out to fellow researchers. Please submit your ideas to the ALAE SIG chair (Dr. Elizabeth Tighe at etighe@gsu.edu).
From the Institute of Education Sciences:
Adult Education and Foundational Skills Grantee Spotlight: Dr. Daphne Greenberg's Advice for New Researchers