1. Persistence Among Adult Education Students Panel (streaming video)
This panel discussion focuses on persistence in ABE, ESOL, and GED programs, and features a NCSALL study entitled, Supporting the Persistence of Adult Basic Education Students. This report examines student persistence in adult education programs. It presents a working definition of persistence, examines existing research, and describes NCSALL’s 3-phase study of factors that support and inhibit persistence.
2. A good overview/introduction to the topic: Persistence: Helping Adult Education Students Reach Their Goals by John Comings, through NCSALL:
http://www.ncsall.net
3. NCSALL-The National Center for the Study of Adult Learning and Literacy – additional research, reports and other citations on persistence can be found here and specifically on student persistence:
4. Adult Literacy Education Wiki – Learner Persistence
http://wiki.literacytent.org
5. Beyond the checklist: Using reflective practice to remove barriers in family and community literacy by Cheryl Brown and Wendell Dryden – while specifically examining an intergenerational literacy project, the article poses a number of considerations useful in thinking about learner persistence across learning spheres:
http://www.literacyjournal.ca
6. California Adult Learning Persistence Project
http://www.cde.ca.gov/sp/ae/ir/persistproject.asp
7. The Change Agent issue #25 on adults taking action to stay in school
(if you are new to the website, start here: http://www.nelrc.org to get a password).
http://www.nelrc.org
8. Distance learning for the adult learner: Improving persistence and effectiveness Bartlett, et al, California Department of Education, 2005
http://www.cdlponline.org
9. Learner Persistence in Adult Basic Education -
California Adult Education Research Digest, January, 2005
10. Managed Enrollment: An opportunity to reinvigorate the ABE experience – Alisa Povenmire, Massachusetts Coalition for Adult Education, 2006
http://www.mcae.net
11. National Adult Education Professional Development Consortium – learner persistence resources,http://www.naepdc.org/resource_library
12. Responding to people's lives, Yvon Appleby and David Barton 2008 -
One of a series of practitioner guides addressing teaching practice, often related to supporting persistence:
http://www.nrdc.org.uk
13. Stick with it! Motivating Skills for Life learners to persist, progress and achieve - UK based initiative focused on learner persistence http://www.stickwithit.org.uk/
14. Student Persistence in Adult ESOL Classroom (from Pearson Education; read critically)
http://www.pearsonlongman.com ( HTML Version)
15. Adult Learner Persistence - resources from the New England Literacy Resource Center's research into and learning about persistence http://www.nelrc.org/persist/
For more information about persistence efforts in Rhode Island, please contactjanet_isserlis@brown.edu