[AAACE-NLA] Adult Literacy: What's Hot and What's Not

Thu Jul 3 23:45:50 EDT 2003

Tom Sticht posted a message that intimated something must have gone out of style with the literacy field.  He concluded his researched numbers of emails per specific NIFL listservs with:

<Of course, all this raises the question of just what do the NIFL lists
indicate about what the adult literacy field thinks is hot and what it
thinks is not.>

Really?  Or does it mean that many who hold subscriptions on all these different lists have less <time> now then they did in 1999?  Seeking new information is limited by time where <I> am and I would say with funding cuts there may be less staff in other providers' place of employment ... there <may> even be a totally different focus required when that staff is scrambling to find new money with less money and staffing to do it ... then there is staff burn-out ... <these> could have affected the amount of input, wouldn't you think rather than saying the topic is no longer "Hot"?

Tom also wrote:
<< One of the perennial issues that is supposed to be of interest to the
adult literacy field is assessment, but if postings to the NIFL lists 
is any indicator of interest in assessment, it ranks 11th out of 15t, 
hardly indicative of major interest in assessment.>>

Did Tom research all the different listservs where there were threads of multiple messages which <also> addrressed assessments ... for example - the NLA listserv??  I would say that his numbers might have included the huge number of emails all us NLA subscribers saw about assessments on the listserv!

You know something?  I think there <is> someone out there who has time.  Maybe even time on his hands.  He's hot we're not?

Thomas Sticht <tsticht at znet.com> wrote:
July 1, 2003

Adult Literacy: What's Hot and What's Not in 2003?
Tom Sticht

On June 30 we reached the half way mark of 2003, in terms of months. In
terms of days, June 30 marked the 181st day of the year. To find out what
topics in adult literacy education are in and which ones seem to be out, I
tallied the number of messages posted to the NIFL lists as of noon on June
30.

The falling 5 lists posted at least one message or more per day in 2003.
ESL 552 messages
AALPD 464
Family 234
Women 189
Health 181

The following 3 lists posted about 0.6 to 0.97 messages per day.
Technology 175
EFF 140
POVRAC 111

The forgoing 6 lists posted fewer than 0.5 messages a day.
Numeracy 80
Focus on Basics 78
Assessment 66
Library 52
Workplace 51
Learning Disability 38
Homelessness 8

The foregoing 7 lists include two which were at one time very active. In
1999 the Learning Disabilities list posted some 1161 messages, or about
6.4 messages per day. If the present rate of postings stays constant, the
LD list will post only 76 messages in 2003, a dramatic fall from 1999. Why
has LD dropped so much?

The Workplace list had 812 postings, over 2.2 per day, in 1996, but this
dropped to 667 in 2000, and then fell precipitously to 367 in 2001, to 219
in 2002, and this year if the present trend persists the Workplace list
will post only 102 messages. This seems out of place with the federal 
government's interest in the use of the federal adult basic education and
literacy program to improve employment.

Also of interest is the relatively low number of postings to the Focus on
Basics (FOB) list which is supposed to be the list for getting research
into practice. Given the interest in scientific, evidence-based approaches
to adult literacy education, it seems that the FOB list, which represents
the work of the National Center for the Study of Adult Learning and
Literacy, is dramatically underutilized.

One of the perennial issues that is supposed to be of interest to the
adult literacy field is assessment, but if postings to the NIFL lists is
any indicator of interest in assessment, it ranks 11th out of 15t, hardly
indicative of major interest in assessment.

If we assume that topics of major interest result in at least 1 message
per day, then only one-third ( 5 out of 15) of the NIFL lists appear to be
of major interest. This includes both the Technology and EFF lists which
represent areas in which federal funds have been and are continuing to be
invested to promote interest in these areas.

The ESL list continues to rack up high postings as it has for over 5
years. The new Association of Adult Literacy Professional Developers
(AALPD) has scored high postings in just 4 months. This is similar to what
happened to the Poverty and Race (POVRACLIT) list. When it started there
were 334 postings in just a little over 3 months in 2000 when it started
up. But the next year it dropped to only 358 postings and in 2002 to 309
postings. This suggests that some topics invite an initial spurt of people
posting messages and then a rapid decline in postings. If POVRACLIT
continues at the present trend, it will drop from 309 postings in 2002 to
222 in 2003. Does this indicate a drop in interest of issues of poverty
and race in the adult literacy education field?

If the NIFL lists are any indication, interest in the homeless continues a
multiple year reign of being practically nonexistent.

Of course, all this raises the question of just what do the NIFL lists
indicate about what the adult literacy field thinks is hot and what it
thinks is not.

tsticht at aznet.net

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