The following message is posted on behalf of Tom Sticht. The National  
Conference on Family Literacy is scheduled for March 4-6, 2007 in  
Orlando, FL. Learn more by clicking on Events at NCFL's home page,  
www.famlit.org.


Colleagues: Plan ahead! Following is a summary of a presentation I  
will make
for the National Conference on Family Literacy, Orlando, Florida,  
March 4th,
2007. It continues my interest in moving from education policy based on
considerations of one life cycle (lifelong/lifewide education) to a
consideration of Multiple Life Cycles education policy. Find out more  
about
the NCFL conference at www.famlit.org Save the date and plan to be  
there!
Happy Holidays to all! Tom Sticht


November 24, 2006

Toward a Multiple Life Cycles Education Policy

Tom Sticht
International consultant in Adult Education

Policymakers sometimes opt to fund early childhood education to "stop
illiteracy at the source" at the expense of adult literacy education
funding. For groups seeking to advocate for adult literacy education  
I have
developed a presentation that focuses upon the intergenerational and
multiple returns to adult literacy education. In this one hour
presentation, which I will give at the 2007 annual conference of the
National Center for Family Literacy,  I will review with numerous  
graphics
nine lines of research that establish the value of adult literacy  
education
in improving the literacy of children and providing multiple returns to
investments in adult literacy education.

1. Debunking arguments for early childhood education and against adult
education based on the growth and development of the brain and its
relationship to IQ. Frequently funders, policymakers, and even some  
adult
educators  indicate that adult literacy education is too late and  
that we
need to focus our efforts on early childhood education while downplaying
our efforts on adult literacy education. Brain science (neuroscience) is
often cited to support this position. In this segment I indicate why  
this
is not a viable argument.

2. Debunking claims that poorly literate adults are genetically  
inferior  to
others and are unable to succeed in life. Here I cite statements in the
popular press arguing that adults with low literacy skills are likely  
to be
of low IQ and hence unable to achieve much benefit from investments  
in their
education. I present quantitative evidence to counter these types of  
claims.

3. Statistical Data: Thirty+ year trend data show that there has been  
little
or no
improvement in reading scores for 9, 13, and 17 year olds. The schools
continue to turn out tens of thousands of functionally illiterate young
adults each year. This suggests the need for a new approach to improving
children’s learning in K-12. This new  approach focuses upon the  
education
of undereducated adults to improve their  children’s school achievement.

4. Statistical Data: Parent’s education level and their children’s  
literacy
skills: Thirty year trend data, national, and international adult  
literacy
assessment  data show that as parent’s education level increases their
children’s literacy achievement increases.

5. Statistical Data: Parent’s Literacy Level and Their Children’s  
Literacy:
extensive research from the United Kingdom Institute of Education  
show that
as parent’s measured literacy goes up so does the literacy of their
children.

6. Parent Education and the Efficacy of Preschool Education: New  
research
evidence indicates that adult education is a key factor in the  
success of
preschool education and that arguments for expanding early childhood
education are to a large extent actually arguments for increasing
investments in early adulthood education.

7. Mechanisms for the Intergenerational Transfer of Literacy From  
Parents to
Their Children: Extensive data are presented on the transfer of  
motivation,
self-efficacy, language, and literacy from parents to children. The
oracy-to-literacy transfer effect provides one explicit mechanism for  
how
parents transfer literacy intergenerationally.

8. Evidence of the Intergenerational Transfer of Literacy in Adult  
Literacy
Education: Data from workplace literacy studies, family literacy  
studies,
and general literacy studies indicate that adult literacy education can
affect the literacy education of their children.

9. Evidence for Multiple Returns to Education in Adult Literacy  
Education.
Studies are reviewed showing effects of adult literacy education on  
health,
community activities, and productivity at work. Such studies indicate  
that
we can get  "double duty dollars" for investments in adult literacy
education.

In this presentation I make the best conceptual critiques I can and  
show the
"hardest" quantitative and qualitative data I have found bearing on  
these
lines of research to support the argument for moving towards a Multiple
Life Cycles education policy. Perhaps I will see some of you at this
presentation. I hope so!

Thomas G. Sticht
International Consultant in Adult Education
2062 Valley View Blvd.
El Cajon, CA 92019-2059
Tel/fax: (619) 444-9133
Email: tsticht at aznet.net







Gail J. Price
Multimedia Specialist
National Center for Family Literacy
325 West Main Street, Suite 300
Louisville, KY 40205

Phone: 502 584-1133, ext. 112
Fax: 502 584-0172


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