Blog
Managing Development Timelines in Assessment Tool Design
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The ASAP initiative focuses on discovering and documenting assessment needs in adult education and workforce development and responding to those needs through the creation of online banks of literacy and numeracy tasks. These assessments are intended to serve adult learners, educators, employers, and researchers. Rather than functioning as a traditional academic study, ASAP is primarily a product development effort informed by a series of user experience (UX) studies. The development process has been grounded in extensive practitioner input, beginning with a…
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Researching Promise in the Midst of Heterogeneity and Mobility
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The Adult Numeracy in the Digital Era (ANDE) project set out to evaluate a technology-enhanced numeracy course across multiple sites in Pennsylvania. ANDE is a technology-enhanced, standards-aligned adult numeracy course and accompanying professional development package of supports for building classroom community, productive mindsets, and effective learning habits.
Blog
Leveraging Multiple Channels to Disseminate Assessment Tools
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The ASAP initiative is focused on identifying and responding to assessment needs in adult education and workforce development through the creation of online banks of literacy and numeracy tasks. Designed to support adult learners, educators, employers, and researchers, ASAP is primarily a product development effort informed by a series of user experience (UX) studies. These studies have involved adult education practitioners and learners across the United States, with needs assessment data collected in Alabama, Arkansas, Massachusetts, and New York.…
Event
AAACE 2026 Annual Conference
This centennial theme honors a century of transformative impact in adult education—celebrating the educators, learners, and communities whose commitment has strengthened the field through wars, crises, and social change. It recognizes the joy of lifelong learning, the resilience that sustains progress, and the purpose that drives adults to create better lives and stronger communities. By placing well-being and joy at the center, the theme affirms that adult education is not only about skill development, but also about human flourishing and collective renewal.
Event
Horizons Summit 2026
Horizons unites employers seeking workforce solutions, investors funding the future of work, government leaders shaping workforce policy, entrepreneurs reimagining education and training, education and workforce development providers delivering opportunity to those who need it most.
Event
2026 NCWE Annual Conference - Transforming the Landscape
The NCWE Annual Conference seeks to transform the community college and workforce education landscape. This is a practitioner-driven workforce education conference, the event features ideas that expand college and career pathways, strengthen employer and community partnerships, boost data-driven decision making, increase comprehensive supports and student-centered services, and harness emerging technologies and new credential and learning frameworks.
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New Website Offers Adult Learner Numeracy and Digital Literacy Course
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WestEd has released a news release highlighting the latest findings from the ANDE study and the launch of ANDE OER.
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Managing Cross-Contamination in Adult Education Research
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The Writing in Adult Secondary Education (W-ASE) Project has two aims: to design and evaluate a technology-supported curriculum for teaching adult learners how to write an argumentative essay using a word processor on a computer; and, to develop a concurrent professional development delivery model to help teachers use our curriculum. The curriculum includes 16 lessons to be taught twice a week over 2-3 months at adult education programs. It includes digital writing skills instruction, as well as a focus on argumentative essay writing skills, strategies, and…
Blog
Designing ANDE Through Iterative User-Center Development
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Adult Numeracy in the Digital Era (ANDE) is a technology-enhanced, standards-aligned numeracy course designed to meet the needs of adult learners and their instructors. The project was structured in four phases: development, feasibility testing, impact study, and dissemination, and aimed to produce a flexible, research-informed curriculum grounded in the College and Career Readiness Standards (CCRS Levels C and D). The intervention design combined instructional modules with professional development supports that emphasized classroom community, mathematics…
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Co-Designing Assessments Through Purposeful Partnerships
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The ASAP initiative was launched to address a persistent gap in adult education and workforce development: the lack of flexible, meaningful assessment tools that reflect the real skills adult learners use in educational, workplace, and everyday contexts. ASAP aims to discover and document assessment needs across adult education and workforce systems and to meet those needs by developing online banks of literacy and numeracy tasks. Rather than approaching this work as a traditional academic study, ASAP has functioned primarily as a product development effort…
