An Annotated Bibliography of Recent Articles and Resources on ABE prepared for the ABE Summer Institute, 2006.

Jenna Field and Grant Meyer
Concordia University- Saint Paul Minnesota
Bachelor in Business Administration Majors

"Why Invest in Literacy and Non Formal Education?" The World Bank Group. 2001. 06
                June 2006 <www1.theworldbank.org>.

Summary/Main Points of Article:
The direct impacts of adult education and literacy can be easily observed. These are:

• Improvement of participants' communication skills, both oral and written
• Improvement of participants' mathematical skills

The indirect impacts of such programs are not as easily observable but are equally as important.  An educated adult is:

• Better informed on health-related issues, thus contributing to disease prevention and better family health
• Empowered, especially women and girls
• More productive, thus leading to higher income levels and improved quality of life
• Aware of the power of education, thus leading to increased participation in children's education
• More active in the community and society

 "Confintea Adult Education:The Hamburg Declaration: the Agenda for the Future."
Unesco. 1997. 06 June 2006 <www.unesco.com/education>.

Adult learning encompasses both formal and continuing education, non-formal learning and the spectrum of informal and incidental learning available in a multicultural learning society, where theory- and practice-based approaches are recognized.

*This is a declaration (The Hamburg Declaration: The Agenda for the Future.) that feels that adult education is the key to the future.  They feel that educating of adults will help democracy and promote peace, preserve oral history, promote the prevention of disease, transform the economy, grant access to information to everyone, and contribute to society.  They also declare their agenda for the future and the ways they will continue to improve adult literacy. 

"Confintea: Economics of Adult Education." Unesco. 1997. 06 June 2006   
                <www.unesco.org/education>.

There are many different ways adult education plays out in society according to the article; remedial or palliative second-chance education, popular community education, and vocational or professional education. Each type of education may have some costs; however those costs will be repaid with interest on the initial investment. Along with the different variations on adult education, each country may have its own laws concerning the matter. However, the results show a strong positive relationship between adult education and the improvement of the individual, firms, and society as a whole. From educating welfare participants to inmates, training people on the job, or simply community education is shaping the society in all aspects towards a better future. Some of the benefits listed are many health benefits, such as communicating health issues, disease prevention, and violence prevention, and also inter-generational benefits.  It is shown that parents who are educated become more educated.  In addition, increased employment is a benefit along with demographic behaviors.  It is easy to measure the costs of adult education, but it is not so easy to measure the benefits. 

Hollenbeck, Kevin, and Jean Kimmel. The Returns to Education and Basic Skills
Training. Diss. W.E. Upjohn Institute for Employment Research, 2001. 06 June
2006<www.upjohninstitute.org/publications>.

"Demographics." National Assessment of Adult Literacy. 2003. 06 June 2006
        <http://nces.ed.gov/NAAL/index>.

Percent of families with parents with no high school degree who are low income 69%
Percent of families with parents with only a high school degree who are low income 44%
Percent of adults with no high school degree 9%
Percent of low-income families with potential need for full-time child care 53%
Percent of low-income families with potential need for part-time child care 34%
Percent of workers earning poverty-level wages 17%

Low wage families are living on the verge of destruction.  They have to deal with low wages, few employer-provided benefits, few advancement routes, costs are increasing, minimal savings and increased debt.  Any one problem could push them over the edge into a financial catastrophe. 

Children are significantly impacted by their parent’s low wages.  It is found that children need to be able to depend on the financial security of their parents in order to live a stable life.  Some of the way low income parents can harm their children is by hampering their learning ability which could cause social, behavioral, and emotional problems.  It is found that raising a parent’s income positively affects children, especially elementary aged children.

Low income workers do not only need to obtain monetary assets but also human and social capital assets, which include employment experience, education, and social and professional network.  The more of these things they obtain, the greater their earnings will be which will in turn  better their families.  Access to work supports is especially important for immigrants.
Helpful policies are ones that keep workers and their children healthier, such as public health insurance.  Other policies, such as earned income tax credits, and minimum wage increase income.  Also, policies that help save up assets help families.
Both sets of state profiles are organized by a common framework that emphasizes what low-wage workers need to be economically secure:

• Education and Work Preparation
• Work Attachment and Advancement
• Income Adequacy
• Asset Development and Protection

In 2000, about 33% of Minnesota workers were referred to as low-wage workers, earning under $10 an hour.  Different industries have different number of low-wage workers.  The retail industry has the highest percentage of low wage workers, with about 65% of workers earning under $10 an hour.  The next industry was the agriculture industry with about 52% of earnings under $10 an hour followed by the services industry with about 30% of earnings under $10.  In addition to the industry of a worker, the area they reside in has an impact on how much a worker earns. In Northwest Minnesota 46 % of workers were low wage. In Southwest Minnesota 44% of workers earned under $10 an hour.  Job tenure also has a significant impact on earnings.  Those who were with an employer all four quarters of the year showed significant labor force attachment.  The 30% of Minnesotans that were only employed one and three quarters of the year exhibit weaker labor force attachment.  Workers with weak labor force attachment are very likely to earn more than their counterparts.  A full 61 percent of workers who were employed during only one quarter of 2000 earned under $10 per hour. On the other hand, of Minnesotans who worked all four quarters of 2000, only 21 percent earned under $10 per hour.  So, the amount of time a worker has been employed at their job, the area of Minnesota in which they are employed and the industry they work in all impact earnings.

This article wanted to figure out if there was a relationship (direct or indirect) between human capital and productivity.  They found that there is a big relationship between human capital and productivity in multiple areas.  The study found that businesses with more workers above the median human capital level are more productive.  They also found that firms with the highest productivity are those that have a high number of workers in the top quartile of the person effect distribution and less workers in the lowest quartile of the experience effect. These findings clearly suggest that the organization and mix of the work force matter substantially. A company should look to hire more workers whose skills are more in the top quartile and only a few of the workers in the lower quartile to be as productive as they possibly can. This is troubling news for the workers in the low quartile because they will not have as many job opportunities available to them as if they were a higher skilled worker.

Ganzglass, Evelyn. "Strategies for Increasing Participation in TANF Education." Center for Law
                and Public Policy. 17 Apr. 2006. 07 June 2006
                <http://www.clasp.org/publications/tanf_ed_training.pdf>.

This article gives reasons why more people, especially people who are one welfare or receiving TANF aide, should participate in education and training programs.  One benefit is that higher levels of education generally are associated with higher earnings and a decrease in the rate of unemployment  Between1973 and 2003, the real wages of workers with less than a high school diploma declined by 20 percent while real wages of those with a college education increased by 18 percent. In 2001, adults with a high school diploma earned on average 25 percent more and had an unemployment rate 1/3 lower than those who did not earn a high school degree.  Many welfare recipients lack the education needed to successfully participate in the workforce and support a family, and about half of the recipients have a learning disability.  It is important for these people to receive an education.  When these recipients are involved with an employer, it helps them to gain access to entry-level jobs, internships, and the ability to network in the labor market in their area.  Research finds the most effective programs are closely tied to employers and target training for jobs with relatively high earnings, employment growth, and opportunities for advancement.  The most successful programs were the ones that not only provided education, but also work opportunities and other job skills, such as training. The NEWWS evaluation found that both work first and education-focused programs increased single parents’ employment and earnings, and decreased their welfare receipt and payments, but the education-focused programs cost more and had smaller effects than the job search-focused programs.  The program was even more successful if it was tailored to the individual or group of individual’s specific barriers of entry into the workforce.  Postsecondary education leads to greater employment and earnings gains. 

"Low Wage Work." U.S. Census Bureau. Nov. 2005. 08 June 2006
                <http://lehd.dsd.census.gov/led/research/lwwresearch.html>.

There are multiple ways low income earners can do to try to increase their earnings.  They can change jobs to be able to earn more, they can try to gain employment at a higher-wage form.  They can start to work at “temp” agencies, and they can move to urban counties.  Usually, the higher paying firms are located in urban areas, although occasionally some may be located in rural areas. 

Berube, Alan. "The "State" of Low-Wage Workers: How the EITC Benefits Urban and Rural
                 Communities in the 50 States." The Brookings Institute. Feb. 2004. 08 June 2006
                <http://www.brookings.edu/es/urban/publications>.

The IRS provides details about the recipients of the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC).  They found that families who were most likely to receive an EITC were those who lived in large cities, however families living in rural areas still received credits from  the EITC.  They also found that people in the South were more likely to receive and EITC and low incomes than in any part of the country.  In the West, EITC recipients were dispersed throughout rural and urban areas, while in the Northeast and Midwest they were more concentrated in urban areas.  Between 2000 and 2002 the states with the biggest increase in the number of EITC recipients were in the Midwest.  This is true for Minnesota.  The majority of areas that received the most EITC were in the metropolitan area of the Twin Cities, along with some in the St. Cloud and Rochester Areas.  The rural parts of Minnesota only had sporadic high numbers of recipients, especially in Northern Minnesota.

Holzer, Harry J. "Encouraging Job Advancement Amoung Low Wage-Workers: a New Approach."
                The Brookings Institution. May 2004. 07 June 2006
                <http://www.brookings.edu/es/wrb/publications/pb/pb30.pdf>.

This article focuses on the fact that job mobilarity is very important.  Researchers find that those low wage workers who switch jobs earn more money than if they would’ve stayed with their past employer.  They also found that job mobiliarity can be introduced through being employed at a place other than solely a low-income paying job.  It can increase wages if the person is listed with a temp company that does not place in low paying jobs, but places in intermediate to high paying jobs.  Another factor that helps contribute to greater earnings is being employed at a place that has the ability to move up into higher paying positions.  Another way to increase earnings is to not select the first job that is offered, but selectively choosing the one that is the best.  A job that also offers on the job training and has mobiliarity to move up to higher positions is a great option too.  Lastly, just finding a job at a high wage company will help increase wages, and is really the best option. 

"Characteristics of Minimum Wage Workers: 2002." U.S. Department of Labor. 8 Aug. 2003. 08
                June 2006 <http://www.bls.gov/cps/minwage2002.htm>.

Minimum wage workers tend to be either teenagers or under the age of 25.  Women are ? as likely to be paid under the minimum wage level than men.  For whites, blacks, and hispanics, 3 % of them were earning $5.15 and under.  For hispanics and whites, women were more likely to be paid less than men.  Single workers tend to be paid less than those who are married.  Part time workers are also likely to be paid less.  Retail sales, agriculture and service industries were the industries with the most likelihood to be paid less than the minimum wage. 

Schochet, Peter and Anu Rangarjan. "Characteristics of Low-Wage Workers and Their Labor
                Market Experiences:." U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. 30 Apr. 2004. 08
                June 2006 <http://aspe.hhs.gov/hsp/low-wage-workers04/index.htm>.

The definition of a low-wage worker in this article, is to use the hourly wage at which a full-time worker would have annual earnings below poverty for a family of four.  A worker is classified as “low wage” if they worker’s wage rates was less than the cutoff level in the calendar year when the wage rate was reported.  Medium-wage workers are defined with wages between 1 and 2 times the low-wage cutoff and high-wage workers as those with wages more than twice the low-wage cutoff value. It was found that ? - 1/3 of all workers in the late 90’s and early 2000s were in low wage jobs.  In 2001 it was estimated that 25%  were in low wage jobs and in 1998, 32%.  Bernstein and Hartmann find that the workers earning poverty-level wages increased slightly over time, from 24% in 1973 to 27% in 1987 and 29% in 1997.  This was due to an upward job attainment for males but not for females. 

For men, the three most common types are those that are one, young (under 40), single, and educated(55% attended college) which had 39% of the total male population.  The second type was older (30 or older), middle-income, low-education (23% attended college), and white (90%) which had 36% of the male population, and the last type was. minority (95%), married, low-income, low-education(38% HS dropouts) had 25% of the total male population..

For women, the three most common types are those that are: those that are married (80%), attended college (50%) and nearly all were white.  Many of these workers are secondary workers who have low-wage and part time jobs to supplement to their family. This had 56% of the total female population.  The second type was older, middle income, married with children, and average education levels.  They were 27% of the female population. The 3rd time was single parent (75%) and received public assistance (16%).  However, these are not characterized by their age or race/ethnicity.  17% of female workers were identified in this cluster.
Low wage workers also frequently moved in and out of jobs in the low-wage labor market, often holding multiple jobs at a time, and during this time, low-wage job spells were usually under a year.  It was also found that low-wage workers exited their low-wage jobs directly into higher-wage jobs.  Although some exited into lower paying jobs or unemployment.  However, many people who left the low-wage market returned eventually.  Even though most of the low-wage population remains in low-wage jobs, there is a segment that has upward mobility in the future, so there is probability that some will obtain high-wage jobs and no longer be in low-wage struggle.

Fairlie, Robert. "Self-Employment as a Route to Economic Mobility Among Less-Educated Youth."
                Joint Center for Poverty Research 3 (2001). 08 June 2006
                <http://www.jcpr.org/policybriefs/vol3_num2.html>.

Many minorities and immigrants turn to self-employment as a way to earn a living.  This study compared the salaries of people who are self employed versus those who are salaried.  They found that even though some self-employed people might experience a slow start, and may have some years where they make considerably less than they invested, that overall they still earn more than their salaried counterparts.  Salaried workers earnings grow more quickly until about age 30.  By age 36, annual earnings for self-employed men is $771 higher than that of salaried men and for self-employed women, earnings are $1,157 higher than that of salaried women.  Self- employed women see earnings growth of $1,505 per year higher than the growth among self-employed men.  Women earn about $3,000 more if they are self-employed than if they are salaried.  Self employed men’s salaries grow by $1,080 per year compared to $309 for salaried men workers.  These results show that on average, it is more beneficial to people to be self-employed than salaried.

Lochner, Lance, and Enrico Moretti. "The Social Savings From Reducing Crime Through
                Education." Joint Center for Poverty Research 4 (2000). 08 June 2008
                <http://www.jcpr.org/policybriefs/vol4_num5.html>.

Researchers find that on average, one addition year of schooling decreases the probability of incarceration for white men by .1 percentage points and for black men by .37 percentage points.  This is true for all types of crimes, and just one year of school could save the nation $1.4 billion in costs relating to crimes.  A one year increase reduces arrest by 11%, lowers the murder and assault rates by 30%, motor vehicle theft by 20%, arson by 13% and burglary and larceny by about 6%.  In total, nearly 100,000 crimes would be prevented.  However, an increase in education increased rap and robbery.  Many people propose hiring more police officers as a way to prevent crime.  The hiring of one single police officer costs about $80,000 but reduces the cost of crimes by $200,000.  It costs about $600,000 to educate 100 students.  Although increasing police forces can be a cost-effective solution, increasing high school graduation rates offers increasing benefits such as crime reduction and productivity to society.

"Is It Time for the Adult Education System to Change Its Goal From High School Equivalency to
                College Readiness?" National Center for the Study of Adult Learning and Literacy. 2005. 08
                June 2006 <http://www.ncsall.net/index.php?id=647>.

With changes in technology, global competition, and the labor markets, there is increased demand for workers who have the skills and knowledge attained through postsecondary education.  A high school diploma, or GED, in this day, will not be enough schooling for a person who needs to support a family and stay above the poverty line.  However, it is difficult for people with GED’s to attend college, not because they are not smart, but because their adult education programs have not prepared them enough to succeed in college.  GED graduates grades are lower their first few years compared to high school entree’s, however, over time they usually rise to levels comparable with high school graduates.  Adult education programs need to adopt the goal of helping more GED graduates enroll and succeed in college.  Ways adult education programs can help students prepare for college is to bridge together GED programs and post secondary programs which will help with the teaching curriculum, and also to work together and become more familiar with each other’s programs.  Doing these things would make a huge impact economically for the graduates.  There is about a $6,000 difference in pay a year between a GED or high school graduate and someone with a two year degree, and about $20,000 difference between a GED or high school graduate and someone with a four year degree.  Getting adult education students ready for college will not only help the individuals, but it will also help our country be more economically productive. 

Murnane, Richard J., John B. Willett, and John H. Tyler. "Who Benefits From Obtaining a GED." National Center for the Study of                  Adult Learning and Literacy. Jan. 2002. 08 June 2006 <http://www.ncsall.net/?id=658>.

At age 27, males who obtained a GED do not earn as much as similar high school graduates.  Some of this may be because males who graduated high school are more likely to complete post-secondary education, which in turn leads to higher earnings.  The exception to this is males who graduated high school with basic math skills in the lowest percentile do not earn more than GED recipients.
For dropouts, those who dropped out with low cognitive skills earned far less than those who dropped out of school who had higher cognitive skills. The GED for males who left school with low cognitive skills helps them to earn the same amount as those who dropped out with high cognitive skills.  It can increase their earning potential by 15%.

For males who dropped out of school with high cognitive skills, obtaining a GED does not increase their earnings above the national average for 27 year olds.  However, for the males who dropped out of school with high cognitive skills, obtaining a GED in order to get into post secondary education will greatly impact the individual and also society.  However, only 11% of male GED recipients completed one year of college by age 27.   Overall, the GED improves access to jobs and allows high school dropouts to acquire necessary work experience. 

Tyler, John H., Richard J. Murnane, and John B. Willett. "Estimating the Labor Market Signaling Value of the GED." National Cetner for the Study of Adult Learning and Literacy. June 2000. 08 June 2006 <http://www.ncsall.net/?id=667>.
Many other studies of the economic effects of males obtaining GED’s are likely to suffer from selection bias.  In addition, most of these candidates based their decision to obtain a GED from unobservable traits (such as high levels of motivation) that are correlated with labor market outcomes, so estimates of the impact of the GED using these methods will be biased.
The nature of the study in the article uses a treatment and comparison group with both observable and unobservable traits.  It also acknowledges the fact that there are different GED status and states have different regulations and standards pertaining to GED. They also used a “difference-in-differences” estimator to estimate the way a GED impacts the earning of 21-26 year old males. Using these different methods of obtaining information about males 16-21 all throughout the United States and processing the information, these authors found positive results.   The results were that for low-skilled white high school dropouts the obtainment of a GED helps them immensely.  It increases their earnings by 15-19% or about $1,500 per year.  This shows that government support of programs that help dropouts to obtain skills to pass the GED have positive payoffs.  However, there is no evidence for nonwhite males that obtaining a GED has any economic affects.  In addition, just because white male obtains a GED it does not mean they are automatically above the poverty level.  Once they obtain their GED they need to continue to work and obtain skills that will help them economically in their future. 

Sum, Andrew, Irwin Kirsch, Kentaro Yamamoto. "A Human Capital Concern: the Literacy
                Proficiency of U.S. Immigrants." Education Testing Service. 2004. 08 June 2006
                < http://www.ets.org/Media/Research/pdf/PICHUMAN.pdf>.

Immigrants to the United States age 16-65 on every literacy and quantitative scale on the Basic Adult Literacy test, scored very low and feel below the average for all US adults.  Even though the proficiency scores for the immigrant population were very below those of native-born speakers, the immigrants proficiency increased with their years of formal schooling, the number of years since they first started learning English, and the length of their stay in the United States.  Immigrants without a high school diploma had a mean score on the literacy tests in the 5th percentile, compared with 15th percentile for h.s. graduates and 41st percentile for a bachelor’s degree or higher.  Immigrants with higher proficiency were more likely to be employed.  For immigrants with the level 1 score the employment rate was 59% and those with a level 4-5 had a 95% employment rate.  The higher an immigrant’s proficiency level, the more likely they were to be employed and work 40 or more weeks a year.  Immigrants who are employed with higher literacy proficiencies are also more likely to be employed in professional settings or those that required higher literacy and schooling.  In addition, the level 4 or 5 proficiency earnings were three or more times higher than those with level 1 proficiency.  The lower the literacy proficiency, the more likely a person is to be a member of a poor/near poor family that depends on outside support.  48% of level 1 proficiency were members of poor/near poor families.

Sum, Andrew, Irwin Kirsch, and Kentaro Yamamoto. "Pathways to Labor Market Success: the
                Literacy Proficiency of U.S. Adults." Education Testing Services. 2004. 09 June 2006
                <http://www.ets.org/Media/Research/pdf/PICADULTLIT.pdf>.

Adults with higher literacy proficiencies are more likely to be employed in the labor marker.  The unemployment rate for U.S. adults ranged from 2.4% for those with the highest level of proficiency, to over 10% for those people in the lowest rate of proficiency.  About 60% of the people in the lowest proficiency rate were employed while 88% of the people in the highest category were. A strengthening of the literacy proficiencies of U.S. adults, including immigrants, would boost the size of the resident labor
force and facilitate growth in future employment and productivity, thereby raising the economic growth potential of the nation.  It was found that the United States has the highest inequality in literacy skills of most of the high- income countries of the world.  Because of this inequality in literacy skills in the labor force, this causes workers at the top of the labor force with the highest proficiencies to be paid more than the workers at the bottom of the labor force with the lowest proficiencies.  This causes income disparities.  This study found that the level of proficiency did not seem to strongly correlate with the number of weeks the worker worked throughout the year.  91% of workers with the highest proficiencies were employed full-time while 80% of workers with lower proficiencies were employed full time.  This study found there was huge disparity between the high proficiencies and low proficiencies in the type of job worked.  They found workers in professional, management, and technical industries had high literacy proficiency while people in the craft, labor, farming industries had lower literacy proficiency.  The authors of the study feel that the difference in industries being worked in help contribute to income disparity.  For weekly earnings, it was found that people with the highest proficiency level earned three times as much as those with lower income proficiency.  Also, the likelihood of adults aged 16-65 being poor or near poor is strongly correlated with their proficiency level.

"Schooling, Language Background and Literacy Proficiency." NCES. 2001. 09 June 2006
                <http://nces.ed.gov/pubs2001/2001464_2.pdf>.

Even though some people are bilingual, their Adult National Literacy scores as not as high as those who were raised in homes where English was the principle language, but this does not translate into lower earnings for people who are bilingual.
For employment, 52% of people who spoke another language other than English were employed, and 63% of native fluent English speakers were employed.  According to results- non English speakers were no more likely to be unemployed than English monolinguals.
People who were able to read only a language other than English were just as likely to be employed as people who read English fluently or had English as their native language.  People who did not speak English were less likely to be employed than people who spoke English fluently or as their native language.

People fluent in English are more likely to have been continuously employed (40+ weeks) during the previous year than people who are not fluent in English.  People who were illiterate were less likely to be employed than those who were literate in a language, whatever that language was.

People who did not speak English were less likely to be employed than people who spoke English.  If the non-English speakers were employed, it was more than likely they were employed in seasonal work.  If a person did not speak English, they were less likely to be employed as managers or professionals than people who were fluent in English. Immigrants who did not speak English well were more likely to be employed in services, farming, and fishing than Hispanics and immigrants who were fluent in English.
Although being literate in any language indicated that a person was just as likely as someone who was literate in English to have continuous employment throughout the year, people who were literate in a non-English language were less likely to have high paying, more secure jobs.  People who were illiterate were even less likely to obtain jobs.

People who were employed had the highest levels on the Adult National Literacy Levels than people who are unemployed, but still looking for work.  People who are not in the labor force at all had scores lower than the unemployed people.
Among the employed, those from European or non-spanish speaking countries had higher levels on the Adult National Literacy tests than those who were from Spanish speaking countries.

 
The higher a person scored on the Adult National Literacy tests,the more weeks out of the year they were employed.

If a person immigrated to the United States and they were over the age of 12, their level of education in their home country greatly impacted their literacy rate here.  The more formal their education in their native country is, the more likely they are able to learn and use the English language fluently. 

If a person is a non-native English speaker however they master English and become fluent, they will have earnings and employment patterns comparable to native English speakers