Trains, Buses, and Basic Skills: Learning in—and from—a Union Education Program for Transit Workers

This article begins with a brief history of two decades of U.S. workplace basic skills efforts that laid a foundation of goals, content, policies, and practices for subsequent worker education programs. It then draws on program records to present a case study of a work-related basic skills program in the New York City public transit workers’ union in the early 2000s. It describes why and how the program was begun, learners served, jobs focused on, stakeholders involved, practices used, and shorter and longer term results. It concludes with reflections on how stakeholders can use worker education to serve workers, their families and communities, employers, and unions while supporting economic and societal renewal.

A Comparison of Methods for Measuring Achievement in Basic Skills Program Evaluation

Standardized achievement tests continue to be used as the primary criterion measures in the evaluation of basic skills programs despite explicit recommendations against this practice by many testing and evaluation experts. A major issue behind this criticism is examined in this comparative study of three types of tests. These tests represent three points on a content validity continuum which references their correspondence to the instructional program being evaluated. Data are examined on these tests at two levels in eight groups of elementary school students receiving instruction on various basic skills. The results show why and how standardized tests provide different information from other tests that are more closely matched to program instruction. They also show why out-of-level standardized test results often correspond more closely to the results of instructionally referenced tests as compared to at-level tests. The implications of this research for basic skill program evaluations are discussed.

Basic Skills Program in Phoenix

A school system tackles the challenge of minimum competency.