We are pleased to announce the Adult Literacy Research Center’s conference, Enhancing General and Health Literacy in the Age of Misinformation will be held at Georgia State University on October 20, 2025.). This conference focuses on understanding the challenges and opportunities for adults with low literacy and low health literacy, and is for undergraduate and graduate students, postdoctoral fellows, faculty, community members and practitioners.
Submit an abstract (due date is July 31, 2025)
Our mission is to link theory and practice through interdisciplinary research, professional development and community partnerships to understand the challenges and opportunities for adults with low literacy skills.
Dr. Daphne Greenberg was recently interviewed by NPR’s Marketplace to discuss low adult literacy and the economy.
Adult Education Program Fact Sheet
The National Association of State Directors of Adult Education (NASDAE) has a new website where you can select a U.S. state (or the entire U.S.) and find facts about the adult education population as well as enrollment and performance of adult education sites. Click here to access the facts sheet for Georgia»
Recent News
From the News Archives
Dr. Daphne Greenberg was recently interviewed by NPR’s Marketplace to discuss low adult literacy and the economy.
Office of Adult Education (OAE) and Adult Literacy Research Center (ALRC) at Georgia State University received a grant from the Institute of Education Sciences (IES) to establish the Georgia Partnership for Adult Education Research (GPAER).
The Adult Learning Resource Center (ALRC) researchers, Daphne Greenberg and Iris Feinberg, collaborated with researchers from the Georgia Policy Labs.
Faculty Corner
Elizabeth Tighe, Ph.D. is an associate professor of Developmental Psychology in the Department of Psychology and the Assistant Director of the Adult Literacy Research. She has been at Georgia State University since 2016 and was drawn to the position because of the opportunities for interdisciplinary work through the ALRC and the Language and Literacy initiative. Dr. Tighe was one of 400 early career scientists recently awarded the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE), the highest honor bestowed by the U.S. government on outstanding scientists and engineers early in their careers.
Her research focuses on advancing the literacy needs of adults who struggle with reading. She currently has several funded projects through the Institute of Education Sciences (IES). For example, she is exploring how adults with low literacy skills engage with digital literacy, numeracy and problem-solving on a digital assessment, PIAAC (Program for the International Assessment of Adult Competencies). This work will help inform test development and digital test-taking strategies that can be taught in adult education settings. She is also working on an intervention to develop spelling and morphological knowledge skills with adult literacy learners.
Dr. Tighe is also interested in quantitative methodology and cherishes mentoring and providing guidance to colleagues, postdoctoral fellows, and doctoral and master’s students on research design and analytic approaches. In her spare time, Dr. Tighe enjoys playing tennis, traveling, watching Florida State football and hanging with her cat, Anova.
ADULT LITERACY
With one in six adults reading at elementary levels, many adults have difficulty with daily tasks that involve reading, numeracy and problem solving1.
Adult literacy difficulties are pervasive and require a multi-pronged approach to addressing low adult literacy skills in our country. Our research focus is broad and includes both programmatic interventions and more general areas of adult literacy.
Our website offers resources and information about our research in this area.
The U.S. PIAAC Skills Map is a new interactive mapping tool that allows users to access estimates of adult literacy and numeracy proficiency in all U.S. states and counties. These estimates are based on data collected in the three rounds of U.S. PIAAC data collection (in 2012, 2014 and 2017) as well as data from the American Community Survey (2013-2017).
FOLLOW US
Nursing Students ‘Teach Back’ to Promote Health Literacy
Staffed by medical professionals who volunteer their time, and organized by members of Snellville’s Grace Fellowship Church, Grace Village Medical Clinic is now one of the newest clinical sites for nursing students from Georgia State University’s Perimeter College. Read more about this project »
ALRC Research Support Grants Program
In FY2019, the ALRC awarded three grants to student affiliates. Read more about their projects »
OUR PROGRAMS
Our interdisciplinary research, professional development and community partnerships all center around six areas of focus. Click on the links below to see what our faculty affiliates are working on.
Contact Us
For more information, contact Iris Feinberg, associate director, at [email protected]