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.
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»
Tabitha Stickel, Ph.D., a post-doctoral fellow working with the Adult Literacy Research Center, speaks about her work at a southwestern community college with the Diné (Navajo), the Hopi and the Ndee (Western Apache).
Recent News
From the News Archives
Tabitha Stickel, Ph.D., a post-doctoral fellow working with the Adult Literacy Research Center, speaks about her work at a southwestern community college with the Diné (Navajo), the Hopi and the Ndee (Western Apache).
Anne Lorio received the Foundation for Physical Therapy Research’s Promotion of Doctoral Studies Mildred Wood Award, which will support her dissertation work.
Distinguished University Professor Daphne Greenberg has been named a 2022 Literacy Champion by Atlanta-based nonprofit Literacy Action, Inc.
Faculty Corner
Sarah E. Carlson, Ph.D., is an assistant professor in educational psychology with a focus on studying individual differences, assessment, and the role of genre during reading comprehension. She has been at Georgia State for five years and is currently serving as program director for the educational psychology program. She received funding for her research through various grants, such as the Institute of Education Sciences, Georgia State’s Center for Research on the Challenges of Acquiring Language and Literacy, and the Adult Literacy Research Center.
One of her long-time research priorities has focused on assessing how readers struggle with comprehension. For example, she and her colleagues have developed a diagnostic tool (i.e., MOCCA-College; https://mocca-test.uoregon.edu/#/) to assess the types of cognitive processes college readers use during comprehension of narrative and expository text. She is also using data from this tool to inform the development of new instructional methods and guides for improving reading comprehension strategies. Carlson is also working on developing additional tools to help identify areas of need for improving comprehension skills for struggling adult readers.
The ALRC’s mission overlaps with Carlson’s goals of understanding the challenges adults with low literacy skills face. She seeks to provide new instructional opportunities in reading comprehension to help improve their lives. She mentors doctoral and master’s students by engaging them in her research while at the same time encouraging them to identify their own program of research. Students participate in all aspects of her studies (e.g., materials development, data collection, data entry, analyses, dissemination), and they have also had the opportunity to participate in grant writing.
In her spare time, Carlson enjoys practicing and teaching yoga and meditation, gardening, hiking, cooking, watching cooking shows, traveling and spending quality time with her kitties Ali and Petunia.
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 ifeinberg2@gsu.edu