Adults who dropped out of school have fewer opportunities to advance in the work force or to assume a fully competitive place in society at large. It is difficult to find statistics on the literacy rate of these people, but there is reason to believe that a significant percentage have literacy problems. We know that academic failure correlates highly with dropping out. We hypothesize that for many out-of-school young adults the root cause of academic failure stems from reading problems. These people may not be illiterate but they do have marginal reading proficiency. They can recognize familiar words, but cannot extract the meaning of complex written information. Education is essential for advancement yet they cannot read well enough to further their education or compete in the job market. Computer-based training (CBT) offers an inexpensive way to diagnose reading problems and to provide the needed education. We propose to develop a CD-ROM-based too] that will allow self-paced, individualized diagnosis and instruction to improve reading proficiency of out-of-school young adults. The CBT system will automatically diagnose levels of reading competence, identify individual problems, and if desired, introduce the needed remedial instruction based upon the user's level of competence.Summary of anticipated results and implications:Reading proficiency is a necessary but not sufficient condition for academic success. Many other factors contribute to high school dropouts. Nonetheless, dropouts who have reading problems need to be identified and helped. An effective diagnostic tool can pinpoint literacy problems. Appropriate remedial instruction can significantly improve reading skills and allow many more out-of-school youths to successfully further their education and better compete in the job market.
Potential Commercial Applications:In addition to nearly 4 million out-of-school young adults, there are over 4 millionWelfare-to-Work candidates, many with marginal reading proficiency. Add to this over 5 million people under correctional supervision (70% of whom perform at the two lowest literacy levels), and it becomes clear that many people could benefit from improved reading skills. An inexpensive CD-ROM-based instructional system could be made available to these people through GED courses, various young adult programs, and other civic and business organizations.
