Prior to and during ABLE program participation:

• Are there characteristics shared by study participants that make them receptive to success in ABLE classes
• Are there common classroom and/or instructional attributes that contribute to participants’ initial and ongoing success?
• Are there noteworthy changes in participants’ skills and perspectives that they ascribe to their ABLE experiences?
• Are there problems inherent in ABLE programs and the ABE system that are obvious to participants?

After ABLE program participation:

• Do participants continue to seek informal and/or formal training or education?
• Do participants experience an increase in income and a decrease in welfare dependency?
• Do participants attain skilled employment and/or professional careers?
• Do participants’ children complete high school and enroll in higher education?
• Do participants value their expertise and contribute to the welfare of others?
• What challenges face successful adult learners after completing ABLE programs?

This study also serves as a call to adult learners to “clearly articulate their own stance, name their own worlds, and tap the sources of their own creativity (Monette, 1970, 543-554).” The time has come for adult learners to have heroes — models of excellence that they can relate to and emulate. With the advent of VALUE (Voice for Adult Literacy United for Education), adult learners have an organized constituency that can speak to their interests. Adult education will never take its rightful place in the mainstream of American education until adult learners play a prominent role as consumer advocates for themselves and for their peers. This study provides numerous examples of adult learners who became ABLE tutors and teachers, volunteers and advocates for the field of adult literacy. It is these participant anecdotes that flesh out the dry, albeit important data and give Learning for Life its unique voice.