I think it was about the third day that I was there, something happened, I got involved with the teachers, and I met Florence... She kind of took me under her wing, saw that there was something, I guess, about me that she liked, and we became very good friends. I worked hand-in-hand with her, and I was sort of like the teacher’s pet.

Evaluation of practitioner effectiveness is best found in the details of participants’ instructional experiences. The examples cited below demonstrate adult theory in practice in Basic Literacy, ESL, ABE and GED situations. Specific adult learner weaknesses are addressed, individual strengths are shared, personal goals are respected and student leadership accepted, encouraged and acknowledged. Adult theory in action is portrayed as collaborative learning in a respectful, interactive environment.

Irene, a GED student whose math skills were very weak compared to her reading comprehension, thought that the type of individualized instruction offered in her small-group classes was particularly beneficial to her. John’s education was tailor-made to suit his spinal cord injury, with emphasis on computer literacy and independent study. Quincy’s schooling began with building basic math, reading and spelling skills till he was comfortable writing resumes and searching for a good job. Benny’s sponsor, in recommending him for the success stories award, noted that he wrote lists of words he heard most often, looked them up in his dictionary and studied them at home. His quest to learn the fine points of English grammar raised the level of the class, sending his teacher to textbooks to answer his complex questions.

Della, who had graduated from High School, enrolled in an adult program because her reading skills were far too low to gain entrance to a business travel counselor program. Her instructor introduced Della to literature written by African-American writers, started her working on vocabulary and comprehension skills and told her: ‘You can do it!’ She did. She raised her reading level two grades in eight weeks in order to qualify for the training program.

At 21, William had severe learning difficulties as a result of being hearing impaired for the first four years of his life. Tenacious in his determination to improve his reading skills, he was teamed with a tutor his own age who had cerebral palsy and was just starting as a work-study student at the literacy council. Both were reaching for goals beyond others’ expectations for them. They did not see each other’s limitations but only each other’s potential. They worked together for eight months until William was ready to enroll at a community college.

The accepting environment and cooperative spirit of the classroom makes learners feel safe. After completing his tutoring program, Conrad went to check out the GED class at the high school. He took the required entrance test, enrolled, and after two months was able to take and pass the GED test. His explanation for his immediate success centered on classroom environment:

It really felt good to sit in the classroom because I was there with other adults and we were all there because we wanted to learn. There wasn’t somebody making us be there. We wanted to learn... I actually saw myself learning things I never realized I’d ever be able to learn because I was very bad in math. I never had algebra when I went to school, but we had algebra on the test. I actually found algebra as being fun. There was no way in the world I would have thought that before.

This cooperative spirit also builds teamwork. Nina, an ABE student, whose initial feelings of inadequacy were soon dispelled, made special efforts throughout her time in class to help other students feel comfortable. She drove classmates to the GED testing site and even arranged to be tested over the summer so that she could offer her support to another student.