recognizing individuals and organizations that have made extraordinary contributions to improving adult literacy in the United States. We congratulate the awardees and are thankful for their contributions to our field.

 

2017 award recipients were:

• The Minnesota ABE Teaching and Learning Advancement System (ATLAS) at Hamline University School of Education.  ATLAS is one of the premier ABE/ESOL PD centers in the U.S.; it is highly practitioner-centered and innovative.  ATLAS is known for providing high quality, evidence-based professional development. Adult literacy practitioners are encouraged to use their resources—they are free—and available on their website, link above.
• Congresswoman Rosa DeLauro (D-CT), for her long-standing dedication to our nation’s adult literacy and language programs and her efforts to safeguard education and other critical programs that ensure equal employment opportunity for adults with low literacy levels, most recently as Ranking Member of the Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education Appropriations Subcommittee.
• Stephen Reder, Professor Emeritus of Applied Linguistics, Portland State University, for his tireless advocacy for adult learners and the field of adult education, and for his extensive research on the impacts of adult literacy skills attainment, culminating in the 10-year Longitudinal Study of Adult Learning that has demonstrated the correlation between participation in adult education and increases in income, educational attainment, and civic participation.  Here is a link to Dr. Reder’s report which we have featured here before, https://proliteracy.org/Resources/Need-for-Literacy-Research
• Sharon Darling, Founder and President, the National Center for Families Learning, for her key role in recognizing the critical link between parents’ education and their children’s learning, and for her nearly three decades of leadership in establishing a nationwide network of programs that provide high quality, accessible family-based education and that have helped over one million vulnerable families learn and thrive together.