Purpose:  The purpose of this program is to provide basic literacy and life skills for adults who are performing at or below the eighth grade level. The content develops basic literacy in all areas of knowledge.

Program Structure:  Comprehensive Adult Basic Education is a non-credit course designed to develop literacy skills necessary for successful employment, citizenship and parenting. (to be a successful worker, citizen and family member) Comprehensive Adult Basic Education prepares students to enroll in GED preparation courses. A student enrolled in the comprehensive ABE program may be receiving instruction in one or more areas of knowledge (mathematics, language or reading).

This program is divided into Literacy Completion Points (LCPs). Progress through levels (LCPs) may be measured by approved standardized tests or by documentation of proficiency in each standard. It is the teacher's job to decide and inform the student of the criteria for demonstrating proficiency in a benchmark. Though a student need not master 100% of the benchmarks to demonstrate proficiency in a standard, a student must demonstrate proficiency in 100% of the standards to earn a literacy completion point.

Special Notes:  It is not intended that students will progress through the performance standards sequentially. The instructor may present topic-centered lessons which integrate benchmarks from several performance standards.

All activities are developed to be done either individually or in groups.

The computer skills are not required, as access to computer technology is not provided every student. The computer sections are optional and will not be necessary to earn Literacy Completion Points (LCPs).

The performance standards and benchmarks have been developed to facilitate documentation of learning gains. Benchmarks or standards may be repeated at multiple levels (LCPs). This is purposeful since: (1) proficiency in certain skills is judged to require more time than is available in one level; (2) the quality of performance expected on certain standards increases with progression through the levels, so that the use of punctuation, for example, at the end of Level C (5.9) should be more proficient than at the end of Level B (3.9) but should occur at both levels; and (3) instruction for skills of critical importance must be offered any student needing to learn that skill, even students entering at the intermediate or functional levels.

Program Lengths:  The following hours are recommended program lengths for each LCP in the Comprehensive ABE Program.. It is understood, however, that each student learns at his or her individual pace and there will be students who successfully complete the program or attain their educational goals in fewer or more hours than what is recommended.