National Study of the Implementation of Adult Education Under the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act

The Adult Education and Family Literacy Act (AEFLA) Program, authorized under Title II of the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA), is the main source of federal support for adult basic and literacy education programs for adults who lack basic skills, a high school diploma, or proficiency in English. In program year 2015-16 alone, over 1.5 million adults were served through the federally-supported adult education system.

The National Study of the Implementation of Adult Education Under the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act, administered by the U.S. Department of Education’s Institute of Education Sciences, and funded through its Office of Career, Technical, and Adult Education, collected data on how states and local adult education programs were providing AEFLA services under WIOA as of program year 2018-19. The study included an analysis of state-level administrative data on adult education, a survey of State directors of adult education, and a survey of the approximately 1,600 federally-funded adult education programs. The results will be invaluable in helping to inform and guide future evaluations studies conducted under WIOA.