ABSTRACT
Adult education and literacy services play a pivotal role in family literacy programs. As one of the core components of the main federal program supporting family literacy-the Even Start Family Literacy Program-these instructional services promote adult basic education (ABE), adult secondary education (ASE), English as a second language (ESL), and preparation for the General Educational Development (GED) certificate or the high school diploma. The assumption guiding Even Start and other multicomponent, comprehensive family literacy programs is that adults who participate in basic education services will develop the skills and knowledge they need to enhance their children’s education, their own literacy, and their families’ economic outcomes. As the critical link with parenting education, early childhood education, and parent and child interactive literacy services, adult education enables adults to change the intergenerational cycle of poverty by advancing both their own and their children’s education.
