ABSTRACT
Unlike children, who participate in schooling because of legal mandates and strong social and cultural forces, adult students choose to participate in educational programs. Adults must make an active decision to participate in each class or tutoring session and often must overcome signifi cant barriers in order to participate in educational services. Student persistence, therefore, is an issue that all adult-education programs, including those focused on literacy and numeracy, must address. Persistence is comprised of two parts: intensity (the hours of instruction per month) and duration (the months of engagement in instruction). Persistence rates are stated as hours of instruction during a specifi c period of months, usually in increments of one program year.
