Abstract

Imagine that you are the head of a large non-profit foundation that has, as its mission, the goal of improving adult literacy. The foundation’s board of directors is particularly interested in developing a new intervention specifically targeted at adults who are not functionally literate. What might such an intervention look like? To find this out, you ask your crack staff of researchers to search the literature for “best practices” in adult literacy programs. If your staff is thorough, it is likely that they will find multiple studies that claim to have implemented and/or tested best practices, and it is likely to be the case that the studies seem to reach different conclusions about which practices are most effective. How should you proceed?