Promoting Evidence for Adult Learning

Research Allies for Lifelong Learning is now in its 12th year! As you learn more about our research and evaluation, we invite you to view our latest adult education research findings.

Starting with Learners to Measure the Value of AFE

Measuring the return on investment (ROI) of adult foundational education (AFE) is an important priority of the Evidence-Based Adult Education System (E-BAES), an initiative of the Open Door Collective. Research Allies for Lifelong Learning partnered with E-BAES / Literacy Minnesota on an E-BAES research grant from ALL IN. The ROI Pilot research started with perspectives of adult learners – what drew them to AFE and what they gained from AFE participation. An Adult Learner Survey (ALS) determined learners’ priority reasons for starting AFE programs and outcomes learners made. Focus groups in early 2024 confirmed ALS findings with educators and collected insights from instructors, program directors, and state directors in four states – on measuring costs and benefits of AFE and designing a future national ROI study.

Now that the ROI Pilot is complete, check out these findings from the November 2022 Adult Learner Survey and February/March 2024 focus groups. As future publications on E-BAES ROI research become available, we will post them here.