Effort to Build Adults' Skills Called a 'Team Sport'

It will take significant cooperation among state and federal policy makers, traditional educational institutions and others to improve American adults' work force and literacy skills, the American Council on Education argues in a new report. The report examines data released last year as part of Survey of Adult Skills from the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, which showed U.S. adults lagging behind those in many other countries on literacy and numeracy, and asserts that colleges and others will need to adopt new approaches to change that picture. "Raising the literacy, numeracy, and problem-solving skills proficiency for adults in the United States will be a team sport, with policy and education leaders working together across federal, state, and institutional boundaries," it says.