The Lessons of the Churn - Adult Basic Education and Disciplining the Adult Learner

Oct 15, 2026

Each year in the United States, hundreds of thousands of adults enroll in adult basic education (ABE) but leave before completing levels or achieving their goals. The paper argues this “churn” may function as a systemic feature, not an accidental failure. Drawing on research about social service provision such as welfare and housing, it suggests the system may intentionally discipline and regulate people in need. Therefore, improving literacy outcomes requires evaluating the ABE system’s structure and operation at the societal level.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryResearch & Report

FormatPDF

Pages12

Reading Time30 min

AccessFree to download

Abstract

Educational churn and system discipline

Re-examining ABE performance through NRS accountability

Alternative evaluation approaches since the 1970s

Measuring system structure, access, and resource allocation

ADULT LITERACY EDUCATION Fall 2020 | [http://doi.org/10.35847/EJacobson.2.2.4](http://doi.org/10.35847/EJacobson.2.2.4) | | | --- | --- | | | Research Article | The Lessons of the Churn: Adult Basic Education and Disciplining the Adult Learner Erik Jacobson, Montclair State University Abstract Each year in the United States, hundreds of thousands of people enroll in adult basic education (ABE) classes but leave before completing a level or accomplishing their goals. The persistence of this phenomenon may indicate that it is a feature of the system, rather than an unforeseen outcome. Research on other types of social service provision (e.g., welfare) suggests that seemingly inefficient systems are actually intentionally constructed to discipline the population in need of assistance. From this perspective, learners’ experience of the churn within the ABE system may be just as important as their time in the classroom. Keywords: welfare, homelessness, participation, access, supports Each year in the United States, hundreds of thousands of people enroll in adult basic education (ABE) classes funded by the federal government only to leave before completing a level or accomplishing the goals that they had set for themselves. This creates an educational churn, a disruptive and disorienting process by which large numbers of people move in and out of a system to what seems like no productive end. Infact, levels of adult literacy in the United States have not changed in decades despite the work of adult education teachers, tutors and program administrators. Moreover, the persistence of this churn may indicate that it is a feature of the system, rather than an unfortunate or unforeseen outcome. Indeed, research on other types of social service provision (e.g., welfare, housing) suggests that seemingly counterproductive or inefficient systems are actually intentionally constructed to discipline and regulate the behavior of the populations in need of assistance (Piven & Cloward, 1993; Willse, 2015). If that is also the case with regards to ABE, attempts to improve literacy outcomes by continuing to focus on learner or classroom-level factors will necessarily have a limited impact. If our goal is to improve literacy levels at the societal level, the nature and functioning of the ABE system itself needs to be evaluated, rather than the efforts of individual learners and their teachers. Re-Examining the Performance of the ABE System in the United States Assessments ofthe impact of the ABE system in the United States have been conceptualized ina number of different ways. Currently, the most prominent accountability measure is the National Reporting System (NRS) for Adult Education which requires states to report the performance Correspondence: [jacobsone@montclair.edu](jacobsone@montclair.edu) 4 of programs that receive funding as part of the Workforce Improvement and Opportunity Act (WIOA). Programs and states must provide data regarding students’ ability to meet certain goals. These include educational gain, high school completion, entry into post-secondary education or training, gaining employment and retaining employment (U.S. Department of Education, Office of Career, Technical, and Adult Education [OCTAE], 2015). The data is collected and made available in annual reports that contain state by state results and cumulative statistics for the country. These reports note what percentage of students achieved their stated goals and whether or not that constitutes an improvement from previous years. Within the last five reports available (e.g., OCTAE, 2015, 2016, 2018a, 2018b, 2018c) results vary by no more than a few percentage points. For example, in 2015-2016, 41% of students whose goal was to complete at least one ABE/ASE functioning level did so, compared to 42% in 2013-2014. A narrative summary reviews the outcomes for each of the designated goals and suggests what the results mean about the performance of the sy

FAQs

What is the main problem the article addresses in adult basic education?

It focuses on adults enrolling in ABE but leaving before completing levels or meeting stated goals, creating an educational “churn.”

Why does the article claim the churn may be a systemic feature rather than an accident?

It argues that similar social service systems (e.g., welfare and housing) are sometimes intentionally designed to discipline and regulate people needing assistance.

How does the paper propose evaluating the ABE system to improve literacy outcomes?

It suggests shifting attention from only learner or classroom factors to assessing the ABE system’s structure, functioning, access, supports, and allocation of resources at the societal level.

Oct 15, 2026

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