A Study of Selected Common Sense Correlates of Effective Adult Basic Education Teachers

Abstract

This investigation was concerned with analyzing the variation in ABE student retention rates among teachers. Teacher records were analyzed using the Chi-Square statistic. The median hours of stu dent attendance were used to separate high and low retention teachers. A comparison between high and low retention teachers by total number of years of teaching experience, number of years of experience teaching adults, educational level, and certification level revealed an insignificant relationship. Although not significant at the .05 level, there was a trend for teachers that had taken an ABE course to have a higher retention rate; and for teachers that had participated in ABE teacher training institutes to have a higher retention rate than noninstitute participants.