WASHINGTON – In an effort to build research and policy support for the adult post-secondary education sector, the Educational Testing Service (ETS) highlighted the critical role adult education plays in preparing the U.S.  workforce and in elevating overall education attainment levels of Americans during the organization’s annual Addressing Achievement Gaps symposium. This year’s symposium was entitled “Advancing Learning for Our Diverse Adult Population.”

“With the right policies, practices, and partnerships we can make a dent in that audacious goal that President Obama set recently,” said Dr. Shirley Robinson Pippins, senior vice president of the American Council on Education, referring to the administration’s goal of the U.S. becoming the nation with the world’s highest rate of college graduates by the year 2020.

In a recent survey of American adult literacy, about half of adults performed below the level needed to navigate today’s complex society, according to statistics from the  Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. Increasingly, today’s jobs demand the advanced skills afforded by higher education, but projections show literacy and numeracy levels decreasing, according to symposium speakers.

“Access is necessary but not sufficient; for many, finances are a big problem,” Pippins told more than 200 symposium attendees at the National Press Club in downtown Washington.  “If you aren’t educated, you are less likely to be employed, more likely to get lower wages, and less likely to get financial aid.”