Abstract—This study used hierarchical linear modeling to
compare two literacy programs in the United States. I explored
the relationship between community stand alone literacy
programs and family literacy programs to ascertain the impact
of learner participation and outcome. This study hypothesized
that the family literacy program emphasizes active learning
through social interaction, which promotes bonding and
bridging social capital; and that participating in the family
literacy programs enhances learning and learners’ achievement
in standardized test scores. The study population covered 3,700
adults and 4,000 children who participated in the adult basic
education programs in Pennsylvania, U.S. The result provided
enough statistical differences in the comparative mean and
standard deviations scores between the two literacy programs.
Consequently, this led me to reject the null hypothesis in favor of
the alternative that students who participated in the Family
Literacy programs with high bonding and bridging social
capital did have higher achievement scores than Community
ABE/GED programs.
Index Terms—Adult basic education, persistence in literacy
education, social capital, social practices of the classroom.
The author is the Executive Director for the Center for Adult and Distance
Education at Valley View University, Ghana (e-mail: wkk109@yahoo.com).
Cite: William Kofi Koomson, "Creating Pathways to Literacy Learning; A Comparative Approach Using Hierarchical Linear Modeling (HLM) Analysis," International Journal of Information and Education Technology vol. 7, no. 9, pp. 641-649, 2017.