Mellow appointed to adult literacy committee

With her appointment to a national committee on adult literacy, LaGuardia Community College President Dr. Gail O. Mellow hopes to discover new methods and trends in adult education and use these to further enhance LaGuardia's adult programs.
&#8220I will really be exposed to the best thinkers on this issue in the country,” Mellow said.
Beginning November 14, Mellow will serve on the National Commission on Adult Literacy, which was recently created by the Council for Advancement of Adult Literacy (CAAL). The commission, a group of 20 education professionals, will conference periodically in order to publish their findings in 2007.
&#8220Together, we will strive to achieve a long-overdue goal of vital importance to the future of our country: lifting the literacy skills and education levels of 30 to 90 million adults,” said Gail Spangenberg, president of CAAL.
&#8220I'm really honored … It's a blue-ribbon commission that is going to be funded in part actually by the man who owns Dollar General [J.L. Turner, co-founder of Dollar General].” Mellow said.
Turner, with only a third-grade education, helped to start the company and then in 1993 launched the Dollar General Literacy Foundation, a grant program to improve adult literacy.
&#8220He understands the importance of adult education,” Mellow said. &#8220Now we have to ask, ‘How can we take students of a basic adult education and get them into college?' ”
Mellow said that the Commission will also look into the synchronization of federal and state adult literacy programs, and whether there are any gaps in these programs.