New Website Offers Adult Learner Numeracy and Digital Literacy Course

May 5, 2026

Numeracy and digital literacy are important skills for navigating everyday life in our society and can provide opportunities and open doors to good careers. Yet, according to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, nearly a third of adults in the United States lack basic numeracy skills.  

To address this gap, WestEd partnered with the Pennsylvania Department of Education and World Education, a JSI Initiative, to develop and evaluate Adult Numeracy in the Digital Era (ANDE), a 10-week, technology-based numeracy course for adult learners. Initial results of the evaluation indicate that ANDE is highly effective, and a new website offers ANDE curriculum and instructional support materials free of charge as openly licensed resources.  

“The early findings from our evaluation of ANDE suggest that it may be a game-changer for teaching numeracy and digital literacy to adult learners,” said Ann Edwards, Senior Director of Mathematics, Science, and Engineering at WestEd. “We’ve also heard from instructors about how it’s changed their approach to teaching math and has helped their students really master the subject. We’re delighted to be able to offer ANDE materials free of charge so that more students—and more instructors—can benefit from this course offering.” 

Using real-world scenarios, ANDE helps adult learners see the relevance of math in their own lives while they build the skills they need to earn their GED, succeed in the workforce, and engage in everyday problem-solving. The project is part of the CREATE Adult Skills Network, a federally funded national initiative to build knowledge about using technology effectively to support learning in adult foundational education. ANDE is intended to generate knowledge and tools that benefit the field of adult learning and adult numeracy instruction. 

The ANDE curriculum includes four progressive mini-courses, aligned to core GED math concepts: 

• Number systems and operations 

• Proportional reasoning 

• Foundational algebra 

• Data/statistics and geometry 

The materials for each mini-course include: 

• Downloadable PDFs of all student-facing lessons 

• Teacher instruction notes for every lesson (pacing, tips, discussion prompts, and guidance) 

• Student supports to strengthen motivation, engagement, and classroom community 

• An online platform with individual preparation activities aligned to lessons 

To determine ANDE’s impact on adult learners’ math and digital literacy outcomes and instructors’ capacity and self-efficacy, WestEd and the Pennsylvania Department of Education conducted a quasi-experimental study involving more than 300 students. The researchers compared students’ math learning experiences and outcomes in the ANDE course to those of students in regularly offered courses. 

The initial findings follow: 

• Learners who participated in ANDE tended to score higher on measures of math knowledge than learners who participated in their regular instruction. 

• ANDE was particularly helpful for adult learners at Education Functioning Levels 2 (basic) and 3 (low intermediate). 

• Instructors implemented the key course components at moderate to high levels. 

WestEd will release the study in the fall of 2026.  

This project is funded in full by the Institute of Education Sciences at the U.S. Department of Education.