Patten, Thomas H., Jr., and Gerald E. Clark, Jr. 1968. "Literacy Training and Job Placement of Hard-Core Unemployed Negroes in Detroit." Journal of Human Resources 3(1):25-46.

In 1965 a study was conducted to test the relative effectiveness of the use of the initial teaching alphabet and traditional orthographic approaches to reading among 53 hard-core, functionally illiterate, unemployed persons (largely Negroes) in Detroit. Differences in the appropriateness of the two mediums were found. In the spring of 1966 a follow-up study was conducted to determine the job placement and general social adjustment of the participants. Only six of them had obtained jobs, and many of the remainder were continuing in literacy training programs. The findings of the follow-up study generally corroborate research on extended joblessness conducted in other cities and at different times. The achievement of literacy and job placement remain distant goals for the hard-core unemployed. More empirical research regarding specific programs and the sociocultural barriers to adult learning among urban poor minority group members remains to be done despite the growing number of sophisticated studies of human resources in recent years.

Dr. Patten is Professor of Industrial Relations and Associate Director, School of Labor and Industrial Relations, Michigan State University. Formerly he was Professor of Management and Sociology, University of Detroit. Mr. Clark is a doctoral candidate at Wayne State University and formerly was instructor in the Freshman Studies Program, University of Detroit, and Director of the Adult Basic Education Demonstration Program in 1965. The major portion of the research-demonstration project upon which this article is grounded was sponsored by the Wayne County (Michigan) Bureau of Social Aid and the University of Detroit, based upon a federal grant under the Economic Opportunity Act of 1964, Title V--Work Experience Programs. The authors wish to express their appreciation to the Michigan Department of Social Welfare, and especially to Mrs. Meta L. Landuyt and Mr. Harry Lipka, for their direction and assistance in the demonstration project in the summer of 1965 and the follow-up study in the spring of 1966. The authors assume responsibility for the ideas, data, and interpretation in the article.

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