DESCRIPTORS

Representatives of six Appalachian states and cr: various relevant constituencies identified barriers to adult participation in postsecondary education in their region and strategies for removal of those barriers. iv.: extensive review of the literature and committee member reports and surveys suggested policy, dispositional, situational, and institutional barriers. Many barriers to adult education in general were also barriers to rural adult learners: cost, lack of child care and transportation, inflexible scheduling, lack of information, and restrictions on financial support. Major rural impediments to adult participation were the absence of a cultural appreciation of education's value, compounded by the Appalachian sense of fatalism; and poor high school preparation for postsecondary learning. Other regional barriers included the problem of enrollment driven funding formulas in sparsely populated areas, poor roads, long commuting distances, an