Beyond such formalized external pressures lie the additional concerns and conflicts adults at any educational level face every day. Child care issues, health problems, transportation needs, housing concerns and economic instability can be daunting hurdles which frequently bar the way to the learner's achievement of educational goals. Others come to class from extremely dysfunctional family situations, while some are homeless. Adult learners who participate in ABE math, GED math, or basic skills classes attend on average from one to three hours per week. The number of weeks of instruction varies from site to site.
Class sizes are small in comparison to public school standards-ten to fifteen students.
However, the wide range of abilities often found in a single class provides a true challenge for the adult basic education instructor. In most settings, attendance is voluntary, although attendance rules are set by the learning provider and vary from program to program. Absenteeism, related to many of the problems listed above, impacts the rate at which a student learns, the consistency of the group, and the planning and preparation efforts of teachers. Instruction is usually, but not always, individualized, or is conducted in small groups. Most of the published materials currently available focus on computation problems.