Half are immigrants, and students' first languages include Spanish, French, Haitian Creole, Chinese, Korean, Vietnamese, Khmer, Farsi, Polish, Amharic, Portuguese, Arabic, and Russian. Most are on public assistance. Most are Puerto Rican. Most are Portuguese women employed in factories as stitchers. Program does not use literature, except for excerpts used in conjunction with commercial texts.
Many students read trade books on their own.