Special thanks to Susan Roman, LVGH Executive Director, who has done so much to sustain the agency over the past decade and to Steve Bender, whose pioneering work in developing the agency's community-based program dovetailed with the Reading Center project. I owe much gratitude also to current Reading Center Manager Barbara Oles, who has worked so diligently to carry on and to greatly extend the work.

This study is dedicated to the memory of Bob Steele, Hartford's pre-eminent radio personality, for whom the program was named after, and Martha Fazzano, a tutor pioneer at the Bob Steele Reading Center and President of the LVGH Board of Directors for many years.

Portions of "Exploring the Middle Ground: Literacy as Growth," Adult Basic Education, 12 (2002) appear in Chapter One and in the Epilogue. Chapter Three and Six contain material from "Motivation and the Adult New Reader: Student Profiles in a Deweyan Vein," Adult Basic Education, 11 (2002). Chapter Seven includes a section from "A Scaffolding Paradigm: Small Group Tutoring at the Bob Steele Reading Center," Adult Basic Education, 9 (1999).

George Demetrion
East Hartford, Connecticut
December 1, 2002