Good news! Are you studying USA Learns Citizenship? We have NEW activities to help you get ready for the naturalization process!

About Us

The Project

USA Learns is a free website that helps adults learn English, gain job skills, and prepare for U.S. citizenship online. This popular website, visited by tens of millions of people representing every country in the world, teaches English and U.S. citizenship by providing engaging multimedia content and educational activities. Learners have the opportunity to study independently or with the support of their teacher.

The website was built by the Sacramento County Office of Education, which is located in California, United States. Initial funding for USA Learns, which ended in 2008, was originally provided by the U.S. Department of Education and the California Department of Education. The Sacramento County Office of Education now has full ownership rights for the USA Learns website.

In August 2021, thanks to a generous grant from the Dollar General Literacy Foundation, USA Learns launched an enhanced, mobile-optimized website. The Dollar General Literacy Foundation helps individuals of all ages pursue their educational goals and achieve their dreams by investing in literacy programs that help students learn to read, prepare for the high school equivalency or learn English. This grant and the opportunity to rebuild the site was a dream come true for the team. Now, learners can study anytime and anywhere on a phone, computer, or tablet.

Development of the Access America course was entirely funded by the Google Ads found on this site. Reinvesting those funds in order to help more adult learners is a big priority for the USA Learns team. Also, our sincere appreciation goes out to several organizations for allowing us to use some of their video content, which was adapted for inclusion in this course.

The USA Learns Citizenship course was supported in part by the U.S. Institute of Museum and Library Services under the provisions of the Library Services and Technology Act, administered in California by the State Librarian.

Content was developed in partnership with the Immigrant Legal Resource Center and the New Americans Campaign, with support from the Grove Foundation.

USA Learns appreciates the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services' (USCIS) Office of Citizenship’s support in the development of USA Learns Citizenship. The course was designed with a variety of USCIS resources, as well as guidance and feedback from USCIS education program specialists. Their expertise in adult citizenship education helped ensure USA Learns Citizenship aligns with the USCIS Adult Citizenship Education Content Standards and Foundation Skills to meet the highest standards of quality.

The staff of USA Learns wishes to extend its sincere appreciation to Domminick McParland for his significant contributions to both the USA Learns Citizenship and the Access America courses. His insight into the needs of adult learners and educators across the nation has greatly assisted us in taking these projects from a mere concept to successful fruition. Domminick has also generously shared his knowledge of key research related to immigrant integration and his expert-level skills of teaching ESL and U.S. citizenship to adults.

The Skills for the Nursing Assistant course teaches the language and academic skills to help adult learners successfully communicate with patients and co-workers on the job. This course is ideal for English as a second language learners and basic skills learners who are studying for careers in various allied health programs.

The course includes four lessons: Effective Communication, Nonverbal Communication, Communication Barriers, and Communication Strategies. Each lesson teaches listening, speaking, reading, vocabulary, pronunciation, and grammar, along with the job-related topics.

This course is a collaborative effort of several organizations. A California Senate Bill 70 grant funded the content development as part of a pilot project to create distance learning resources for career technical education (job training) programs. The learning platform was upgraded thanks to funding from the Health Workforce Initiative grants in collaboration with the Statewide Director and Regional Directors of the Inland Empire / Desert, South Central Coast and San Diego / Imperial Valley regions.

The Developers

USA Learns is a joint effort of the Sacramento County Office of Education and Internet and Media Services.

Sacramento County Office of Education developed the USA Learns Web site and has developed many of the most widely used Web resources in adult education, including English For All, CDLP Adult Learning Activities (resources for adult learners), and The Study Place.

SCOE is home to a number of adult education and technology projects, including the Outreach and Technical Assistance Network (OTAN). SCOE is nationally recognized as a center with expertise in the design and use of instructional technology in adult learning.

Contact Us

Do you need technical support? Please visit our “Help” pages for an answer to your question:

If you do not find your answer, please email help@usalearns.org and tell us what kind of problem you are having. Describe the problem and give as many details as you can in the message so that we can help.

For non-technical questions, information about the overall project or other inquiries about USA Learns, contact:

Andrea Willis
Sacramento County Office of Education
P.O. Box 269003
Sacramento, CA 95826-9003

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