NTI Resources
NTI Support Building Resources
THE PRESIDENT’S 2007 BUDGET
A Sticht Must-Read
Laura Bush on Adult Education
Student Recruitment Resources
Foreign Born in the Labor Force
Adult-Ed Programs Inadequate
Workplace Ed Professional
Developments
February 6, 2006
The National Training Institute resources for Professional Development and
Special Learning Needs are on the Consortium web site at:
http://naepdc.org/professional_development/NTI_home/Agenda.html
NTI Support Building Resources
February 6, 2006
The NTI resources for Building State Support are on the Council website at:
http://www.ncsdae.org/Policy%20Alerts/2006/NTI_Resources.htm
THE PRESIDENT’S 2007 BUDGET
IMPLICATIONS FOR
ADULT EDUCATION AND FAMILY LITERACY
February 7, 2006
On Monday, February 6, 2006, the President unveiled his proposed 2007 Budget
proposal for the Department of Education (DOE). It contained some good news and
some bad news for adult education and family literacy programs.
On the plus side, adult education was level funded. On the minus side, they have
once again proposed to zero out Even Start.
Below are the funding amounts for adult education.
Basic grants - $ 563,975 million
National Leadership - 9,005 million
NIFL 6,572 million
TOTAL $ 579,552 million
The DOE Budget Summary indicated this funding level would assist states in
meeting a significant and ongoing need for adult education services and noted
the continued high rate of high school dropouts and the growing numbers of adult
immigrants generate high demand for adult education services.
In zeroing out Even Start, the Summary stated, “Three separate national
evaluations of the program reached the same conclusion: children and adults
participating in Even Start generally made gains in literacy skills but these
gains were not significantly grater than those of non-participants. DOE
indicates that other high priority programs such as Reading First and Early
Reading First are better structured to implement proven research and to achieve
the President’s literacy goals. DOE did not mention such alternatives do not
work to strengthen the literacy of parents as well as children and help break
cycles of illiteracy which exist in many of our country’s most vulnerable
citizens.
In zeroing out Vocational Education, the rationale is that the high school
initiative puts more funds into high schools and gives the schools the
flexibility to use funds however they wish.
Another program targeted for elimination that could have some implication for
adult education is a state grant program for incarcerated youth offenders. This
program provides funds to state correctional agencies to assist and encourage
incarcerated youth to acquire functional literacy skills and life and job
skills. DOE indicates the elimination of this program is consistent with their
effort to eliminate small programs that only have indirect or limited effect on
improving school outcomes.
Both the Literacy Through School Libraries and Reading is
Fundamental/Inexpensive Book Distribution Program (RIF) were level funded.
($19.5 million for Literacy Through Libraries and $25 million for RIF) RIF is
allowed to work with family literacy programs.
As part of the President’s “American Competitiveness Initiative”, the Department
of Labor’s proposed budget proposes Career Advancement Accounts (CAA). The DOL
Budget Summary describes these accounts as “self-directed accounts that would
enable current and future workers to gain the skills needed to successfully
enter, navigate and advance in the 21st century job market. Individuals would
use their accounts to pay for expenses directly related to education and
training. Funds previously appropriated for the WIA Adult, WIA Dislocated Worker
and WIA Youth Programs and the Employment Service would be allocated to states
as a single funding stream for CAAs.” Once additional details are available, we
will examine them for any and all implications for adult education.
February 8, 2006
Tom
Sticht shared this article through the NLA list serve. In case you did not see
it, it is a must-read. Thanks again to Tom for bringing clarity to the issue.
The following article appears in February/March 2006 issue of Reading
Today, the official newspaper of the International Reading Association. This
newspaper reaches some 160,000 readers per issue.
The article is part of my advocacy for adult literacy education in which I am attempting to get more reading professionals interested in adult literacy.
Tom Sticht
February/March 2006
Can Massive Injections of Adult Literacy Education
Improve Children's Reading Skills?
Tom Sticht
International Consultant in Adult Education
Data released in 2005 from the National Center for Education Statistics showing
30 years of National Assessment of Educational progress (NAEP) indicate that,
from 1971 up to 2004, reading scores for 9-, 13-, and 17-year-olds were flat.
Indeed, a patient in an intensive care unit whose health-monitoring indicators
went as flat as the NAEP data would be declared dead!
Despite past failures to improve reading scores, today, as in the past, tens of
billions of dollars are being spent on special programs to raise the literacy
skills of children. Meanwhile expenditures for adult literacy education have
been and still are trivial.
This goes on despite the fact that for the past 30 years the K-12 system has
been graduating millions of young adults below the 20th and 10th percentiles of
reading as measured by the NAEP, with no apparent improvement in the proficiency
scores for students at these percentile ranks. Furthermore, there is little
evidence that this can or will be turned around anytime soon.
It is extraordinary that policies that attempt "fix" children in the
institutional settings of preschools or the public schools, and then return them
to their debilitating home lives still command such massive amounts of funding,
while there is great reluctance to acknowledge and meet the needs of the
children's parents for continuing education. This situation prevails despite
extensive research suggesting that, through the intergenerational transfer of
language and literacy, serious investments in the education of adults could
likely improve the educability of their children.
Given the data of the past 30 years, which indicate mostly failure to improve
children's learning of language and literacy in the schools and up into
adulthood - even those children at the 10th percentile - it seems that some new
strategy for improving children's and hence adults' literacy is called for.
There is a grossly underfunded and underdeveloped adult education and literacy
system in the United States with over 3,000 programs and close to 3 million
enrollees per year. But the federal level of funding is less than US$225 per
enrollee. Even with state contributions added in, the average funding per
enrollee across the United States is only about US$650. This is less than one
tenth of what is spent per enrollee on Head Start, which serves mostly the
children of these poorly literate adults.
Perhaps now, after 30 years of trying and apparently "flat-lining" in our
attempts to raise the reading achievement of children through schemes that
largely ignore the literacy education needs of the children's parents, it may be
time to acknowledge the existence of the adult education and literacy system and
to provide the funding and other resources it needs to produce genuine and
extensive improvements in the literacy and lives of adults.
Massive injections of adult literacy education might just be what is needed to
resuscitate a reading instruction patient that is presently in a deep coma. And
we should do this before the patient goes completely brain-dead.
Thomas G. Sticht
International Consultant in Adult Education
2062 Valley View Blvd.
El Cajon, CA 92019-2059
Tel/fax: (619) 444-9133
Email: tsticht@aznet.net
February 8, 2006
“Research tells us that a child's ability to thrive is closely linked with his
mother's education level. That's why mother and child literacy should be at the
heart of our efforts to increase literacy around the world. Our mothers are our
first teachers. They introduce us to the joys of reading and learning. From
them, we learn lessons that will influence us throughout our lives.
Research shows us that children who are read to from a very early age are more
likely to begin reading themselves at an early age. They're more likely to excel
in school. They're more likely to graduate secondary school and go to college.
By reading to a young child, a mother helps that child develop language. She
teaches him how to hold a book and follow words. And she also links books and
reading with the safety and the comfort of a mother's arms and a mother's voice.
The value of literacy goes beyond books. A mother who can read also knows how to
follow the instructions on a bottle of medicine. She can read the label on a
food container. She can read a newspaper and learn about the world around her.
She can conduct basic business transactions and know whether she's getting a
fair deal. And she has more options for helping to support her family. Literacy
is a significant first step toward building a better life. And maternal literacy
can be a significant step toward a better life for the whole family.”
Click here for full text.
February 22, 2006
One of your colleagues has the possibility of a significant growth in state
funding and will need a targeted marketing campaign to attract new students.
As a result, we are in search of targeted student recruitment materials that
would attract students who have specific needs for adult education. We hope you
have some and are willing to share them.
We are looking for two types of materials: 1) those targeted to recruit
potential students who have a specific need and 2) those targeted to
agencies/organizations that serve clients with that specific need that would
compel them to refer clients to you.
Here are some examples. Do you have student recruitment materials that you are
willing to share that are targeted to any of the following?
• Potential students who need to improve their skills to qualify for work
• Agencies/organizations that have adult clients who need to improve their
skills to qualify for work and can refer them to adult education.
• Potential students who need to improve their skills to help their children in
school.
• School personnel whose parents need to improve their skills to help their
children and can refer them.
• Potential limited English proficient students with materials in their own
language
• Agencies/organizations that serve LEP adults who can refer them.
• Potential students who need a GED
• Agencies/organizations that have adult clients who need a GED who can refer
them
• Potential students who need a GED and want to go on to the Community College
• Agencies/organizations that have adult clients who need a GED and want to go
on to the Community College who they can refer
• Potential older students who do not want a GED but need reading, math and/or
English to manage their financial, medical, and personal affairs.
• Agencies/organizations that serve older adult clients who they can refer
• Businesses that are potential sites for in-plant workplace education programs.
• Other student recruitment materials targeted at a particular audience
Please forward electronic copies, if possible, to me at lmclendon@naepdc.org and
we will put them on the web site for all to share.
Foreign Born in the Labor Force
February 24, 2006
Below is an excerpt from a Bureau of Labor Statistics report on foreign-born
persons in the workforce. The entire report is attached in PDF format. The URL
is
http://www.bls.gov/news.release/forbrn.toc.htm
It is interesting to note that almost half of the labor force growth from
2002-2004 is attributable to foreign-born persons even though they comprise only
14.5% of the total workforce.
“In 2004, there were 21.4 million foreign-born persons in the United States
labor force, comprising 14.5 percent of the total. (See table 1.) From 2002 to
2004, the number of foreign-born labor force participants grew by about 1.2
million on net and accounted for a little less than half of total labor force
growth over the same period.
A little over two-thirds of foreign-born persons 16 years and over were in the
labor force in 2004, about the same proportion as in the previous 2 years. Over
the year, the labor force participation rate for the native born edged down from
66.1 to 65.7 percent.
Foreign-born men were more likely to be labor force participants (81.1 percent)
than their native-born counterparts (72.0 percent). In contrast, foreign-born
women were less likely to be labor force participants than native-born
women--53.8 versus 60.0 percent. Over the year, the labor force participation
rates of both men and women were about unchanged for the foreign born, while
they edged down for their native-born counterparts.”
February 24, 2006
Below is an article from yesterday’s
Washington Post regarding the Maryland’s Adult Education Program.
Report Calls Adult-Ed Programs Inadequate
Workplace Suffers, Md. Officials Say
By Nancy Trejos
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, February 23, 2006; Page T03
Nearly 1 million Maryland adults lack high school diplomas or need English
language instruction even as the demand for highly trained workers is
increasing, according to a Maryland State Department of Education report.
The waiting list for adult education services across the state has about 5,000
people, with the largest number of people seeking instruction in English as a
second language, the report said. The programs serve 36,000 to 38,000 people
annually, the report said.
Maryland spent $77 per student in fiscal 2003 compared with an average of $477
per student in East Coast states on general equivalency classes, instruction in
English as a second language and other literacy programs. Only Rhode Island
fared worse. Maryland education officials do not promote their programs or
recruit students because there's no room for additional students in classes, the
study said.
"We're not even in the ballpark," said Patricia Bennett, program manager for
adult education and literacy at the Maryland State Department of Education. "We
have historically spent about $77 per student, which is about the cost of a
textbook these days."
Business leaders familiar with the study said this week that the shortage of
skilled workers is driving businesses away from the area and damaging the
economy.
"The higher the quality of the workforce, the more skilled the workforce, the
more attractive the state of Maryland becomes to businesses and employers to
want to relocate in Maryland . . . or to stay here in Maryland and expand their
businesses," said Bob Burdon, president and chief executive of the Annapolis and
Anne Arundel County Chamber of Commerce.
Al Porter, chairman of the education committee for the Prince George's Chamber
of Commerce, said he is particularly concerned about the impact on his county.
"We're on the cusp of a booming economy in Prince George's County, and if we
don't have the employee base to take the jobs, I think it's going to speak to
the long-term viability of our county," Porter said.
The task force that prepared the report recommended that the state spend $26.5
million over the next four or five years to strengthen adult education programs.
The panel, consisting of business leaders, educators and politicians, was
established by State Superintendent Nancy S. Grasmick in 2004. The report was
presented to the State Board of Education in December, and state officials
briefed reporters this month.
"It is absolutely essential to Maryland's economic development as well as the
well-being of families that these individuals have the opportunity to earn a
high school diploma and learn English," Grasmick said.
State officials said they expect federal funding for adult education programs to
be cut by 74 percent in fiscal 2007, which could force 18,000 students out of
instruction.
The money shortage has also made it hard to recruit qualified teachers, many of
whom work only part time in adult education programs, the panel said. Maryland's
teacher training schools do not offer many graduate-level courses on adult
instruction, and there is no state certification requirement specific to adult
education, the report found.
But there is more to the teacher shortage problem, said Tom Israel, executive
director of the Montgomery County Education Association. The pressure on
teachers to meet state and federal standards has limited the time they have to
teach additional classes in the evenings. "The more the pressure is ratcheted up
for student achievement in K to 12, the less time people have to take on the
extra responsibilities," Israel said.
Nonetheless, Israel said, K-to-12 teachers are finding more of a need for adult
education programs, particularly because they are encountering more parents who
are not able to speak English well enough to participate in parent-teacher
conferences or help their children with homework.
The task force members said the insufficiency of adult education has also hurt
the workforce. Since World War II, the economy has shifted from a focus on
manufacturing to technology, biosciences, health care and other services. The
earning power of school dropouts has declined in the past three decades as the
economy has shifted to jobs that require more skills.
The study found evidence that the state's adult education programs have helped
place students in the workforce. Of those adults who enrolled in remedial
programs, 94 percent achieved a higher literacy level or continued their
education, and 74 percent earned general equivalency certification. Of those
students who had been unemployed, 64 percent got jobs.
The panel made recommendations, including that the state increase enrollment in
adult programs by 17 percent. The panel also suggested that the state establish
a funding formula for adult programs and publish an annual performance report to
encourage accountability. The state should increase its share of funding, taking
part of the burden off local governments and bearing at least 40 percent of the
cost, the report said.
Workplace Ed Professional Developments
On-line courses
February 27, 2006
The Virginia Adult Education program has
developed a great resource for training adult educators in marketing, planning,
and instruction for adult education programs in industry, i.e., workplace
education. If you have practitioners who want to gain or enhance their workplace
program planning and instructional skills, here is a good resource.
Workforce Development Campus
James Madison University
MSC 9003 / Blue Ridge Hall
Harrisonburg, VA 22807
888.637.8494
www.jmu.edu/wdc
Enhance your career with new skills in marketing, planning, organizational
assessment, facilitation, and program evaluation. You can improve your programs
by learning to identify performance gaps using current design models, engaging
in interactive discussions and exchanging ideas with peers from around the
country. Join us this Fall!
Session 2 Now Enrolling! March12 - April 28
Register by March 3 for placement and save $50
• Introduction to Workforce Development and Education (WDC 501)
• Marketing Workplace Learning Programs (WDC 502)
• Planning for Workforce Learning Programs (WDC 503)
• Organizational Assessment and Needs Analysis (WDC 504)
• Designing Learning Programs for Workforce Development (WDC 505)
• Implementing Workforce Development Programs (WDC 506)
• Program Evaluation for Workplace Learning (and ROI) (WDC 507)
• ESOL in the Workplace (WDC 601)
• ALL COURSES CONTINGENT ON MINIMUM ENROLLMENT
Certificates Offered:
• Program Developer
• Curriculum Designer
• Instructor
• E-Instruction Specialist
You can also design your own certificate
Contact us for more information
wdc@jmu.ed
Workplace Professionals
Facilitate your learning and connect to peers across the nation
• “I liked the interaction with other participants because they had so much to
add. It was like having 10 instructors instead of one.” -Cheryl, Virginia
• “My James Madison University WDC certification as a Program Developer had a
DIRECT impact on my new career opportunity…I am exceptionally thankful that I
have been associated with this venture for the past two years.” -Lynn, Georgia
Email the Registrar for further information:
wdc@jmu.edu
WDC classes are distributed online utilizing engaging activities, discussion
boards, and classroom chat.
Orientation is free.