News, Views, and Clues 

March, 2005

COABE State Staff PreConference, March 7, 2005
Dropout Rate Continues to Escalate, March 2, 2005
Dollar General Grants, March 2, 2005
 

CoABE State Staff PreConference
March 7, 2005 

NAEPDC’s State Staff Workgroup is sponsoring its annual State Staff Preconference at CoABE.  Please encourage your staff to register (http://www.coabe05.org/) for this important session on promoting student persistence. 

The Role of State Staff in Promoting Student Persistence

 Conducted by the National Adult Education Professional Development Consortium (NAEPDC)

Why do adult students leave our program?  How do we ensure they stay as long as possible?  How do we get them to return when they are ready?  What role can state staff play in promoting student persistence?  This one-day pre-conference will provide state staff with a variety of instructional and management strategies they can use with local programs for increasing student motivation and persistence.

Research on student persistence, including the National Center for the Study of Adult Literacy and Learning’s (NCSALL) Adult Persistence Study, will be examined to determine new insights, information, and strategies for increasing student retention.  Programmatic and professional development options for promoting student persistence will be explored including:

• the critical first three weeks and how to get students settled,
• the high risk factors that lead adults to drop out or stop out and how to compensate for those factors, and
• the adult learners’ willingness to return to class if they feel like the door is open. 

In that context, we will look at the state staff’s role of creating the structure, process, and resources to enable teachers and local directors to use the strategies.

Keep up the good work.  Let me know when we can help.

Drop Out Rate Continues to Escalate
March 2, 2005 

ONE-THIRD OF A NATION: AMERICA’S ESCALATING HIGH SCHOOL DROPOUT CRISIS
As Congress, governors, and state education officials turn their attention now to high school reform, a new report from ETS warns that little is being done to address rising dropout rates, declining earnings for dropouts in the job market, and reduced public investments in effective
second-chance efforts. Issued by ETS’s Policy Information Center, the report tracks dwindling high school completion rates throughout the 1990s, which persist today.  The report also found clear evidence that more students are dropping out earlier, between ninth and tenth grades. Coupled with the finding of too few counselors and a steep decline in federal investment, from about $15 billion in the late 1970s to about $3 billion today, the outlook is not good. "This is a story of losing ground," writes author Paul Barton.  "At the same time that the dropout rate is increasing and out-of-school education and training opportunities are dwindling, the
economic status of young dropouts has been in a free fall since the late 1970s.  Employment and earnings prospects have declined and even for those who work full time, earnings have dropped steadily to averages around the poverty line for a family with children." http://www.ets.org/research/pic/onethird.pdf 

Source:  PEN Weekly NewsBlast for February 25, 2005 

Keep up the good work.  Let me know when we can help.

Dollar General Grants
March 2, 2005

"Dollar General Literacy Foundation"
The Dollar General Literacy Foundation supports non-profit organizations within Dollar General’s market area that are established for public use and have an active 501(c)(3) status under the Internal Revenue Service Code. Eligible organizations within the Dollar General market area must be committed to increasing the functional literacy of adults or families and must provide direct literacy services within their community. The Dollar General Literacy Foundation accepts proposals from non-profit literacy providers on an annual basis. The Foundation's next submission deadline is April 8, 2005. Grants will be announced May 6, 2005.
http://www.dollargeneral.com/community/dgliteracy.aspx

Contact us: Dr. Lennox McLendon, Executive Director; 444 North Capitol Street, NW; Suite 422; Washington, DC 20001
Phone: 202-624-5250; Fax: 202-624-1497; Email: lmclendon@naepdc.org