[AAACE-NLA]Advocacy in tough times

Sat May 3 10:57:59 EDT 2003

Friends, 

Sissey Kegley's reference to HR 1261, the Re-authorization of the
Workforce Investment Act is, as I understand it, under the advocacy
auspices of the National Coalition for Literacy.  That's one issue and an
important one, though far from uncontestable in the field on whether it's
even worth it to spend energies to save something that will have very
little use for the bulk of volunteer-community based adult literacy and
ESOL sector.  There's a feisty discussion going on right now on the
ProLiteracy List on the relevance (i.e., irrelevance) of the National
Reporting System standards, as assessing sustainable progress in literacy
and English language acquisition and its impact in the various life
domains require subtle discernment of a qualitative nature, with
measurable progress, at least based on the NRS guidelines, sometimes
requiring several years.  I don't want to get into that in this message,
except to point out that (a), HR 1261 is under the management of the NCL
and (b) that its relevance at least to important segments of the field is
questionable.

In my view, the more fundamental matter at this very critical time is the
intended re-structuring of ERIC,  the selective cleansing of the NIFL
archives, the preservation intact from 1997 of the NLA archives, and both
the implicit and explicit stifling of free speech on the NIFL lists.  The
latter is  particularly the matter of concern when issuing sharp critical
analyses and even of naming official names, when those names are embedded
in retrievable web and paper documents that are publicly accessible. 
It's  not only official censorship, which at this stage is still minimal,
but how the specter of fear and potential reprisal casts an inward glance
provoking the internal censor to hold back.  Anyone feeling that?

In  terms of  ERIC and the NIFL cleansing, I would argue that now, the
two should be tied together in our public advocacy.  I sent a version of
the following letter to representative John Larson and Senator Joseph
Lieberman.  I had a tough time getting a fax to Dodd's office.  By the
time I was able to get through, the impact of the cleansing became much
clearer to me, a reference of which I included at the end of the letter.

May I suggest we spend some time this weekend reviewing advocacy
strategies over ERIC and to think through what else can be done. At the
least, there should be some linkages with other educational entities such
as the National Council Teachers of English (NCTE), the International
Reading Association (IRA), and teachers of English to Students of Other
Languages (TESOL).  A lot of this can take place on the web and you can
count on the activity being monitored.  So what.

In any event, like many others, I'm jamming with a lot of things,
including overcoming writer's block in a very difficult chapter of my
book project.  So it's costly to be spending quality time in these
important listserv discussion, but my book project is worth crap if I do
nothing about the outrage that is before us.

On a broader note, and I just want to say it here without going into it,
the field is going to have to make some very important decisions on the
extent to which it can work with the Bush-Paige administration.  If the
answer is not much or not at all, that leads to certain conclusions, with
a hefty price to pay and a burden of responsibility that allegiance to
freedom sometimes requires.  Whatever you may feel about such a prospect,
be sure about one thing, the Bush-Paige administration is not a friend of
adult literacy education as we have known it and they have little respect
for current practices and the scholarly bases which informs the field.
Their stated goal is to re-engineer the field of educational practice and
research and they are zealously intent on accomplishing it, by hook or
crook  The price of going along means riding that train.  Are you
willing?

George Demetrion
sophocles5 at juno.com
_______________________________________________________________-

April 28, 2003

Senator Christopher Dodd
448 Russell Building
US Senate
Washington, DC  20510

Dear Senator Dodd:

As an adult literacy educator who frequently used the Education Resources
Information Clearinghouse (ERIC) I am troubled to learn that the U.S.
Department of Education has issued a draft plan for a "New ERIC" system
which eliminates all 16 Clearinghouses and their services and proposes a
dramatic change in the content of the ERIC database.  I understand the
plan for "New ERIC" makes the following changes: 

· Closes all 16 ERIC Clearinghouses 
· Eliminates personalized reference and referral services 
·  Terminates AskERIC and clearinghouse question-answering services 
· Ends all networking and outreach activities, including ERIC-sponsored
Listservs 
· Shuts down Clearinghouse Web sites currently visited by 22.5 million
visitors a year 
· Eliminates ERIC Digests, books, and other synthesis publications 
· Reduces coverage of the journal literature from 1100 journals to an
estimated 400 
·  Restricts consumer access to information, limiting ERIC database
coverage to "approved lists" of journals and document contributors.

While part of the reason for the redesign is to make ERIC more efficient,
I believe the broader rationale has to do with restructuring
federally-based educational informational centers along the peculiar
lines of the Administration's skewed understanding of educational
research.  The result is to shut down competing perspectives such as
those housed in the current ERIC system, which is a constellation of a
great deal of educational theory and research over the past 30-50 years. 
This is not only an intrusion of intellectual freedom, but is dangerous
to the state of education and to the health of the democracy to grapple
with competing perspectives in a pluralistic society.  This sense of
enforced cultural conformity to a singular worldview, which smacks of
political, religious, and educational fundamentalism, is all too
indicative of the broader intent of the Bush administration.  My analysis
of the Administration's rationale was available at 
(http://www.nifl.gov/nifl-aalpd/2003/0234.html).  However, and this is a
major concern, email postings placed on the National Institute for
Literacy electronic listserv board pertaining to the ERIC Data base were
systematically cleansed from the archives.  The NIFL discussion board can
be accessed at: (http://www.nifl.gov/lincs/discussions/discussions.html).
 I appreciate your support in looking into both of these matters.

Sincerely,

George Demetrion

________________________________________________________________
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