[AAACE-NLA] Who’s_Accountable?_Few_Full-Time_Teachers_in_the_AELS

Tue Jun 1 18:23:04 EDT 2004

Responding to the following paragraph from T Sticht's email:
<< ... One wonders just who it is that receives the annual Reports to Congress
that the NRS produces, and who exactly it is that reads the reports. It
would be interesting if the Congressional reader(s) would produce a Report
to the Adult Education and Literacy Field giving its feedback on these
reports and how they contribute to the deliberations about the
continuation and funding of the State Grants for the AELS. As it is right
now, I don’t see how anyone can read these annual NRS reports and
determine how well the AELS is performing and who ought to be held
accountable for what. >>

Tom, if *you* do not understand the figures stated in your email and have past research experience plus knowledge of how the adult educational system/field works in the big picture, how in the world do you think Congressional representatives receive it?  I'm talking about those who evaluate how dollars are spent and how progress is made or not made at the end of any given funding year.  If they need an interpreter - when no doubht *they* influenced or demanded the NRS be developed the way it is - the subsequent reports are worthless.

I find the thought particularly distressing.

Nancy Hansen
Literacy Administrator, CBO
sfliteracy at yahoo.com

Thomas Sticht <tsticht at znet.com> wrote:
Research Note 28 May 2004

Full Time Teachers in Short Supply in the Adult Education and Literacy
System (AELS) of the United States

Tom Sticht
International Consultant in Adult Education

The Workforce Investment Act, Title 2: Adult Education and Family Literacy
Act (WIA/AEFLA) was enacted by the U. S. Congress in 1998. To define and
implement the accountability requirements of the WIA/AEFLA the U. S.
Department of Education established the National Reporting System (NRS).
This system collects data about each of the three categories of
accountability indicators from the states, consolidates it, and reports it
in an annual report to Congress. The most recent report is: "U. S.
Department of Education (2003). The Adult Education and Family Literacy
Act: Program Year 2001-2002: Report to Congress on State Performance.
Office of Vocational and Adult Education."

For reasons that are not clear to me, the report to the Congress for
PY01-02 includes information about the number of part-time and full-time
teachers employed in the AELS. The report indicates that in PY01-02 there
were a total of 67,700 teachers in the AELS of whom 51,000 (75%) were
part-time and 16,700 (25%) were full time. Since no trend data for
teaching personnel in the AELS from earlier years are presented in the
PY01-02 report to Congress, I have tabulated some, below.

Interestingly, over two decades ago, in 1980, the AELS employed 35,745
(68%) part-time teachers and 16,939 (32%) full-time teachers to meet the
needs of 2,058,000 students. Given the new requirements for accountability
and extensive training in data collection and management that the NRS
requires it might be expected that there would be a greater percentage of
full-time teachers in 2002 than there were 22 years ago. But as indicated
above, that was not the case in PY01-02. Following are data showing the
percentage of part-time and full-time teachers in other years for which
data were available to me.

Year Total Part-Time Full-Time # Students
1980 52684 35745 (68%) 16939 (32%) 2058000
1988 76060 63990 (84%) 12070 (16%) 3039400
1996 102498 76366 (75%) 26132 (25%) 4042172
1997 154386 106267(69%) 48119 (31%) 4017272
1998 92019 69129 (75%) 22890 (25%) 4020550
1999 85128 66330 (78%) 18798 (22%) 3616391
2000 88700 68318 (77%) 20382 (23%) 2891895
2002 67700 51000 (75%) 16700 (25%) 2787416

In 1980 the federal state grant for the AELS was around $99,926,000, or,
stated in inflation adjusted, constant 2001 dollars, around $212 million. 
In fiscal year 2001 (PY01-02) the federal state grant with English
language and civics funding included was $530,278,106, more than two and a
half times the 1980 funding level. With such increased funding in PY01-02
it might be thought that a greater investment in full-time teaching staff
would be made. But instead the part-time teaching staff increased by 43
percent over the 1980 level, while the number of full-time teachers
actually declined by 239, a decrease of over 1.4 percent.

These type of historical data are not in the PY01-02 report to the
Congress. Also missing in the report to the Congress are data regarding
the use of volunteers in the AELS. But in 1997, the year before the
WIA/AEFLA was enacted, U. S. Department of Education data indicate that
there were 87,812 volunteers at work in the AELS, and they made up about a
third (36%) of all personnel. In 2000, the last year for which I have
data, there were only 64,664 volunteers, a decline of some 25 percent from
1997, but they made up 42 percent of personnel in 2000.

>From the foregoing it appears that after the WIA/AEFLA was enacted in
1998, federal funding went up, but enrollments declined, teaching staff
declined, there were more part-time but fewer full-time teachers and
non-paid volunteers increased as a percentage of total personnel. All this
strikes me as rather strange. If funding increased and enrollments
decreased why wouldn’t more full-time teachers be employed? At the very
least, why wouldn’t the percentage of full-time teachers in PY01-02 be the
same as in 1980 when the funding in constant 2001 dollars was less than
half that of PY01-02?

One wonders just who it is that receives the annual Reports to Congress
that the NRS produces, and who exactly it is that reads the reports. It
would be interesting if the Congressional reader(s) would produce a Report
to the Adult Education and Literacy Field giving its feedback on these
reports and how they contribute to the deliberations about the
continuation and funding of the State Grants for the AELS. As it is right
now, I don’t see how anyone can read these annual NRS reports and
determine how well the AELS is performing and who ought to be held
accountable for what.

Thomas G. Sticht
International Consultant in Adult Education
2062 Valley View Blvd.
El Cajon, CA 92019-2059
Tel/fax: (619) 444-9133
Email: tsticht at aznet.net

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Nancy Hansen, E.D.
Email:  sfallsliteracy at yahoo.com

Sioux Falls Area Literacy Council
Sioux Falls, SD 57104-1314
Phone: (605) 332-BOOK
Fax:  (605) 332-9389

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