[aaace-nla] help Needed--constructs for the message

[AWilder106@aol.com]

Dear Mr. Demetrion,               Office Building

Thank you once again for your attention to detail.  At another point I hope to have time to reply to all your interesting points.

The legislation which gave birth to NIFL and state grants started by defining the scope of the problem:  30,000 adult in the United States who had serious problems with literacy.  That number was later amended upwards, then there were questions about its accuracy.

If we are to build a house upon rock and not sand, we need to know the soil composition, surely.  

In legislative terms, we are talking evaluation. The original Bill was cleary written with consultation from educators who knew the business, they had a sense of what it takes to increase adults' ability to read and write.  We legislators relied on them.

We have to evaluate the effects of the legislation on the population we wish to educate. Education should make students feel better about themselves, good education in a society which expects educated citizens surely may have that effect. However, "feel good" is not the same as "skilled." 

The question, really, is how can we speed the process?  How can we reach the potential students on waiting lists? How can we achieve effective programs--skilled readers--how do we measure this?

A cynic might ask if you see substituting "feel good" for "effective." 

This effort needs the active input of state level directors as they are closest to the population we wish to educate.  In essence, they apply or implement much of the legislation so that its initial aims are achieved.

Are we creating effective adult literacy programs?  What are the constituents of such programs?  How are they achieved?  I suspect that many tie into already existing educational institutions and through synergy reach higher effectiveness. What kinds of inputs from the legislation, in what kind of mix, help or hinder program effectiveness?  

In mid-course correction, we might ask if we were sailors: where should we trim the sails, where let out the jib?   To my initial point:  this is hard to do  if the target, the goal, the numbers, are not in general agreement, but this is only a first step in identifying sand from rock.



Susan Lex, Representative