[AAACE-NLA] Beyond Employability in HS and ABE

[Thomas Sticht]

High School and Adult Basic Education                01/20/05
in the 21st Century: Beyond Employability

Tom Sticht
International Consultant in Adult Education

On January 12, 2005 the White House posted a speech by President Bush in
which he discussed his plans to take the No Child Left Behind (NCLB)
initiative to the high school level
(www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2005/01/20050112-5.html).

In discussing the need for NCLB at the high school level, the President
framed his comments in terms of workforce development and stated, "Testing
in high schools will make sure that our children are employable for the
jobs of the 21st century."

But the fact of the matter is that we are presently in the 21st  century
and over 94 percent of adults who are looking for work are employed.
Further, the National Adult Literacy Survey of1993 reported that some 93
percent of adults thought they read well or very well. Of adults 16-65
years of age, 94 percent thought their reading skills met their main job
needs "moderately well," "good," or "excellently." These types of data
suggest that up to now the education system has produced a workforce with
the skills needed to meet the demands of the jobs of the 21st century.
Significantly, it has achieved this without the the NCLB initiative.

One thing the President did not discuss is the fact that the jobs of the
21st century are not paying as much as those of the 20th century.
According to Barton (2000) more people have completed high school and
acquired some college over the last quarter century yet real hourly wages
(i.e., adjusted for inflation)  for both men and women with less than high
school, high school, and some college have declined. For men even college
graduate’s real hourly wages have declined 4 percent, while for women they
have increased. Only for those with advanced degrees have real hourly
wages increased for both men and women (p. 34).

Barton (2000) also notes that the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported the
level of education required for the job openings from 1996 through 2006.
The data indicate that 56% of job openings require only short-term
on-the-job training, only 2% require an Associate Degree, and 8% a
Bachelor’s degree.

Sticht (1998) presents data suggesting that some 60 to 75 percent of jobs
through 2020 will require language and mathematics skills at or below the
8th grade level of education.  In 1985 80% of young adults scored above
the average for 8th grade students in a National Assessment of Education
reading test, suggesting that as many as 4 out of 5 young adults had
reading skills that would meet the requirements of 60 to 75 percent of the
jobs of 2020. Some 40% of young adults exceeded the reading skills of the
average 11th grade student, suggesting that they would be able to meet the
reading requirements of even more demanding jobs.

Another indicator of the relatively low priority that adults place upon
education as a means to a better job is reflected in the data for adult
enrollments in the Adult Education and Literacy System (AELS) funded in
part by the Workforce Investment Act of 1998, Title 2: Adult Education and
Family Literacy Act. In the Program Year 2001-2002  national report for
the AELS it is noted that 158,760 students achieved employment following
their participation in the program. This was 42 percent of those with
employment as a goal. That indicates that only some 378,000, or 13.5
percent of the 2.7 million students in that year had employment as a goal.
Similar data are found for earlier years for the AELS.

The foregoing suggests that, even though many adults who enroll in the
education programs of the AELS do achieve work-related benefits,  the AELS
is not, primarily, a workforce development program. Rather it is an adult
education system that gives adults across a wide range of ages access to
education that they want for many different reasons: health, spirituality,
recreation, general information, child care, work, etc.

Of course, the fact that the Adult Education and Family Literacy Act
(AEFLA) is included as Title 2 within the Workforce Investment Act
indicates that perhaps both in the U. S. Department of Education and the
Congress it is believed that workforce development is, or perhaps ought to
be, the major activity of the AELS. This may explain why two of the "five
core measures" collected as accountability indicators for the AELS are
related to employment.

In another paper (http://www.nald.ca/fulltext/sticht/power/cover.htm) I
have argued that an informational activity needs to be undertaken to let
those in positions to determine what the AELS should be held accountable
for to understand the many educational activities and outcomes that the
AELS produces. In this regard, I have suggested that the Workforce
Investment Act (WIA) should be renamed the Adult Education, Literacy, and
Workforce Investment Act (AELWIA) to recognize the fact that while the
AELS does produce returns to investment in terms of workforce development,
it goes well beyond that and produces many other returns to investment in
adult education and literacy as indicated above (health, parenting,
citizenship, community service, etc.).

Similarly, the argument that the President has made for implementing his
NCLB program in high schools based on an argument for increasing student’s
employability needs to be revised to emphasize much broader goals for
education. The maintenance of our Nation’s democracy, freedom, health, and
security in the world rests on the skills and knowledge of our citizenry.
The manner in which our people confront the changes in our Nation’s
culture and economy due to globalization of work, communication, travel,
and values are challenges for which extensive opportunities for quality
education for young adults in high schools and older out-of-school adults
demand attention.

While the President has called for $1.5 billion to implement his NCLB
program in high schools, he has not paid as much attention to the AELS
which serves those who have gone beyond the age of compulsory education
without having achieved much by way of the knowledge and skills needed to
cope with the complexities of modern life. Thirty-five years ago, in 1970,
the federal government put $40 million dollars into the AELS to serve some
535 thousand enrollees. This amounts to $74 dollars per enrollee. In
constant 2004 dollars this is $360 per enrollee. In contrast, in fiscal
year 2004 the AELS was funded at $574 million and served some 2.8 million
enrollees. This comes to $205 per enrollee, a decrease of more than 40
percent in purchasing power from that of thirty-five years ago.

It seems almost self-defeating for the President to spend billions of
dollars on education trying to leave no child behind, while apparently
being oblivious to the needs of the children who have grown up to be
adults who are parents but are still being left behind in our society. And
unfortunately, dozens of scientific studies indicate that it is the
children of these same parents who are also likely to be left behind when
they enter the public schools.

References

Barton, P. (2000, January). What jobs require: Literacy, education, and
training, 1940-2006. Princeton, NJ: Educational Testing Service

Sticht, T. G. (1998, September). Beyond 2000: Future directions for adult
education. Washington, DC: U. S. Department of Education, Office of
Vocational and Adult Education, Division of Adult Learning and Literacy.
(www.nald.ca under full text documents)

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