[AAACE-NLA] Heckman and Adult Education

Tue Feb 28 19:33:11 EST 2006

We can see a chilling insight into administration thinking by looking at the
website http://expectmore.gov , a website run by the Bush Administration.
This website promises an evaluation of all federally funded programs. Not
surprisingly, the bulk of performing programs are Defense Department or
Homeland Security programs. The bulk of the not performing programs are
Human Service programs such as Even Start and Adult Basic Education. To me,
the analysis looks like Creation Science. Start with your conclusion. Then
structure your criteria so that you end up with the desired result.

Kenny Tamarkin

-----Original Message-----
From: aaace-nla-bounces at lists.literacytent.org
[mailto:aaace-nla-bounces at lists.literacytent.org] On Behalf Of Catherine B.
King
Sent: Monday, February 27, 2006 12:36 PM
To: National Literacy Advocacy List sponsored by AAACE
Subject: Re: [AAACE-NLA] Heckman and Adult Education

Hello Kenneth:

In view of your note, I am wondering just how this "chopping block"
for Programs like Even Start and Adult Education, etc., meet with the
whole idea of (1) the Bush Administration's "No Child Left Behind"
focus in K-12, and (2) the updating and signing of the Individuals
with Disabilities Education Improvement Act (IDEA) of 2004.

Somehow, and in trying to gain a comprehensive point of view of
education in a democracy, and of educational movements in THIS
democracy, the chopping-block reality that your note refer to seems
somewhat discordant to me?

But perhaps I am not understanding some fundamental "strain of
thought" going on in the current administration, i.e., its view of
the coalescence of democracies and republics, and their historical
growth from the midst of the endemic problems associated with
either kingships or other more secular sorts of empires?

Catherine King

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Kenneth Tamarkin" <ktamarkin at mcae.net>
To: "'National Literacy Advocacy List sponsored by AAACE'" 
<aaace-nla at lists.literacytent.org>
Sent: Sunday, February 26, 2006 6:05 PM
Subject: Re: [AAACE-NLA] Heckman and Adult Education

> It is my guess that most subscribers to this list believe that both Early
> Childhood Education and Adult Education are important. The Even Start
> Program, which combines services for children and their parents, is once
> again on the chopping block of the Bush Administration. Last year, Even
> Start was cut more than 50%. This year they want to eliminate it 
> completely.
> Any discussion of which is more effective, Early Childhood Education or
> Adult Education, misses the point. We need both. If our current
> administration had its way, we would have neither.
>
> Kenny Tamarkin
> Executive Director
> Massachusetts Coalition for Adult Education
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: aaace-nla-bounces at lists.literacytent.org
> [mailto:aaace-nla-bounces at lists.literacytent.org] On Behalf Of
> tsticht at znet.com
> Sent: Wednesday, February 22, 2006 1:25 PM
> To: aaace-nla at lists.literacytent.org
> Subject: [AAACE-NLA] Heckman and Adult Education
>
> February 22, 2006
>
> Adult Education Makes Early Childhood Education
> a Good Economic Development Strategy
>
> Tom Sticht
> International Consultant in Adult Education
>
> Nobel Prize economist James J. Heckman was interviewed in June of 2005 by
> the Minneapolis branch of the Federal Reserve Bank. He was asked about
> making the case for early childhood education (ECE) as an economic
> development strategy.
>
> In his response, Heckman downplayed the effects of ECE on cognitive 
> skills,
> and instead stated, " Enriched early intervention programs targeted to
> disadvantaged children have had their biggest effect on noncognitive
> skills: motivation, self-control and time preference. We know that there's
> a scientific basis for this finding. The prefrontal cortex, which is a
> center of these noncognitive skills, matures late. The executive function,
> the very definition of ourselves as people, the way we motivate ourselves,
> these things are malleable until quite late stages-into the 20s, according
> to research by neuroscientists. This means that in principle we can modify
> these behaviors. Noncognitive skills are powerfully predictive of a number
> of socioeconomic measures (crime, teenage pregnancy, education and the
> like..Kids in the Perry Preschool Program, an early childhood 
> intervention,
> are much more successful than similar kids without intervention even 
> though
> their IQs are no higher. And the same is true of many such interventions.
> There is a lot of research on such programs."
>
> Heckman also considered that by starting early enough with ECE it may be
> possible to actually raise the Iqs of disadvantaged children. In this
> regard he cited the Abcediarian program aimed at disadvantaged children 
> and
> which starts at 3 or 4 months after the children are born and intervenes 
> up
> to age 8 in some cases.
>
> Interestingly, in other economic analyses, Lynch (2004) also cited the
> research on the Perry Preschool and Abcediarian projects, along with other
> ECE programs,  as supporting the importance of ECE preschool programs.
> Lynch states that many of these early education childhood programs  " also
> provide adult education and parenting classes for the parents of young
> children." (p vii).  This suggests that perhaps a  significant percentage
> of the benefits that early childhood education programs produce might
> result from the effects of adult parenting and literacy education
> activities that take place in these programs.
>
> Indeed, recent research by Morrison, Bachman, & Connor (2005) has 
> questioned
> the effectiveness of both childcare and preschool programs that do not 
> focus
> on improving parenting skills.  Concerning childcare, they say, "Overall,
> parenting appears to be a more important source of influence on children's
> development than is childcare. . the contribution of parenting was about
> three to four times greater than that of early childcare. .high-quality
> childcare will not offset the negative effect of poor parenting, and
> poor-quality childcare will not prevent success for children with 
> effective
> parents." (pp. 48,49).
>
> The fact that Heckman points to the importance of noncognitive skills as
> important outcomes of preschool, such as increasing children's motivation
> for and interest in education, is also suggestive of the importance of
> adult education in contributing to the cost-benefits of ECE. Numerous
> studies of adult basic education (ABE) have found that noncognitive skills
> are the major outcomes of ABE. Almost universally, studies of ABE outcomes
> report that adults feel better about themselves, they overcome learned
> helplessness, they feel more motivated to succeed in life, and,
> importantly, these positive noncognitive skills often modify adults'
> behaviors with their children.
>
> In research with Wider Opportunities for Women, Sandra Van Fossen and I
> found that mothers enrolled in basic skills programs reported that they
> spoke more with their children about school, they read to them more, they
> took them to the library more and so forth (Van Fossen & Sticht, 1991). In
> one visit to a single mother's home, the mother's second grader said, "I 
> do
> my homework just like Mommy". and thrust his homework into the 
> researcher's
> hand. This type of noncognitive skill development in the child was 
> obtained
> for free as a spin-off of an adult basic skills program.
>
> This type of intergenerational transfer of noncognitive skills from 
> parents
> to their children in adult basic education and early childhood education
> programs means that more attention needs to be paid to the role of adult
> education in contributing to the cost-benefits of both ABE and ECE.
>
> Extensive research also shows that adult's cognitive, language, and 
> literacy
> skills can be transferred intergenerationally to their children. Hart &
> Risley (1995) present extensive data showing how the oral language skills
> of parents in professional, working class, and welfare homes are used to
> transfer thinking, language, and literacy skills to their children.
>
> Because of the importance of adult basic education in promoting the
> intergenerational transfer of both cognitive and noncognitive skills from
> parents to their children, education policy needs to be focused not just 
> on
> one child's life cycle, but on the life cycles of both adults and their
> children.
>
> A "Life Cycles" policy for education explicitly recognizes that 
> educational
> policies do not affect only one generation but through the
> intergenerational transfer of motivation, language, and literacy they
> affect many cycles of lives across generations (see also Sticht, 1983). 
> For
> this reason governments need to invest in adult literacy and lifelong
> education with the understanding that this investment will not only 
> provide
> returns in terms of increased productivity, health, and civic 
> participation
> on the part of the adults, but also with the understanding that the
> investment in the education of adults may also produce returns in the
> increased educability of the adult's children. Good adult education in
> parenting is the backbone of good preschool education.
>
> Today we have a better understanding that poorly educated children are the
> source of adult functional illiteracy, and functionally illiterate adults
> are the source of poorly educated children. The hope is that through
> education based on a Life Cycles policy,  in which children are guaranteed
> their right to educated parents, the vicious intergenerational cycles of
> functional illiteracy can be stopped at their sources.
>
> References
>
> Hart, B. & Risley, T. (1995). Meaningful differences in the everyday
> experiences of young American children. Baltimore, MD: Paul H. Brookes
> Publishing Co.
>
> Lynch, R. (2004). Exceptional Returns: Economic,Fiscal,and Social Benefits
> of Investment in Early Childhood Development. Washington, DC:
> Economic Policy Institute (http://www.epinet.org)
>
> Minneapolis Federal Reserve (2005, June). Interview with James. J. 
> Heckman.
> (http://minneapolisfed.org/pubs/region/05-06/heckman.cfm)
>
> Morrison, F., Bachman, H, & Connor, C. (2005). Improving Literacy in
> America. New Haven, CT:  Yale University Press.
>
> Sticht, T. G. (1983, February). Literacy and Human Resources Development 
> at
> Work: Investing in the Education of Adults to Improve the Educability of
> Children. Alexandria, VA: Human Resources Research Organization.
>
> Van Fossen, S. & Sticht, T. (1991, July). Teach the Mother and Reach the
> Child: Results of the Intergenerational Literacy Action Research Project 
> of
> Wider Opportunities for Women. Washington, DC: Wider Opportunities for
> Women.
>
> 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
>
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> AAACE-NLA mailing list: AAACE-NLA at lists.literacytent.org
> http://lists.literacytent.org/mailman/listinfo/aaace-nla
> LiteracyTent: web hosting, news, community and goodies for literacy
> http://literacytent.org
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> AAACE-NLA mailing list: AAACE-NLA at lists.literacytent.org
> http://lists.literacytent.org/mailman/listinfo/aaace-nla
> LiteracyTent: web hosting, news, community and goodies for literacy
> http://literacytent.org
> 

_______________________________________________
AAACE-NLA mailing list: AAACE-NLA at lists.literacytent.org
http://lists.literacytent.org/mailman/listinfo/aaace-nla
LiteracyTent: web hosting, news, community and goodies for literacy
http://literacytent.org