[AAACE-NLA] NIFL has achieved major accomplishments

[tsticht at znet.com]

Aaace-nla Colleagues: Greg Smith recently posted a message stating "Tom
Sticht recently posted that, based on his reading of the RMC report, he
concluded that there is no evidence that LINCS has led to improvements in
literacy policy and programs."

Greg is correct in what I concluded in my comments about the RMC report but
in my earlier critique of the NIFL I had said that it was clear that the
NIFL’s LINCS had improved communication among adult literacy educators.

In my comments in the posting that Greg is talking about, I did acknowledge
that the RMC report had favorable things to say about the LINCS but that in
its recommendations and conclusions it said: "[The] vision and direction for
LINCS have evolved and are still evolving. The organization’s goals and
intentions have become unfocused and broad.
Emphasis has been on process and technology, not outcomes. Program
monitoring has not been systematic; there has been no formal evaluation.
Consequently, the value of LINCS is difficult to assess."

Based on the RMC report that the NIFL has focussed on process and technology
not outcomes and that the LINCS had no formal evaluation, I concluded that
there is "no evidence that LINCS has led to improvements in literacy policy
and programs" which is what the RMC report said the LINCS was aimed at
achieving.

I did not read anything in Greg’s message to change this conclusion.

Tom Sticht