[AAACE-NLA] Meeting of the Minds Symposium II

[tsticht at znet.com]

Aaace-nla Colleagues:  Several of you have commented on my message about how
I am having difficulty finding  any research indicating that a decade and a
half of research by national centers and half a decade of increased
accountability  by the National Reporting System has in fact brought about
improvements in learner persistence, learner gains, or any other outcomes.
I went on to ask, "Does anyone know of any such research?" So far, no one
has offered any references to such research.

A number of actions have underscored the need for research that can
demonstrate that it has brought about the improvements in practice that it
has stated is its purpose and for which funds have been allocated:

(1) Attempts to drop funding for Even Start because some in the government
claimed that existing research said Even Start did not work. Indeed, I
wrote and posted on the aaace-nla list a research note critical of the
research on Even Start. I do not recall any other such postings on this
list with similar critiques of the Even Start research methodology and its
unsound conclusions.

(2) Dropping the search for What Works in adult literacy education from the
projected projects of the What Works Clearinghouse, presumably because it
could not find any research that met its criteria for demonstrating What
Works in a scientifically satisfying manner.

(3) The decision to not fund another national research center in adult
literacy education on the part of the Institute for Educational Science.
Perhaps the failure to find past research in this field sufficiently
satisfactory may have entered into this decision. I don't know.

(4) The decision by the federal adult education office to implement the
National Reporting System which resulted in the loss of some 1 million or
more enrollments per year and the mandatory use of standardized tests which
the NRS itself admitted were not comparable, but are nonetheless approved
for measuring progress through the same levels of learning.

(5) The decision by the Bush administration to ask for a 63 percent cut in
funding for the Adult Education and Literacy System (AELS) because it
thought it was not working well. Though this was fought by those in the
leadership of the adult education and literacy field, and overturned on
both methodological and political grounds, it underscores the need for
convincing research providing support for the AELS.

(6) Statements in magazines and newspapers by prominent columnists
repeatedly state that adults with low literacy are of low intelligence or
low aptitude or have bad genes and nothing much can be done about it; in
2000 a major philanthropist decided to give $100 million to children's
literacy education because, according to the news article, both the
philanthropist and "experts" say nothing much can be done about adult
literacy problems.

I have repeatedly called for greater support for research in adult literacy
education. I have noted that the Department of Defense annually spends some
$100 million dollars in adult education, training, and related personnel
activities and that is way beyond what has been provided for adult
education and literacy development research for the entire nation.

So having advocated for over 30 years for research for adult literacy
education, it is disappointing to me when I am unable to find that 15 years
of such research has seemingly not resulted in research demonstrating that
it has improved adult literacy education in some way(s).  I guess members
of this list also do not know about research that has resulted in
demonstrable improvements in adult education and literacy practice, or if
they do perhaps they just do not want to reference it here on the list
because I have not seen any such postings in response to my repeated
requests for such information.

All this leaves me deeply disappointed (but not cynical as George stated). I
still have a lot of faith in well trained and talented research scientists.
I hope that the federal government, or perhaps some private foundation will
provide the funding for such researchers to demonstrate the great value of
the Adult Education and Literacy System (AELS) in bringing about
improvements in adult's learning, improvements in multiple outcomes such as
health, community participation,  and the intergenerational transfer of
literacy from parents to their children. I still believe that one of the
best investments we can make for the education of children is an investment
in the education of adults. We need a Multiple Life Cycles education policy.
I will argue for this at greater length at the National Family Literacy
Conference March 4th in Orlando. Perhaps I'll see you there!

Tom Sticht