[AAACE-NLA] Literacy President petition: what have we learned?

Fri Dec 28 12:05:41 EST 2007

Maureen and others,

This is enormously helpful. I know that Delaware is a state that has  
long supported adult learner involvement, and I am glad to learn that  
there are several practitioner organizations, and the State  
Department of Education who also work together on advocacy.  Having a  
governor who understands the critical importance of adult literacy  
and basic education certainly can make a difference. What a  
difference we might see if our next President placed a high value on  
public support for adult literacy education!

A couple of states have mentioned that it was important to provide a  
paper-based option where students could sign a printed petition, and  
their support could then be input into the online petition. That's a  
good point to keep in mind for the future -- unfortunately not all  
teachers, tutors students and alumni have easy access to a computer.  
That's something else we all need to work on!

And thanks, Maureen,  for the important reminder of the "importance  
of students talking with students" about advocacy.

David J. Rosen
Adult Literacy Advocate
DJRosen at theworld.com

On Dec 27, 2007, at 11:38 AM, Whelan Maureen wrote:

> David,
>
> Delaware's support was gathered from several avenues of advocacy.  
> We are
> proud that adult learning is viewed as critical to the learners and
> their families, the local community and the state as evidenced by our
> Governor, Ruth Ann Minner, who is a GED recipient herself. We have
> several layers of organizations that support Adult Education  
> including:
> ICAL (Interagency Council on Adult Literacy chaired by the Lt.  
> Governor
> and composed of various state agencies), OAASIS (Organization of Adult
> Alumni and Students in Service), DAACE (Delaware Association of Adult
> and Continuing Educators), and DCL (Delaware Coalition for  
> Literacy) as
> well as the Department of Education where we are housed.
>
> For this effort, program administrators, students, student alumni, and
> literacy volunteers mobilized their efforts.
>
> Here are some of the strategies that worked this time:
>
> Information on the public awareness campaign was disseminated by state
> level administration to program directors via listserv messages. The
> program directors copied information and distributed to teachers who
> informed students about the campaign.  Some students got on the  
> Internet
> and registered themselves and some teachers helped students signing  
> onto
> the Internet. For students at satellite sites with no Internet access,
> students were asked if they wanted to sign a paper with the relevant
> information and volunteers inputted the information at program  
> centers.
>
> Our OAASIS workers on their off hours talked to students about the
> importance of getting involved, circulated information, helped  
> students
> sign on. The power of students talking to students is tremendous!
>
> Our library literacy programs emailed their tutors who then worked
> students to sign in.
>
> ABE and ESL teachers used the activity as an example of citizen
> involvement in Civics lessons and informed students how they could log
> on if they wished to participate.
>
> Our Prison Education Program informed incarcerated students about the
> effort and stated that their families might like to get involved since
> offender use of the Internet is prohibited. We have no way of gauging
> the effectiveness here but some families are highly supportive.
>
> Our challenges were:
> 1. the time of the year - it is a busy time but clearly Delawareans
> thought it was worth their time and effort even amongst all the other
> events.  (We have a total population of about 854,000.)
> 2. some programs have more refined communication systems so that quick
> turn around campaigns can be mobilized more easily.  We will talk  
> about
> this more with programs in 08.
>
> We learned that:
> we need to provide a space on our websites for updates on Adult
> Education campaigns, legislation, efforts, etc. so that students can
> check in to see what is happening.  We are hoping to do this  
> through our
> OAASIS website, it is static right now but we are looking to  
> upgrade it.
>
>
> Hope this helps and a Very Happy New Year to everyone.
> Maureen
>
>
> Maureen Whelan
> State Director of Adult Education
> Delaware Dept. of Education
> John W. Collette Education Resource Center
> 35 Commerce Way - Suite 1
> Dover, DE 19904
> (302) 857-3342  Phone
> (302) 739-1770  Fax
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: aaace-nla-bounces at lists.literacytent.org
> [mailto:aaace-nla-bounces at lists.literacytent.org] On Behalf Of
> DJRosen at TheWorld.com
> Sent: Wednesday, December 26, 2007 1:20 PM
> To: AAACE-NLA at lists.literacytent.org
> Subject: Re: [AAACE-NLA] Literacy President petition: what have we
> learned?
>
> Colleagues,
>
> I am beginning to get some responses from those who worked to get
> Literacy
> President petition signatures, but I haven't heard yet from Delaware,
> Pennsylvania and Illinois. Of course I would like to hear from all the
> states that were involved in trying to get signatures on the petition.
>
> * What did you learn from this?
> * How did you get participation?
> * What were your strategies?
> * What were the challenges?
> * How did you overcome the challenges (if you did) ?
>
> If you want to send your responses to me, if I get enough I'll  
> compile a
> summary stripping out specifics that would identify comments with
> individuals or states.
>
> I know that some states and programs were challenged in helping adult
> learners get access to -- and learn how to use -- computers to answer
> the
> survey.
>
> * What were the specific challenges?
> * What did you do to address them?
> * What will you do to prepare for petitions in the future so that more
> adult learners have the choice of signing them?
>
> David J. Rosen
> Adult Literacy Advocate
> djrosen at theworld.com
>
> -----
> On Dec 19, 2007, at 10:30 AM, I wrote:
>
> Hello Jon and others,
>
> Although we did not reach the goal, this number of signatures is
> respectable especially since, as far as I know, it is the first time
> that any organization has tried a national petition from our field.
> Congratulations to VALUE for providing the leadership and thank you,
> Jon, for posting the updates and reminders here.
>
> Let's hear from Delaware, Pennsylvania and Illinois especially, but
> also from other states: how did you get the participation?  What were
> your strategies? We can all benefit from your experience so that we
> can apply it next time to reach a 10,000 signature goal.
>
> David J. Rosen
> Adult Literacy Advocate
> DJRosen at theworld.com
>
> On Dec 18, 2007, at 8:33 PM, Jon Randall wrote:
>
>
> The signatures have been downloaded and document prep is underway for
> tomorrow's in-person delivery to 2008 Presidential candidates with
> offices in Washington, DC. All candidates will receive electronic
> versions of the petition.
>
> The final count ... 5,796 persons have signed the Literacy President
> Petition, urging all of the 2008 Presidential candidates to answer 5
> questions regarding what their adult literacy policy will be, once
> they
> are elected President. Thank you to everyone who signed the
> petition and
> encouraged others to do so too.
>
> Final state tallies ...
>
> Delaware poured it on in the final days, ending up with 994
> signatures!
> Pennsylvania came in second, with 562. Illinois came in third, with
> 514.
>
> The second tier includes: New York (376); Kentucky (371); Tennessee
> (362); and Massachusetts (352).
>
> The third tier includes: Arizona (189); North Carolina (166); the
> District of Columbia (161); California (143); New Hampshire (127); New
> Jersey (124); and Vermont (119).
>
> In the basement, with fewer than 100 signatues since the petition was
> launched on November 3rd ...
>
> (level A, 75-99) ... KS = 97; MO & RI = 88 each; MD = 81
>
> (level B, 50-74) ... FL = 69; ME = 68; SC = 66; WA = 60; ND = 56; IA =
> 52; MT = 51
>
> (level C, 25-49) ... IN = 44; LA = 38; VA = 33; TX - 32; CT = 27; GA =
> 26; WV = 25
>
> (level D, 1-24) ... NM = 23; SD = 22; CO & MN = 19 each; MI, OH & WI =
> 18 each; NV = 15; AK = 14; HI = 11; AL & OK = 10 each; UT = 9; AR &
> OR =
> 7 each; WY = 5; MS & NE = 4 each; ID = 3
>
> The final petition will soon be on the VALUE web site as a PDF
> document.
> We will also post pictures of VALUE staff and Board members
> hand-delivering the petition.
>
> Thanks for all of your efforts.
>
> - Jon
>
> Jon Randall
> VALUE Consultant
> jrandall at valueusa.org
>
>
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>
>
> David Rosen
> DJRosen at theworld.com
>
>
>
>
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David Rosen
DJRosen at theworld.com