[AAACE-NLA] In what state agency should adult ed be located?

[David Rosen]

Colleagues,

I have received a couple of long, thoughtful emails from people with  
strong views on this topic.  I hope to get more responses, lots  
more.  I also hope more people will, as Tom Sticht has done, post  
their views directly to the AAACE-NLA discussion list.

I would be interested in hearing arguments on all sides of this  
question. It is important that we discuss this, and cite specific  
examples, if possible, as several states may be thinking about the  
question of the best state agency home for adult literacy education.  
I wonder if there are any State ABE Directors, for example, who want  
to weigh in on this, or people who work in professional development  
who have watched their state blossom or wither because of a change in  
the state agency home for adult ed. I wonder if anyone has seen a  
smoothe and sensible transition from one agency to another who has  
some comments on this question.


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

On Mar 27, 2008, at 2:07 PM, tsticht at znet.com wrote:
> David: I vote for the Adult Education and Literacy System (AELS) of  
> each
> stae and at the federal level to be in the Department of Education,  
> not
> Department of Labor or Workforce Development, etc. The following  
> note is
> relevant here. Tom Sticht
>
>
> July 16, 2005
>
>
> Moving the Adult Education and Literacy System From the Margins
> to the Mainstream of Education in the United States:
> Grounds For New Hope From the U. S. Senate
>
> Tom Sticht
> International Consultant in Adult Education
>
> The recent Senate Appropriations Committee bill concerning adult  
> education
> contains important information about how the Committee regards the  
> Adult
> Education State Programs administered by the U.S. Department of  
> Education,
> Office of Adult and Vocational Education, Division of Adult  
> Education and
> Literacy. By providing funding for FY2006 at the same level as in  
> FY2005,
> the Committee rejected the Bush administration’s request for more  
> than $375
> million in cuts in the State Grant funds which provide the federal
> government’s support for the Adult Education and Literacy System  
> (AELS) of
> the United States.
>
> Importantly, the bill passed by the Committee redirects the focus  
> of adult
> education and literacy development away from the workforce focus that
> engulfed the AELS when the original Adult Education Act of 1966 was
> incorporated into the Workforce Investment Act of 1998. The  
> Committee’s
> language is direct in challenging this workforce focus for the  
> AELS, and
> states, "The Committee recognizes the diverse population eligible for
> services under this program, ranging from adults striving to  
> complete their
> secondary education to workers requiring better English skills to  
> benefit
> from employer-provided job training and to grandparents desiring  
> the skills
> necessary to help grandchildren to learn to read."
>
> This shows that the Senate Committee understands that the AELS aims to
> provide educational opportunities for adults that will help them  
> achieve
> multiple outcomes. Importantly, the Committee report goes on to  
> say, " The
> Committee  also notes that while some participants cite employment  
> as their
> reason for enrolling in an adult education program, many program
> participants do not establish this as a goal." This directly  
> indicates that
> the Committee understands that the AELS is primarily an education  
> system,
> not a job training and employment program.
>
> The fact that the Committee recognizes that the AELS is an  
> education system
> and not a job training or employment program is further evidenced  
> by the
> Committee’s statement that, "Furthermore, even if employment is a  
> goal,
> increased earnings might not be associated with the career goals of  
> the
> more than one-third of adult education participants currently  
> employed.
> Therefore, the Committee has recommended level funding for this  
> program,
> and urges the Department to consider these facts when assessing  
> program
> performance under the Adult Education program and the  
> appropriateness of
> including this education program under the Administration's  
> initiative to
> identify common measures for job training and employment programs."
>
> In making this statement, the Senate Committee is admonishing the Bush
> administration for evaluating the AELS using "common measures for job
> training and employment programs" and using these inappropriate  
> measures
> for justifying the Draconian cuts in the administration’s request for
> funding for the State Grants in FY2006.
>
> I am especially pleased to find these comments in the Senate  
> Committee’s
> bill because they are consistent with recommendations I made in a  
> March
> 2001 paper entitled "The POWER of Adult Education: Moving the Adult
> Education and Literacy System of the United States From the Margins  
> to the
> Mainstream of Education". In that paper
> (http://www.nald.ca/fulltext/sticht/power/cover.htm) I 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 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.
> In another part of the paper I enumerated various returns to  
> investment
> that result from participating in the AELS such as benefits in health,
> parenting, citizenship, community service, etc.  (and I notice that  
> the
> Senate Committee added benefits in grandparenting!).
>
> In my March 2001 paper I argued that  "Today, the Adult Education and
> Literacy System is positioned to take its place alongside the K-12 and
> Higher Education systems as the third branch of the structure of  
> public
> education in the United States." In our efforts to move the AELS  
> from the
> margins to the mainstream we have had to overcome severe roadblocks,
> including the introduction of the National Reporting System which  
> drove
> hundreds of community based programs and their students out of the  
> AELS,
> and the drastic cuts to the State Grants requested by the Bush
> administration for FY2006 resulting from applying inappropriate  
> measures to
> evaluate the benefits of the AELS.
>
> Now, with this statement from the U. S. Senate Appropriations  
> Committee, the
> adult education and literacy field has received a great boost  
> forward in its
> advocacy for the AELS. Once again the field of adult educators can  
> pick up
> the banner and rally around the cry for moving the Adult Education and
> Literacy System from the margins to the mainstream of education in the
> United States.
>
> And once again, as I did in the March 2001 paper, I call upon the  
> U. S.
> Department of Education to include the Adult Education and Literacy  
> System
> (AELS) as an integral component of any graphic displays of the  
> educational
> structure of the United States that the National Center for Education
> Statistics or any other government agencies provide in reports of the
> status of education in the United States. While this is a small  
> action, it
> is an important symbolic action that can provide recognition for the
> hundreds of thousands of teachers and tutors who daily strive to  
> provide a
> quality educational experience for millions of adult students yearly.
>
> Thanks to the U. S. Senate Appropriations Committee, there is  
> renewed hope
> for the AELS and the millions of adults it serves. The AELS can  
> move from
> the margins to the mainstream of education.
>
> ¡Si, se puede!
>
> 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
>
>
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David Rosen
DJRosen at theworld.com