[AAACE-NLA] In what state agency should ed be located?
Bickerton, Robert P (DOE)
RBickerton at doe.mass.edu
Sun Mar 30 09:48:18 EDT 2008
Dear David, Kevin, Kenny, et al:
I agree with Kevin Smith that the agency responsible for adult basic education (from literacy to adult secondary education and English for speakers of other languages) must be prepared to make a major commitment to the program and all related services. We also all know of far too many instances where this is not the case.
For me this issue comes down to more than simply determining which agency might be most inclined (at the moment) to truly support ABE. The very diverse group of activists that galvanized ABE in Massachusetts in the 1980's were in agreement that the MA Dept. of Education was certainly NOT fulfilling that role. Some of us, risking funding to our programs, were circulating a petition calling for major changes at the DOE -- of course the core of us behind this effort has already met with our state reps and obtained their commitment to support us against any retribution!
In the middle of this effort, a more powerful than usual House chair of our Joint Committee on Education (a Senator co-chairs the committee) offered to take us out of MDOE and have a new adult ed office report directly to the Governor. Our initial response was ecstatic. This might finally be the answer to years of frustration with the absence of leadership and support. In retrospect quite wisely, we told our House Chairman / "champion" that we needed to talk more together and with others in the field before we could respond.
Deep and sometimes difficult discussions led us to shift from support for this move to the Gov's office to a different approach. We concluded the following:
* Adult Ed is at its heart an education program and must be most closely aligned with the major education efforts of the state. Our mission was to help students move from illiteracy through high school completion -- and to bring LEP adults to this same level of competence in English. The MDOE covers the same knowledge, skills and abilities that we do and the Board of Education is in charge of the standards for H.S. graduation. MDOE was our most appropriate home.
* The allure of being a Gubernatorial Initiative was great, but we also understood that this can change dramatically when administrations change. We wanted change BUT we wanted our field to be among the drivers of that change. We also knew that the changes we wanted to make in ABE would take time -- a lot of time, and as it turns out, even more time than any of us imagined back in the mid-1980's.
So, we told the House Ed Committee Chair that we wanted to change the Dept. of Education rather than change where ABE was located. We've been relatively successful, but it hasn't been easy and sometimes it feels a bit like 1 (or 2) steps forward and 1 (or 2) steps back. There's nothing easy about it. However, we have benefitted from both the expertise of the Department, particularly its efforts related to Education Reform in our state (which pre-date NCLB) and with all the attention and resources that have come with that initiative. While I would not attribute the 750% increase in state funding from the mid-1990's to 2000 to K-12 Ed Reform -- it was our students, our field, and our partners that made that happen -- I am convinced it would have been far more difficult to sustain this support and growth outside of MDOE over that period. And given the severe cutbacks to health, human services, workforce development and even higher ed during the economic downturn in our state from 2000 through 2005, I'm certain that the relative stability of ABE funding during this period would not have been possible in the Gov's Office or another state agency.
All that said, when ABE is located in the state education agency, it has a special obligation to:
* reach out to ALL organizations involved in adult literacy, adult secondary ed and ESOL -- and provide a meaningful (direct and equitable) opportunity for every such organization to be well funded (within the limits of the overall funding available to the state);
* work very hard to establish coordinated and increasingly integrated services with our workforce development, health and human services partners.
I wouldn't change the decision we made in the mid 1980's about locating ABE in the state department of ed. It's been a very challenging and often uphill struggle, but we continue to make progress over time -- and that's a good thing!
take care,
bob bickerton, MA sr associate commissioner of education
________________________________
From: aaace-nla-bounces at lists.literacytent.org on behalf of ktamarkin at mcae.net
Sent: Sat 3/29/2008 6:16 PM
To: National Literacy Advocacy List sponsored by AAACE
Subject: Re: [AAACE-NLA] In what state agency should ed be located?
Hi David,
In Massachusetts, one of our strengths is the diversity of providers funded by our Department of Education, recently renamed the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education. In addition to Local Education Providers (LEAs) or schools, the Department funds Community Based Organizations (CBOs), Community Colleges, Houses of Correction (prisons), workplaces, union halls, and libraries. Day and evening programming is supported. Programs are in urban, suburban, and rural locations.
This arrangement has worked well for Massachusetts, since ABE programs have the skilled support of the state education department and the flexibility to be convenient for students.
Kenny Tamarkin
Executive Director
MCAE
KTamarkin at mcae.net
978-979-1906
On Sat 03/29/08 1:13 PM , David Rosen DJRosen at theworld.com sent:
Colleagues,
For states that have moved adult education from the state's K-12
agency to the labor and workforce development or higher education
agency, has this solved the kind of problem Dale Norred describes below?
I am continuing to get offline messages on this topic, and am glad to
see there are also some postings to the AAACE-NLA discussion list. I
hope ohers will weigh in on this very important issue. What are the
pros and cons of adult education located in the state's K-12 agency?
In the Labor and Workforce Development agency? In a higher education
agency?
David J. Rosen
Adult Literacy Advocate
Djrosen at theworld.com
On Mar 28, 2008, at 9:42 AM, Dale Norred wrote:
> In Louisiana ABE and ESL are located in the Dept of Education. As
> a parish government providing literacy in the rural
> areas located along our bayous we provide a much need service as
> many can't get the public school location. The public
> school system only offers ABE during the day; therefore doesn't
> meet the needs of many people. Unfortunately the money
> stays in the public school setting and we have to rely on other
> funding for our program. This is difficult as most grant
> making foundations exclude public entities. Our funding comes from
> faith based organizations, public/private non-profits,
> United Way, CSBG and CDBG entitlement funds.
> -----Original Message-----
> From: aaace-nla-bounces at lists.literacytent.org
> [aaace-nla-bounces at lists.literacytent.org]On Behalf Of
> tsticht at znet.com
> Sent: Thursday, March 27, 2008 1:08 PM
> To: aaace-nla at lists.literacytent.org
> Subject: Re: [AAACE-NLA] In what state agency should ed be located?
>
>
> 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) <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
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