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

[Whelan Maureen]

In Delaware, Adult Education is positioned within the Department of
Education with the support of our Governor and Secretary of Education. 

Our position in DOE allows for mutual benefits for K-12 and Adult
Education.  
Adult Education and K-12 share/collaborate/align on curriculum issues
and at the same time, we offer services to students who have left the
K-12 system and to their parents. Through DOE, we are able to access
educational resources unavailable in other agencies while advocating for
lifelong learning, cradle to grave, thereby expanding the 
K-12 or K-20 perspective.  

Through WIA Incentive funds, we are working with the Department of Labor
to institutionalize Adult Learning into the career training process.
Through systems integration, Adult Ed can access adults who need
additional learning to keep or advance in their job and when training is
completed refer the student back to DOL. This process is in its
fledgling stages but it benefits the customer, DOL, and DOE. The adult
is receiving the best of each agency's expertise in a concerted effort
to reach a common goal while demonstrating the value of education to
family members. 

Correctional Education is also a part of the Adult Education system
ensuring the offenders are receiving services that are transferable and
transportable inside and outside the walls. 

Having a minimum of experience as state director, here are some initial
thoughts.  


1. Adult Education needs to be institutionalized and recognized within
the educational and workforce development processes.  
2. Adult Education achieves its goals and maximizes impact when it is
positioned within an environment that supports/reinforces its core
services (academic skills up high school diploma that enable students to
attain the NRS core goals).  For Delaware, this is DOE. 
2. Adult education needs formalized linkages with the state agencies
concerned with Labor, DHSS, Corrections, and Economic Development to
ensure access to adult learners needing services. 
3. Adult Education needs collaborations with higher education to
transition learners to further education and/or training and assists in
continuous improvement of the AE system.
4. Adult Education needs the business community to integrate continued
learning into its strategic plan for global competitiveness. 

In real estate, location, location, location is the mantra, but in AE
processes and collaborations are key ingredients to providing effective
and efficient services to adult learners. 

  
Just some thoughts. 
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 David
Rosen
Sent: Thursday, March 27, 2008 9:26 AM
To: National Literacy Advocacy List sponsored by AAACE
Subject: [AAACE-NLA] In what state agency should adult ed be located?

Colleagues,

In recent years, in several states, adult education has been moved  
(usually by the governor) out of the state agency responsible for  
K-12 education into the state labor/workforce development agency or a  
higher education agency. Maryland's governor, for example, has  
recently proposed moving (decided to move?) adult ed from the  
Maryland State Department of Education to the Department of Labor,  
Licensing and Regulation. (See http://tinyurl.com/2repvs )

Where does adult ed belong at the state level? Have any states  
benefited from moving adult ed out of the K-12 education agency? Have  
any suffered? Does moving adult ed mean it gets less or more  
attention? Does it  constrain its mission, make it harder, for  
example,  to serve basic literacy students, older adults, or those  
with learning disabilities? Does it result in increased or decreased  
funding? How has professional development fared with these changes?  
Has your state considered moving adult ed and decided against it? If  
so, why?

If you have views about this but would prefer to email them to me  
privately, please do.  (I may post these here later, in a summary of  
the discussion, without identifying the source of those sent to me  
privately.)

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



_______________________________________________
AAACE-NLA mailing list: AAACE-NLA at lists.literacytent.org
http://lists.literacytent.org/mailman/listinfo/aaace-nla
LiteracyTent: web hosting, news, community and goodies for literacy
http://literacytent.org