[AAACE-NLA] Adult Education Content Standards Discussion begins on Monday

[David Rosen]

Colleagues,

Beginning Monday, June 9th, and continuing through Friday, June 20th,  
on the National Institute for Literacy Special Topics list, we will  
discuss the implementation of state adult education content  
standards. Experts from several states will talk about the  
opportunities and challenges they have experienced as they work with  
teachers, administrators and others who are developing curriculum,  
and designing and teaching lessons that reflect their state's content  
standards. Our guests include: Miriam Kroeger, from Arizona; Raye  
Nell Spillman, from Louisiana; Karen Lisch Gianninoto, from Maryland;  
Judy Franks, from Ohio; Pam Blundel, from Oklahoma; Philip Anderson,  
from Florida; and Federico Salas, from Texas. You will find  
background information on all of our guest experts below. I hope you  
will join us for this discussion. I hope you will also forward this  
announcement to your colleagues who may be interested!

To subscribe to the discussion, go to:

http://www.nifl.gov/mailman/listinfo/specialtopics

You can unsubscribe later by going to the same web page or, if you  
prefer, you can stay subscribed for the next discussion.

Adult Education Content Standards Warehouse

Sponsored by the U.S. Department of Education, the Adult Education  
Content Standards Warehouse "provides access to materials for  
developing, aligning, and implementing adult education content  
standards in the areas of English language acquisition, mathematics,  
and reading. On this site you can find content standards from a  
variety of states and organizations; learn about the process of  
developing standards in A Process Guide for Establishing State Adult  
Education Content Standards; and find field resources on professional  
development and national and international standards." The web site  
address is:

http://www.adultedcontentstandards.ed.gov/


Background on Discussion Guests

Philip Anderson started his English teaching career in 1974 as a  
Peace Corps volunteer in the Dominican Republic.  English teaching  
was a sideline to his main project of helping farmers groups with pig  
raising projects.  After Peace Corps, Phil continued to live in the  
Dominican Republic as a pastor for small church groups, and he  
continued to teach English to adults who wanted to emigrate to the  
U.S.  In 1986, he returned to the states to finish college at UC  
Davis.  With a MS in community development, Phil went to Haiti in  
1991.  There, Phil taught woodworking at a vocational school, taught  
English, managed a large soil conservation project (not all at the  
same time)!  In 1995, Phil returned to the states, and became a part- 
time adult ESOL instructor at night for Palm Beach county in Belle  
Glade, Florida.  In 1998, he joined the adult ESOL program at South  
Florida Community College, where he was department chair from  
2000-2004.  Since 2004, Phil has worked at the Florida Department of  
Education.  There Phil manages EL Civics state leadership grants and  
provides technical assistance trainings to adult ESOL instructors  
statewide.

Pam Blundell has been involved in Oklahoma's development and  
implementation of content standards since 2002-2003 when the state  
held its first discussions around the possibility of introducing the  
Equipped for the Future (EFF) teaching and learning system to the  
field. Pam was given the task of overseeing the state's first EFF  
pilot project in 2003-2004. During the EFF pilot year, the state  
decided to expand the EFF training and officially adopt EFF content  
standards statewide. At that time, Pam was asked to coordinate this  
long-term process. Pam has continued to be directly involved in the  
implementation and oversight of the integration of content standards  
into the adult education classroom. This process has involved the  
development of new tools and training processes and most recently,  
leading the state's Standards-In-Action (SIA) team. Prior to coming  
to the state, Pam worked as an adult education teacher integrating  
EFF standards into instruction.

Judy Franks is currently on staff at the Ohio Literacy Resource  
Center as a Literacy Projects Coordinator. She was involved  
originally with the Equipped for the Future (EFF) Standards-based  
System Reform Initiative, coordinating the Ohio Research Field Sites  
and training as a Certified State Facilitator. Judy has had  
experience developing and working with the standards at the program,  
state, and national levels. As a veteran instructor of training and  
development courses, Judy's background in adult basic education since  
1992 includes family literacy, GED classroom instruction and the  
development of a workforce training program.

Karen Lisch Gianninoto's involvement with the Maryland Content  
Standards for Adults ESL/ESOL began when she was working part-time as  
an ESL instructor. She "was one of the teachers complaining from the  
field that we needed standards". As a full time high school teacher,  
she knew how helpful standards were in guiding instruction. Not long  
after, she was appointed to the ESL Workgroup that developed the  
content standards document.

Four years ago, she became the ESL Specialist for the Maryland State  
Department of Education. When she took the position, she was  
"grateful the content standards were finished. Little did I know that  
my work was just beginning. Over the past four years, the content  
standards have been revised three times, the ESL content standards  
have been implemented in all of Maryland's programs, state trainers  
have completed a training process, and a training manual was  
completed. Yet, there is more to learn about standards. Maryland has  
been most fortunate to participate in the CAELA and SIA Projects  
funded through OVAE. These projects have helped Maryland refine our  
training and provided instructors with the tools to understand  
content standards."

Miriam Kroeger has been involved in Adult Education as a volunteer,  
teacher, coordinator, administrator and specialist since 1972 and in  
Arizona since 1978. She has taught adult English learners and adults  
studying for their secondary school credential at a variety of  
locations including elementary and secondary schools, community  
colleges, jails, and prisons; she works with K-12 and adult  
educators, and has visited teachers throughout the state of Arizona.  
Miriam has served on state, regional and national committees; on the  
boards of the Arizona Association for Lifelong Learning, the Mountain  
Plains Adult Education Association and Arizona Teachers of English to  
Speakers of Other Languages. She has been on national working groups  
involved with adult education standards and teacher development and  
was an original team member in the development and implementation of  
Arizona's Standards for Adult Learners. She was also a member of the  
Standards Specialist/Resource Teachers team that assisted programs  
and instructors in the implementation of the standards. As an  
Education Program Specialist in the Arizona Department of Education,  
Adult Education Services unit during the past six years, one of her  
responsibilities was to spearhead the revisions to the Reading,  
Writing, Math, Science, Social Studies and ELAA (ESOL) Arizona Adult  
Education Standards. These revisions were published in December 2007,  
and the training process in understanding and utilizing the standards  
continues.

Federico Salas-Isnardi is Assistant State Director of Adult Education  
in Texas.  He oversees the Professional Development System in the  
state.  He has worked for 20 years in the field of adult Education as  
an ESL and GED instructor, professional developer, curriculum writer,  
and program administrator.  He has trained adult educators for over  
18 years on topics ranging from language acquisition to  
individualized professional development planning, and from cross- 
cultural communication and multicultural awareness to educational  
leadership.

Between 2004 and 2007, Federico represented the state office of adult  
education in the AE Content Standards Project team that adopted the  
standards and wrote the benchmarks for Texas AE Content Standards  
document.  In that capacity he worked with the project staff and  
observed the work of the standards writers.  He also helped  
articulate the vision of the state in regards to the adoption  
process.  During the first two years of the project, Federico was the  
state’s liaison to the National Adult Education Content Standards  
Consortium.

Raye Nell D. Spillman has worked in the Louisiana State Department of  
Education, Office of School and Community Support, Adult and Family  
Literacy Services for four years. Ms. Spillman holds an undergraduate  
degree from Louisiana State University in the field of education. She  
has taught in the K-12 public education system and served on numerous  
committees to advance the education of children and adults. After the  
approval and adoption of The Louisiana Adult Education Content  
Standards in October 2006, Ms. Spillman was instrumental in  
introducing the standards to adult education instructors across the  
state in collaboration with the Louisiana Association for Public,  
Community and Adult Education. The following summer, Louisiana  
applied for and was one of six states accepted to participate in  
OVAE's Standards-in-Action (SIA) project. Ms. Spillman headed the  
Louisiana team who accepted their charge to pilot test training  
materials for implementing adult education standards use in the  
classroom. Again this year, Ms. Spillman and the Louisiana team are  
looking forward to participating in Part 2 of the Standards-in-Action  
project.

David J. Rosen
National Institute for Literacy
Special Topics Discussion Moderator
djrosen at comcast.net


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