"The Field's Bill": ABE for the 21st Century -- part 1 of 3
Robert P Bickerton
rbickerton at doe.mass.edu
Thu Apr 24 11:21:02 EDT 1997
Dear All,
Following is the first of three installments of the "Adult Basic
Education for the 21st Century Act" that has been developed in
consultation with (and signed off on by) most of the non-federal
members of National Coalition for Literacy (including to varying
extents: the National Council of State Directors of Adult Education,
Literacy Volunteers of America, Laubach Literacy Action, TESOL, United
Way, NCFL, etc.)
This bill may or may not end up being submitted in its own right,
however, major portions of it are already included in the House bill
and are also likely to be included in the Senate bill. I am hoping
that all advocates for ABE/ESOL (etc.) will rally around its
provisions and underlying philosophy (which have been carefully
negotiated among the many constituencies identified above as well as
legions of others) and push the bills emerging from the House and the
Senate as far in its direction as possible.
More on this later -- here's part one of three:
20 March 1997
ADULT BASIC EDUCATION FOR THE 21ST CENTURY ACT
PART A: BASIC PROGRAM PROVISIONS
Section 101 SHORT TITLE; TABLE OF CONTENTS
(a) SHORT TITLE - Adult Basic Education Act
(b) TABLE OF CONTENTS
Section 101. Short Title; Table Of Contents
Section 102. Findings and Purpose
Section 103. Definitions
Section 104. Authorization of Appropriations; Allotments
TITLE I. STATE PROGRAMS
PART A BASIC STATE GRANTS
Section 105. Basic Grants to States & Use of Funds
Section 106. Eligible Sub-Grantees
Section 107. Eligible Activities
PART B STATE ADMINISTRATIVE RESPONSIBILITIES
Section 108. State Administration
Section 109. Reporting
PART C CONTINUOUS IMPROVEMENT
Section 110. Accountability and Quality Assurance
Section 111. Program and Professional Development
PART D PLANNING AND APPLICATION PROCESS
Section 112. State Advisory Council
Section 113. State Application
Section 114. Financial Responsibilities
TITLE II. NATIONAL RESEARCH & DEVELOPMENT
Section 201. Accountability and Reporting Results
Section 202. Coordination of Policy, Research & Development
Section 203. National Institute For Literacy
Section 204. National Programs
Section 102 FINDINGS AND PURPOSE
(a) FINDINGS
(1) The economic health of our nation, our communities and
our families are increasingly dependent on our success in
a global marketplace where the high levels of workplace
performance needed to successfully compete depend on the
knowledge, skills and abilities of our nation's
workforce;
(2) Adults dependent on public assistance lack a strong
educational foundation at twice the rate of our nation's
self-sufficient population and will be unable to secure
and keep the jobs we expect them to take unless their
educational foundation is strengthened;
(3) Research confirms that patterns of literacy, illiteracy
and under-education are intergenerational and that the
greatest single indicator of a child's academic success
is the educational level of the parent(s);
(4) The success of state efforts to reform and improve public
educations are, therefore, also dependent on our ability
to break intergenerational cycles of illiteracy and
under-education and make parents full partners in their
child's education -- that is, by ensuring that parents
firmly possess a strong educational foundation and, as
the first and most continuous teachers of their children,
parents model and instill a commitment to family literacy
and life-long learning for their families; this is
particularly important for students with disabilities who
drop out at twice the rate of students overall;
(5) Incarcerated adults lack a strong educational foundation
at twice the rate of our nation's law abiding population
and studies of crime have found the lack of this
educational foundation to be a significant indicator of
increased rates of recidivism;
(6) International studies of family and community health and
morbidity have found that the greatest single indicator
of family and community health is the educational level
of the mother;
(7) Generations of immigrants have contributed to our
communities and our economy; today's technologies and
competitive global economy require that to continue doing
so, they must master English as rapidly as possible while
taking advantage of their first language as a competitive
edge;
(8) Our most educated citizens vote and participate in civic
affairs at twice the rate of our least educated citizens;
(9) State and local efforts to improve public education will,
over time, provide a better trained and equipped
workforce, however, 90% of our nation's workforce in the
year 2000 is already employed and the job replenishment
rate from youth completing their schooling is only 2% per
year;
(10) The crucial roles that adult basic education plays in
the success of welfare reform, employment and training,
global workforce competitiveness, and family support of
children's education, make it imperative that the state
education agency reach out to other state agencies to
fashion a cooperative and supportive relationship which
offers the best chance for success. These agencies have
a similar obligation to work closely with the state
education agency in designing and conducting their
related programs.
(11) An unacceptably high number of American adults lack the
educational foundation required to successfully meet
these challenges in our economy, our communities and in
our families. According to the 1990 Census, 21% (more
than 38 million) of our nation's adults lack a high
school credential and/or are limited English proficient.
The 1991 National Adult Literacy Survey found millions
of additional adults who happen to possess high school
credentials and beyond, but who also lack this essential
educational foundation. These millions of American
adults who lack mastery of the educational foundation we
must expect from high school graduates:
(A) are at individual risk of not succeeding in the
emerging high performance workplace;
(B) place their communities at risk of not being able to
attract, support and keep such workplaces; and,
(C) place their current and future children at risk of
perpetuating intergenerational cycles of illiteracy and
under-education;
(12) The success of our communities, our states and our
nation in realizing these priorities requires that these
adult workers, family and community members possess a
strong educational foundation, yet we lack an adequate
"infrastructure" to meet this challenge. Our nation's
current profile of adult learning services is ill
supported, equipped, and organized to achieve this
important goal requiring, therefore:
(A) Increased resources from both public and private
sources in order to expand access, but this alone is not
enough.
(B) The quality of adult basic educational services needs
to be improved so that students stay in programs longer,
learn more and advance further towards their goals.
(b) PURPOSE - It is the purpose of the Adult Basic Education
For The 21ST Century Act to assist states in developing and
strengthening an adult education infrastructure across our
nation's communities and regions that:
(1) Improves educational opportunities for adults who lack
the level of literacy skills requisite to effective
citizenship and productive employment, expands and
improves the current system for delivering adult
education services to adults from the most basic levels
of literacy through high school proficiency, and
encourages the establishment of adult education programs
that will -
(A) enable adults to acquire a basic educational
foundation;
(B) enable adults to benefit from job training and
retraining programs and to obtain, retain and advance in
productive employment;
(C) enable adults to more fully enjoy the benefits and
accept the responsibilities of citizenship;
(D) enable adults functioning at the most basic levels
of literacy to continue their education to at least the
level of completion of secondary school and mastery
communicating in English; and,
(E) enables states to improve public education by
promote intergenerational literacy through expanded
parent education and family literacy programs.
(2) Establishes a unified system of adult basic education
with:
(A) a much stronger focus on results, increased
flexibility and accountability,
(B) an increased capacity to effectively serve all
under-educated and limited English proficient adults,
including those with disabilities,
(C) increased coordination at the Federal, State and
Local levels, and
(D) a strong commitment to professional development and
the continuous improvement of adult basic education
services;
(3) Commits the Secretary of Education to work in partnership
with the fifty States and territories to establish this
infrastructure for adult basic education services in
communities and regions across the nation through the
combination of these federal resources with resources
leveraged from other federal education and employment
related programs, state funding and locally appropriated
resources;
(4) Leverages additional investment from other public and
private entities, including business, labor and human
service programs, with an interest in increasing the
educational foundation of their targeted
populations/constituencies by establishing an accessible,
responsive and effective literacy infrastructure, i.e.,
high performance core adult basic education programs
capable of addressing the needs of other stakeholders;
(5) Provides adults with a basic educational foundation that
is prerequisite to individual and family commitment to
life-long learning;
(6) Provides the administrative and instructional foundation
for adult learning programs to produce quality results
across the broad range of public policy priorities
identified by this Act. Communities that succeed in
developing such a literacy infrastructure will be better
able to attract and leverage the additional resources
they require from other public and private organizations
and groups with a stake in their constituents achieving
one or more of these policy priorities. These adult
learning programs shall be accessible to all adults in
need of these services and shall provide adult basic
education services that are effective, accountable and
closely coordinated with other services our nation's
adults will require to meet these priority goals.
Section 103 DEFINITIONS
(1) The term adult' means an individual who has attained 16
years of age or who is not required to be enrolled in
school under State law, except that for the purpose of
section 104(b), the term adult' means an individual 16
years of age or older and not enrolled in secondary
school.
(2) The terms adult education' and adult basic education'
shall be used interchangeably and refer to instructional
and related support services for adults --
(A) who are not enrolled in secondary school;
(B) who are not currently required to be enrolled in
school; and
(C) who lack the educational foundation expected of a
high school graduate;
(D) whose inability to speak, read, and write the English
language, and compute and solve problems constitutes a
substantial impairment of their ability to obtain, retain
and/or function on the job, in their family and in
society commensurate with their real ability, to achieve
their goals, and develop their knowledge and potential,
and thus are in need of programs to help eliminate such
inability and raise their level of education and
self-sufficiency.
(3) The term "family literacy services" includes the
following: interactive literacy activities between
parents and their children, training for parents on how
to be their children's primary teacher and to be full
partners in the education of their children, parent
literacy training, and early childhood education.
(4) The term local educational agency' means a public board
of education or other public authority legally
constituted within a State for either administrative
control or direction of public elementary or secondary
schools in a city, county, township, school district, or
other political subdivision of a State, or such
combination of school districts or counties as are
recognized in a State as an administrative agency for its
public elementary or secondary schools, except that, if
there is a separate board or other legally constituted
local authority having administrative control and
direction of adult education in public schools therein,
such term means such other board or authority.
(5) The term Secretary' means the Secretary of Education.
(6) The term State' includes the District of Columbia, the
Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, and except for the purposes
of section 313, Guam, American Samoa, Palau (until the
Compact of Free Association with Palau takes effect
pursuant to section lOl(a) of Public Law 99-658), the
Northern Mariana Islands, and the Virgin Islands.
(7) The term State educational agency' means the State board
of education or other agency or officer primarily
responsible for the State supervision of public
elementary and secondary schools, or, if there is a
separate State agency or officer primarily responsible
for supervision of adult education in public
institutions, then such agency or officer may be
designated for the purpose of this title.
(8) The term institution of higher education' means any such
institution as defined by section 481 of the Higher
Education Act of 1965.
(9) The term limited English proficiency' means limited
ability in speaking, reading, writing, or understanding
the English language
(10) The term community-based organization' means a private
non profit organization which is representative of a
community or significant segments of a community and
which provides education, vocational education or
rehabilitation, job training, or internship services and
programs and includes neighborhood groups and
organizations, community action agencies, volunteer
organizations, community development corporations,
union-related organizations, employer-related
organizations, tribal governments, and organizations
serving Native Alaskans and Indians.
(11) The term "direct and equitable access" refers to the
requirement that the state education agency shall
provide all eligible providers with:
(A) the same opportunity, at the state and/or sub-state
level, to apply for and receive funds under the Act,
(B) the same announcement and application process, and
(C) an evaluation of their funding applications that is
fair and without prejudice as to effectiveness, and that
will not be denied solely on the basis of instructional
setting, use of volunteers or paid staff, or the number
of contact hours, provided that such instructional
intensity is an appropriate match with the needs and
aspirations of the students to be served.
rbickerton at doe.mass.edu (Robert P Bickerton)
Director, Adult and Community Learning Services
Massachusetts Department of Education
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