NLA Discussion: Certification, Salaries and Benefits

[David J Rosen]

Jay, and other NLA Colleagues,

These are are important questions.  Adult education practitioners now are
paid better in Massachusetts, but we still have a way to go.  Public
schools and community colleges tend to pay salaries that are closer to the 
public K-12 level; community-based organizations, sadly,  often pay well
below the norm.  There are still far too few full-time jobs and jobs with
benefits, although I think there may be more job security now.  We started
with a horrendously low expenditure per student -- under $100 per student
per year.  I don't have up-to-date data on this but it is well over $1,000
per student per year now, perhaps higher.  This level of expenditure
enables programs to work toward fair salaries. I might add that the only
state agency to take leadership on raising salaries has been the
Department of Education, which, while it cannot tell programs what
salaries to pay, can provide the funds and incentives needed to
encourage fair salaries, benefits, decent working conditions and full-time
jobs. Issues such as these are viewed by some in the Department of Education 
not only in the context of equity but also as factors of program quality.

This year, for the first time, our legislature has passed an act offering
adult education certification.  Voluntary (not mandatory) certification
was supported by our state adult literacy coalition -- and after years of
wrangling by those for and against certification -- voluntary
certification is supported by the field as a whole.  Some teachers want to
be able to have _adult education_ certification, as certification is a
requirement to teach in public school and corrections-based adult
education programs, and they feel that K-12 certification is not helpful
to them.  Other teachers -- for example, many who teach in community
colleges, library-based, or community-based programs where certification
can be waived -- are not convinced that certification will lead to better
salaries or jobs,  that there will be a return on their investment
of money or time.  Some are also concerned that certification will force
some good teachers out of the field.  I think that if we require
certification -- require teachers to invest their time and money to be
certified -- we must also be able to guarantee that the salaries they will
get when they are certified make their investment worthwhile.  And we
better be sure that the content and process of certification have value,
that they enable better teaching.

But this is only my view, and I'm sure there are a range of opinions from
my colleagues in Massachusetts and elsewhere on these issues you have
raised.  So, let's hear from others on this.

David J. Rosen
<DJRosen at world.std.com>

On Mon, 31 Aug 1998, jay jackson wrote:

> 
> you dont say how practitioners fared under this new system.  I always
> wonder what hoops will be raised for practitioners in terms of
> certification and preparation.  I don't have a problem with any of these
> things in and of themselves however I worry anytime it seems like people
> may be displaced...the nature of this work has been sporadic I guess what
> I really want to know is how practitioners fare when there is a shift to
> the state or any other configuration...Does the change manifest in job
> security, better pay? health benefits?  Working conditions for literacy
> practitioners are not good and for those of us trying to make this a
> career there is little return on the investment in advanced credentials. 
> What are the expereinces of others?
> 
> ]ackie
> 
> On Sat, 29 Aug 1998 08:58:27 -0400 (EDT) David J Rosen
> <DJRosen at world.std.com> writes:
> >NLA Colleagues,
> >
> >Several recent messages have implicitly or -- as in Marilyn's below --
> >explicitly raised the question of the institutional home -- at the 
> >state
> >level -- for adult basic education.  Should adult basic education be
> >situated in the state department of education? In the community 
> >college
> >system? In the broader higher education system?  In the employment and
> >training system? In the Governor's office? Should it be in the state
> >library system? Should there be a new state department of adult 
> >education
> >created? (Does this already exist in some states?)  And then, what
> >should the relationship be with other state level agency stakeholders?
> >
> >In Massachusetts, our state coalition for adult education has wrestled
> >with this question.  There have been two challenging phases of our
> >struggle.  The first was to decide what made sense from our point
> >of view as practitioners working in the field. Our state coalition 
> >public
> >policy group considered all these alternatives and decided that the 
> >state
> >education department should be the lead agency for adult education, 
> >and
> >that as a lead agency (not an exclusive stakeholder) it should work 
> >with
> >other state agency stakeholders to develop and implement goals and
> >standards which all would agree to. We also felt that just as the 
> >other
> >state agencies deserved a voice to make sure their clients' needs were
> >met, they also had a responsibility to provide resources for adult
> >literacy education from their budgets. 
> >
> >When our coalition first came to this decision -- over a decade ago -- 
> >the
> >Department of Education was not the leader in adult education that it 
> >has
> >become.  At that time our state legislators expressed concern that
> >the Department of Education had not shown leadership in adult basic
> >education, could not work well with other state agencies, and could 
> >not
> >administer grants well. Adult literacy practitioners, many of whom 
> >helped
> >to form our state coalition, raised the Board of Education's awareness 
> >of
> >the need for more and better adult literacy services and the need to
> >strengthen the Department's capacity to lead in this area; then, on an
> >advisory committee to the Board of Education, practitioners worked 
> >hard to
> >build a climate which might enable this leadership at the Department.
> >
> >The second phase began a decade ago and never ends.  It is the ongoing
> >challenge of responding to one state agency or another's efforts to
> >change this vision, to become the sole agency responsible for adult
> >literacy education. This occurs because of changes of leadership in 
> >those
> >agencies, the smell of large amounts of new money from the 
> >legislature, or
> >new federal or state legislative initiatives.  Our state coalition has 
> >had
> >to re-affirm with the legislature and with these agencies that they 
> >are
> >partners in adult literacy education, that they have a stake, and 
> >their
> >clients (welfare recipients, applicants and participants in employment 
> >and
> >training programs, potential applicants to community colleges, parents 
> >of
> >children in school, corrections inmates -- and others) have important
> >needs for adult literacy education, but that it is a partnership led 
> >by
> >one agency with broad purposes that makes sense to us as practitioners 
> >and
> >to those who have a range of needs for these services, not a takeover 
> >by
> >any one state agency stakeholder with narrower goals.
> >
> >Why the state department of education is the right lead agency
> >for our state:  it is the only agency whose mission is comprehensive
> >enough to include the many kinds of clients who need adult literacy
> >education services.  Employment and training is usually not interested 
> >to
> >pay for helping parents to learn to read to their children; higher
> >education does not see basic literacy services as its responsibility, 
> >and
> >so forth.  I might add that it has been critical to the success of 
> >this
> >vision that our state education department has included all agency
> >stakeholders and the full range of service providers: community-based 
> >and
> >other not-for-profit organizations, libraries, volunteer programs, 
> >public
> >schools, community colleges, corrections institutions, shelters, 
> >housing
> >developments, city agencies, workplaces and unions, and others.
> >
> >I have sometimes felt that our state adult literacy coalition, to 
> >borrow
> >Kevin Smith's metaphor, was a mouse butting heads with one elephant or
> >another.  But our mouse has shown for a decade that if practitioners 
> >come
> >together, work out a shared vision that makes sense, stick together,
> >organize and fight for it year after year after year, we can prevail.
> >
> >David J. Rosen
> ><DJRosen at world.std.com>
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >> From: MarilynGH at aol.com
> >> Date: Sat, 29 Aug 1998 07:49:56 EDT
> >> To: nla at world.std.com
> >> Subject: Re: NLA Question: ABE in Community Colleges
> >> 
> >> In Florida, it looks like that in the very near future, all ABE. 
> >ESOL, GED
> >> will be handled via the community colleges. The state legislature 
> >wants ALL
> >> post secondary to be out of the K-12 system and under the college 
> >system.
> >> Currently, we're still maintaining our services to our students, but 
> >the going
> >> gets tougher by the day. I believe that within a couple of years, 
> >Adult and
> >> Vocational Education in the State of Florida will be taken over by 
> >the
> >> community colleges.
> >> 
> >> MarilynGH
> >> Fort Myers, Florida
> >> 
> >
> >
> >
> 
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