NLA Discussion: Meeting the Needs of Out-of-school Youth

[David J Rosen]

NLA Colleagues,

Adult education programs which receive federal WIA funds serve people
who are sixteen and older and out of school. Young adults, people between
the age of sixteen and twenty-one, for example, may have different
needs from other adults.

Do WIA policies and regulations -- and do state adult education policies
and funding -- support the needs of out-of-school young adults?  If not,
what must be changed?

When young adults leave or are pushed out of public schools -- perhaps a
growing phenomenon with high stakes standardized testing  -- are they
served well by adult education programs?  Or do young adult program 
models, e.g. alternative high schools, the Job Corps, youth service corps
such as YouthBuild or City Year, or charter schools serve them better? If
so, why?

What do young adults need that is different from what other adults need in
an education program, and how does our public policy address this now?

_If_ adult education programs are not the best models to serve
out-of-school young adults, how should we, as adult education
providers, respond to the probability of the growing numbers of these 
youth in adult education programs?

And -- for those who are experiencing this already -- how does an increase
in young adult students affect your adult education program?  Is this
positive, and if so why?  Is it problematic?  If there are problems, what
are they, and how are you responding to them?

David J. Rosen
NLA List Moderator



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