NLA Discussion: Kelly Bruce's Question

[Lennox McLendon]

Good Morning,

It is an honor to be a guest on the NLA list serve.  I hope that the
state directors who are members will add their thoughts and responses to
these questions also.  Some of the questions rank right up there with
"what is the meaning of life" but I will take a shot at them and I look
forward to getting your responses.  I have my perspective but it can be
reshaped.

The first question is from Kelly Bruce at Harvard.  I have copied it below:  

Dr. McLendon: Given your national perspective, would you comment on 
the fact that adult education at the state level is not always 
"housed" within the state's Department of Education.  Specifically, 
do you see any differences in the effectiveness of the adult 
education system in a state that directs AE through its DOE v. a state
that directs through its "Workforce Development" Department v. a 
state that directs through a Higher Education Board (i.e. community 
college system)? Is this a question that state directors are 
interested in discussing?

Kelly Bruce
National Center for the Study of Adult Learning and Literacy    
Harvard University Graduate School of Education


I do not believe the type of state department makes that much
difference.  The difference seems to be the extent to which the state
adult ed office can deal with the issues of marginality by (1) becoming
indispensible to the host department and/or (2) creating clout through
political support .

In 1987 or there abouts when I was heavily into graduate studies I ran
across the article by Burton Clark on the "Marginality of Adult
Education" that described how adult education is marginal in the life of
its host institution.  I was so taken with his description of the
discontinuity between the mission of the host institution and adult ed
that you can imagine my chagrin when I realized that the article was
written in 1958--30 years earlier and we were still experiencing the same
problems.

The primary mission of state departments of education is teaching
children; community colleges is post secondary education; workforce
boards is workforce development--not adult education and literacy.  The
degree to which adult education fits into its host depends on (1) how
well the state staff tie adult ed to the initiatives of the host agency
and/or (2) the degree to which adult education can sustain a political
force that allows it to claim equal footing with the other components of
the host state agency (e.g. in state DOEs--equal footing with elementary,
secondary, special, and voc ed.)

There are state directors who have been masterful at acknowledging their
marginality, seeking out and identifying Governor's and the agency head's
(superintendent, community college president, etc) initiatives and
targeting adult ed to support those initiatives.  If there are reading
initiatives for children, family literacy is targeted and the
powers-that-be are informed about adult education's efforts to support
that initiative.  If there are standards of learning for elementary
children, family literacy is targeted and touted to support that
initiative.  If the workforce is the initiative, Workplace Essential
Skills, pre-employment curriculum components, cooperative/cohabitative
programs are targeted and touted.  If special ed young adults is an
initiative, adult ed targets and receive special ed funding to provide
those services to support that initiative.  In my early years in the
state office in a department of education, I was a purest believing that
adult ed was sacred in its own right and should isolate itself from the
rest of the department.  During the first budget crisis when the
powers-that-be reached into our budget and took funds they needed because
adult ed was not "supporting our initiatives," the rude awakening
occurred.  At that time I also heard fellow state directors reporting how
they had tied their adult ed work to the state superintendent's
initiative and as a result had received additional funding as well as
political support.  I wised up. 

ASIDE:  I experienced that transition that many have.  In the 60s we got
into this business to teach people to read and save their lives.  In the
70's the APL study enlightened us that adults have a real life purpose
for learning--not just learning in the abstract but how to do things they
can't do now.  In the 80's we further contextualized the learning via
"participatory learning" where the learners were engaged in planning and
evaluating their learning and we created learning experiences to respond
to their plans.  In the 90's we began to integrate societal needs (getting
off welfare, adapting to the changing workplace, helping kids with
homework) into those learner created plans.  By integrating societal
initiatives and learner needs into our delivery system, the
contextualized learning plans better equipped learners to contribute to
themselves and their work, family, and community contexts.

Adult ed has little political support--as a result I found that we are
vulnerable to the whims of changing administrations.  In order to protect
and even expand the services we provide for adults in our states, a part
of the state director's job is to establish as much political support as
possible.  One way to do that is to tie to the initiatives of the
administration.  I found that you do not have to sell your soul to do
that.  Adult ed is a support program for children's reading initiatives,
public health initiatives, welfare initiatives, workforce initiatives,
and others.  By customizing our instruction to support other initiatives,
we provide more relevant learning for our learners and garner support
from other policy folks.

The second strategy to overcome marginality is to establish a political
power base that legitimizes adult education services in the host
institution.  My strategy as a state person was to focus on the
governor.  The ONE TIME we hit it, it really worked well.  And, when I
was asked to report to the State Board and the First Lady went with me to
give part of the report, marginality did not seem to be an issue.  Of
course that was one day in a twelve year career as state director.  I have
come to believe that state legislative support (via the state
professional association) is much more reliable over time.  It is much
like our work now at the national level.  Rather than casting all of your
hopes with the presidential candidate, it seems as though the long term
strategy is to build long term relationships with legislators who can
support you over administrations.
 
So, Kelly, until adult education increases it state and federal funding
to the point that it can create state departments of adult education, it
seems that adult education can thrive in any state department (education,
community colleges, workforce) if it can overcome the marginality issues
by symbiotic linkages with department and governor initiatives and/or
creating a legislative political support base.

Sorry to be so long winded about this but there are a lot of issues
involved.  From my experience in working in two different state systems
and in observing states across the country from my current job, the host
state department does not seem to be the variable as much as how well the
state director and staff have developed strategies to overcome the
marginality issues.  

In all of these words, there is probably much confusion.  I hope others
will add their thoughts and questions to this attempt.


Lennox


Dr. Lennox L. McLendon, Executive Director
National Adult Education Professional Development Consortium, Inc
444 N. Capitol St., Suite 422
Washington, DC 20001
(202) 624-5250
(202) 624-1497 FAX
lmclendon at naepdc.org
www.naepdc.org



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