NLA Discussion: NRS

[LarryFish at aol.com]

In a message dated 5/24/2001 11:34:26 PM Eastern Daylight Time, 
DJRosen at world.std.com [suggests these as possible hypotheses for why
there have not been many messages posted about the NRS]:

> 1.  The NRS is a fait accompli.  There's nothing to talk about.  We have
> to just do what we're told.   Let's talk about something we can change
> instead; or

NO, NRS IS UNAVOIDABLE BUT . the discussion needs to be about surviving 
(\muddling thru?) NRS and "how to have an impact on what comes after NRS" 
 
>2. The NRS is working fine, and there's really not much to talk about; or

NO,  it doesn't work fine at all. It is just that I can see my agency 
surviving WIA and NRS [read: able to meet necessary reporting goals to
stay funded without losing TOO much program quality :(  ]
 
> 3.  No one is actually implementing the NRS.  (Boy, are the State
> Directors and USDE in for a surprise at the end of this year!) or

CERTAINLY, NOT - NRS is implemented or funding will not be forthcoming - !
 
> 4.  The people who are at the ground level, struggling with these issues,
> are not on the NLA list.  They have no time for e-lists.  Their lives
> are consumed by the NRS tasks; or

WELL, IT'S NOT THAT BAD...'YET' - Although not exactly on the ground level, I 
regularly delve into the depths of the ground level reporting issues at my 
agency - it takes 15% of my support staff time to deal with this, and they 
(support staff) are not listserv readers.
 
> 5.  People are afraid to talk honestly about the NRS.  They believe
> that it is so linked with funding and punishment that they do not want
> to get their programs in trouble by talking about it in public on a
> national e-list; or

TRUE TO SOME EXTENT: If I would start to name names, I really believe it would 
have a negative impact on my program and the rep. of my org. But, - in 
general this is NOT TRUE and in fact in New York, I find SED (State Education 
Department) trying to work with agencies/programs to make NY NRS reporting 
levels sufficient to ensure the flow of federal $$$.
 
> 6.  Those at the ground level talk about the NRS every day.  They want a
> break. They want to talk about something fulfilling; or

PERHAPS TRUE TO SOME EXTENT: I guess a lot of us are dealing with NRS and 
don't feel a negative $ impact yet. So, besides it being basically 
ineffective, time consuming but not impossibly onerous and still only 
potentially permanently-damaging, there was not much to talk about - until 
this discussion group gets going on the subject?
 
> 7.  No one actually has time to read the NLA list anymore. The 600 +
> subscribers just collect the messages and store them in cyberfiles,
> except for a handful of people; or......
 
NO ! - I lurk and read compulsively.. . .  Just that I don't have anything 
that seems important enough to add. 

I guess we the NLA readers should all chime in - so you/we know that there 
are plenty of us out here!

Often, I find literacy listserves, et. al., tend to get out of hand . . . 
unless ' well moderated' [ and who has the time to do this David :-) ? ] 

OK - one general statement about NRS:  many of the the non-education outcomes 
are quite important . . but very difficult to achieve without additional 
resources. Meeting both the realistic and unrealistic student defined goals 
of 'obtaining and retaining'  Employment are very difficult to have an impact 
on (other than educational support).
In some non-WIA/NRS programs - I have 'Direct Placement' numbers and 
very,very real verification requirements. IT TAKES 1-FT JOB DEVELOPER  and 
1-FT VOCATIONAL COUNSELOR + !/2-Me (Coordinator) and some support staff time 
to Place & Retain -  30 LEP clients. 

With WIA/NRS we are given these goals but none of the necessary $$$ for the 
staff necessary to go beyond the basic educational services we provide and 
some additional $ for NRS set-up and reporting. So- it is an empty initiative.

Lawrence Fish
Director of Adult Emigre Educational and Vocational Services
Shorefront YM-YWHA 
Brooklyn, NY


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