[NLA] Discussion: AELS and Higher Ed

[David J. Rosen]

Nancy Hansen and other NLA Colleagues,

Nancy wrote in response to my statement about Massachusetts that:

	...Sustained pressure from the adult education and literacy
  	field demanded, and has supported, this kind of leadership from
	the Department of Education. In states where the State
	Education Department does not show this kind of leadership the
	field can rise up and change this.

 >The question?  How??  If the ears (in states where the DoE isn't 
 >"showing [such] leadership") are closed to our individual program's 
 >questioning and refusal to play their games doesn't work, what _will_ 
 >work?  Who exactly is "the field" and where are they when they are 
 >needed in places like this state?  Anybody have answers?

I have written -- from my point of view, of course -- how this happened 
in Massachusetts.  You'll find my writings at:

	http://www.alri.org/advocacydocs.html#MApubpolhistory
and

	http://www.alri.org/present/nyacce.htm

And you'll see that when we started our advocacy work in the early-mid 
1980's we weren't talking to open ears. (Others are also writing now 
about the development of the Massachusetts adult education and literacy 
system, and about how advocacy helped to bring this about.)

You'll find information about how some other states have been doing 
adult literacy advocacy at:

	http://www.alri.org/advocacydocs.html

I have replies to your specific questions, too:

I don't think an individual program can bring about the needed changes 
in a state. Usually when adult literacy advocacy has succeeded it has 
been because a group of committed individuals -- perhaps a half-dozen to 
a couple dozen -- from several different kinds of programs (volunteer, 
public school, CBO, community college, organized labor and other kinds) 
have come together to fight for change -- and have stayed in for the 
long haul, a decade or more, year after year, holding tight to their 
goals -- together -- (as my friend and colleague Phil Rabinowitz has 
written, like bulldogs) and never letting go.

I don't know who "the field" is in South Dakota. A quick search on 
America's Literacy Directory

	http://www.americasliteracydirectory.org


produced 18 adult literacy (reading and writing) programs within a 
hundred miles of Sioux Falls (several of them are in Minnesota.)  Many, 
I noticed, are literacy councils. Perhaps that's a good place to start 
to build a state coalition.  In any case, meeting regularly, 
face-to-face  is necessary to build understanding and trust, and to 
forge an agenda together.

These are important questions, Nancy.  I wonder if others on the NLA 
list would like to chime in -- drawing on experience from advocacy inn 
their states.  Pennsylvania?  New Jersey? Ohio? Others?

David J. Rosen
<DJRosen at theworld.com>

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