[NLA] The AELS as its own system.

[David J. Rosen]

Tom,

Your strategy makes sense to me.  We need to take specific actions such
as you have proposed to move adult education and literacy into the
mainstream, to establish a recognized national adult education and 
literacy system.  To succeed, we will need to mobilize the support of 
grass roots advocates at the state and local level.  We will need many 
voices -- adult learners, practitioners and friends of adult education 
and literacy -- presenting to their elected officials a shared, 
well-articulated agenda. I believe it will take several years of 
concerted effort to achieve this.

While we work toward this, I think the most promising state level 
strategy is for advocates to determine together which agency in their 
state has the breadth to cover the full range of adult learner goals, 
and to press state leadership to expand the commitment of that agency to 
embrace (acknowledge, adequately fund, and take pride in)  adult 
education and literacy.  In most states I think this will be the state 
education department.  In a few states it might be higher education if 
that system truly accepted the breadth of student goals and provided 
funding to a broad range of providers, not only community 
college-sponsored adult education.  (I wonder if there is any state 
where a new state agency whose primary mission is adult education and 
literacy is a possibility.  If so, please let me know.)   I do not think 
a state employment and training agency or a Welfare/TANF agency -- given 
the work-related missions of these agencies -- can expand to serve 
adults who want to improve their basic skills for other than 
work-related purposes.  A lead agency for adult education and literacy 
should, of course, work closely with these employment-related agencies 
so that adult learners whose goals are employment-related can achieve them.

I hope that National Coalition for Literacy colleagues, and leadership 
in the national adult education and literacy organizations which make up 
the NCL, will discuss the strategy Tom has proposed.  If so, let us know 
what you think.

David J. Rosen
<DJRosen at theworld.com>



Thomas Sticht wrote:
 > A Strategy For Advocacy to Move The Adult Education & Literacy System of
 > The United States From the Margins to the Mainstream of Public Education
 >
 > The discussion about the AELS and whether its funding ought to flow from
 > the K-12 or Higher Education components of education is a fundamental
 > discussion about how the AELS is to be considered. At the present time,
 > the Struture of Education figure that the National Center for Educaton
 > Statistics uses shows a progression from the top of the figure to the
 > bottom that shows the P/K-12 and Higher Education components of the
 > structure of education in the United States.
 >
 > Higher Education/Post-Secondary
 > BA, MA, Ph. D & professional graduate programs
 > Vocational/Technical Institutions,  Junior or Comunnity Colleges
 >
 > Pre-School, K-12
 > High School
 > Middle School
 > Elementary
 > Elementary School
 > Kindergarten
 > Nursery School
 >
 > The AELS does not appear on the figure. Instead, outside the figure 
at the
 > bottom is a footnote that says, "NOTE: Adult education programs, 
while not
 > separately delineated above, may provide instruction at the elementary,
 > secondary, or higher education level. "
 >
 > It seems to me therefore that one of the first orders of business for
 > advocacy for the AELS is to establish it as a third branch of publicly
 > funded education that should probably fall alongside Junior or Community
 > Colleges but not belong to the Higher Education/Post-Secondary system nor
 > the P/K-12 system.  This would look like:
 >
 > Voc/Tec, Junior/Community Colleges, Adult Education & Literacy System
 >
 > So far on this list, we have moved from not having a name for nor
 > agreement on what the adult education and literacy educational system
 > should be called, to the point today where most of the recent discussions
 > have referred to the AELS as the Adult Education and Literacy System
 > (AELS) of the United States, and come to agree, not entirely but mostly,
 > that the AELS is the education system consisting of the 50 states and U.
 > S. territories which receive some or all of their funding from the State
 > Grants program of the Adult Education and Family Liteacy Act, Title 2 of
 > the Workforce Investment Act.
 >
 > In my opinion, this is not a trivial accomplihment. It means that 
today it
 > is possible to conceive of advocating for a concrete national entity, the
 > AELS of the United States, and to begin to orient state directors of
 > education, governors, legislators, media, and the public in general 
toward
 > the understanding of (1) the name of this national education system that
 > provides lifelong learning oportunities for adults, (2) the fact that the
 > AELS supports some 3 to 4 million adult enrollees per year looked at
 > nationwide across the last decade, (3) that the AELS provides education
 > much different from that found in the P/K-12 and Higher Education 
systems,
 > (4) that it is one of the greatest educational bargins in the nation
 > because it helps adults achieve greater functionality at home, in the
 > workplace, in the schools, in the community, and with the health care
 > system and (5) it achieves all these outcomes with a paucity of funding
 > that is less than $600 per enrollee when state and federal funds are
 > combined.
 >
 > Over the years, the AELS has provided funding for a wide array of adult
 > literacy providers in adult high schools, community colleges, libraries,
 > correctional institutions, and numerous charitable organizations. 
When the
 > AELS grows, there are opportunities for adult learners all acroos the
 > spectrum of need. For this reason the adult education and literacy field
 > ought to unite behind a strategy for moving the AELS from the margins to
 > the mainstream of publicly funded education consisting of at least these
 > important steps.
 >
 > Step 1: Formulation. A White Paper should be developed that can be 
used to
 > educate about the AELS and show (1) its name and present national
 > structure, mode of functioning, and distribution through state agencies,
 > (2) its high returns to investment through multiplier effects in adult
 > functionality in different domains of life activities, including 
spiritual
 > and humanistic activities, (3) its difference from the P/K-12 and Higher
 > Education systems, (4) the many negative cultural beliefs and forces that
 > hold back the further development of the AELS, and (5) the need for much
 > larger funds per enrollee to improve the delivery of services across the
 > life span.
 >
 > Step 2. Dissemination. This White Paper should form the basis for a news
 > conference in Washington DC at the National Press Club and it should
 > include a call for White House Conference on Adulthood Education and the
 > importance of the AELS in meeting adult learning needs in the 
increasingly
 > complex world of knowledge of the 21st century. The paper should also be
 > released to all federal and state legislatures and executive offices, and
 > other agencies where policymakers may read it and states should hold 
their
 > own local press conferences to explain the AELS to the public at large. A
 > national logo should be developed and all states and territories that
 > participate in the AELS should make use of this logo on documents,
 > reports, etc. VALUE and other student organizations should also use the
 > logo as part of a national AELS alumni identification activity.
 >
 > Step 3. Consolidation. Adult education and literacy providers such as
 > ProLiteracy Worldwide and the American Library Association, the YMCA,
 > YWCA, etc. should unite behind a strong, continuing advocacy activity 
that
 > calls for greater funding for the AELS at state and federal levels, with
 > the understanding that over time the AELS can develop rules and
 > regulations that will provide greater access to a larger number of
 > providers and their students. Funding should flow from federal to state
 > AELS agencies that can then distribute the funds to eligible providers
 > under the aegis of the AELS, and not the P/K-12 or higher Education
 > systems (though both systems may include programs that may be among those
 > providers who qualify to receive funds).
 >
 > Already, on the NLA list, we have moved a long way toward Step 1, the
 > Formulation phase. There is some fair degree of consensus on the name of
 > the AELS and what it includes. There are messages that can be 
reviewed and
 > synthesized along with other reports, such as From the Margins to the
 > Mainstream, to move toward a White Paper. The Formulation phase will set
 > the stage for moving into Steps 2, which will require some funding to
 > support the printing and distribution of the White Paper and the news
 > release meetings. Movement on Step 3 is already ongoing in some 
efforts to
 > secure greater funding for the AELS at the federal level, and similar
 > activities can follow at the state level as the identity of the AELS is
 > disseminated and more and more organizations come to support the AELS as
 > the flagship for the armada of adult education and literacy providers in
 > the nation.
 >
 > The AELS is today a very real system, now we need to rally behind it and
 > advocate for it!
 >
 > ¡Si se pueda!
 >
 > Tom Sticht
 >
 >
 >
 >
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