[NLA] Are You Being Served?

[LVAready@aol.com]

Dear Tom,

Yes, we are being served. (Even though it is a loooooong way from Montana to 
Harvard.) Here are some practitioner anecdotes.

I served on the volunteer editorial board for the issue of Focus on Basics 
that dealt with Literacy and Health. I find the articles of each issue of FOB 
to be thoughtful and well edited, including those that report on research 
funded by NCSALL. While I have not seen the details of their budget and 
cannot speak to the issue of whether or not the field is getting their 
money's worth, I want to defend their good work. 

The articles on Literacy and Health helped a central Montana AELS program 
that is located in a free clinic to get additional private funding through a 
grant award. We were located in the local public library for 15 years, and 
had to move this year. We are having some trouble adjusting to paying rent in 
the same fiscal year where we lost the entire contribution from our county 
due to their budget shortfall. Those articles may help us to partner with a 
local free clinic that is trying to get started, and may be able to provide 
free space. 

At the Mountain Plains Adult Education Association (MPAEA) annual conference 
in Albuquerque in the spring of 2001, I attended two workshops presented by 
Judy Hofer (or was it Hoffer) of NCSALL. One looked at Professional 
Development for adult basic ed/GED/ESL teachers. The study included the 
observations that the field is so woefully underfunded that providing decent 
space to teach might be more important than determining the best way to 
deliver professional development activities. The second wordshop shared the 
results of research projects that focused on domestic violence and how it 
affects learning. The sessions were excellent and led to closer linkages 
between our program and SAFE, the local program that deals with domestic 
abuse. We also purchased a book that I learned about in the workshop titled 
Too Scared to Learn and had discussions at staff meetings about how we could 
address these issues in our program. At our request, SAFE developed and 
presented a workshop for teachers and tutors on what to do or not do if they 
suspect or even know that their student is being battered.

I hope this is the kind of information that you were looking for. I do not 
think anecdotal reports from practitioners can provide enough rationale to 
say NCSALL is doing its job. There needs to be more. I think the good 
research and information available through NCSALL may be underutilized by the 
field.

Dixie Stark
LVAbitroot at aol.com
Hamilton, MT



In a message dated 12/9/02 9:25:20 PM Mountain Standard Time, 
tsticht at znet.com writes:

<< 
 Unfortunately, as I looked through the report, I could find no evidence
 presented to suggest that practitioners had thought that the research of
 the first five years had helped them improve their practice.  I'm
 wondering if any of the NLA list members can cite ways that they or their
 program or someone they know has been helped by the first five years of
 the NCSALL work. And if so, in what specific ways.
 
 I’d also be interested in knowing if NLA list members feel that anecdotal
 reports by practitioners is a suitable way to evaluate the success of our
 only federally funded, national adult education and literacy research
 center in achieving its stated mission of helping to "build effective,
 cost-efficient adult education and literacy programs."
  >>
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