[NLA] A couple of thoughts

[Thomas Sticht]

First thought. If I read the President’s proposed FY 2003 budget
correctly, it looks like the Adult Education and Literacy System of the
United States was recommended for funding at $575 million, pretty much
the same as for FY 2002.  Not much of an endorsement of the value of
adult education but at least the AELS was not eliminated from the
President’s budget proposal. 

Second thought. In a recent post, Marian Thatcher said, "Also, Tom,
thanks for your research note on teaching adults to read. I think this
whole debate on reading pedagogy/androgogy is very healthy.  "

I think it is too, though perhaps a bit overcome by circumstances. Here
is what I mean. I recall that  on August 8, 1999 I wrote a Research Note
pointing out that through its emphasis on "phonemic awareness,"
"systematic phonics" and "fluency" the Adult Education and Family
Literacy Act (AEFLA), Title II of the Workforce Investment Act of 1998 
draws a direct connection between adult's oral language skills of
speaking and listening, and their literacy skills of reading and
writing. Because of this new emphasis I developed a workshop on
listening and reading processes of adults and presented it eight times
in the U. S. and Canada in 1999. One of these workshops was given for
government officials in Washington, DC. A total of 16 officials provided
responses to a brief survey about listening and reading research and its
importance to their work.  Nine (56%) of the respondents were from the
Office of Vocational and Adult Education/Division of Adult Education and
Literacy (OVAE/DAEL), six (37%) were from other offices in the U. S.
Department of Education, including one from the Office of Research and
Improvement (OERI), and one was from the National Institute for Literacy
(NIFL). 

When asked, "How relevant is the new focus upon phonemic awareness,
phonics, and fluency in the AEFLA of 1998 to your professional
activity?", 31% said "A Little" and 62% said "Very." One said it was too
early to decide. When asked to "write about one or two ways in which you
think you might be able to use information about the listening and
reading processes of adults." Ten responses included:

1. Reviewing local programs and State plans.
2. Determining if proposed instructional strategies & program designs
are likely to be effective. 
3. Reviewing State plans. Providing technical assistance (TA) to the
State.
4. [Providing] technical support to State Education Agencies (SEA's).
Answering questions from 
the field. 
5. Providing technical assistance to State Staff Specialists and project
directors in my program areas. 
6. Policy planning leading to allocation of resources and program
development, including TA.
7. Identifying resources [for] adult education community.
8. Providing better, more informed assistance to DAEL as it develops
spending plans for National Leadership Activities. 
9. Helping to formulate plans for research activities of DAEL.
10. Use [information] in my strategic research plan [at OERI]. 
. 
In his recent posts,  George Demetrion has called attention to the fact
that, true to items 9 and 10 above, research has been planned by the
NIFL and NICHD to study ways that are effective for teaching adults to
read. Now what I mean by thinking that perhaps the research on teaching
adults to read may have been overtaken by circumstances is indicated by
the fact that, though the research has not yet been done, the WIA/AEFLA
of 1998 nevertheless repeatedly emphasized the use of   "phonemics,"
"phonics," "fluency," and "comprehension" in teaching adults to read, 
the same as the National Reading Panel’s report on teaching children to
read. 

I'm wondering how likely it is that new NICHD-sponsored research will
overturn this code emphasis emphasis from NICHD-sponsored research with
children, even with the new participation of the NIFL. 

Tom Sticht
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