Fw: [NLA] Are there alternatives?

[Ernest Best]

    This is in response to your comments below in bold Deborah.  Thanks for giving the adult learner that kind of credit.
All consumers (adult learners) may not be able to identify the strengths and weaknesses of programs.  However, adult learner organizations may be able to do so.  Some members of these organizations (former consumers) now hold college degrees, and some even are teachers.  Some are even the founders of their own ABE programs and are running them successfully.
Adult learner leaders are even working for organizations that fund programs and they are doing site visits
that actually identify the strengths and weaknesses of programs.  Their decisions are included in determining
whether or not a program receives funding.

    Thank you Deborah Yoho for making the point that, "...it must be accepted that those who consume adult ed. services 
are capable of identifying the strengths and weaknesses of a program."  Adult learners must be looked at differently, not just by society, but even by those of you in the field.  Don't underestimate the potential and the capabilities of the adult learner.  Like Ralph, try to include the adult learner when thinking about solutions for the field of adult ed..

==============================
Ernest Best, Executive Director
Massachusetts Alliance for Adult Literacy
989 Commonwealth Avenue
Boston, MA 02215-1308
(617) 782-8956 ext. 13
==============================

P.S.  The Massachusetts Alliance for Adult Literacy (Mass AAL) is an organization run by current and former students of
ABE and ESOL programs.  During the previous budget crisis in Massachusetts that threatened to shut down nearly all 
the programs in the state, Mass AAL and the adult learners in the state of Massachusetts played a major role in the 
restoration of funding to our field. 


    
  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Ralph Yoho 
  To: NLA LIST 
  Sent: Tuesday, June 11, 2002 11:00 AM
  Subject: [NLA] Are there alternatives?



  Art is right:  "It's killing us, but it's what we must do to retain funding."  If the NRS is the product of a group in opposition to adult ed, I wonder if it is time to begin discussing what the alternatives might be to embrace fully the challenge of accountability, construct a quality assurance mechanism, and still grow in responsiveness, retention, etc. It seems to me that if we must take our cues from the business model, we should begin with the assumption that "the customer is always right".  After all, we work with adults.  In this country adults expect choices and they retain the power to chart their own course.  What would be the implications of an accountalibity system based solely on learner enrollment, retention, and learner program evaluation? At the Proliteracy conference in San Diego, I offered the observation that it is ususual that we are a federally-funded program that is NOT required to set up consumer watch groups, like the School Improvment Councils and Title One parent groups in K-12.  Those mechanisms are not adequate, but at least represent a beginning to insure that "marketplace forces" impact the program.  Of course, to begin discussing this it must be accepted that 

    
  those who consume adult ed services are capable of  identifying the strengths and weaknesses of a program.


    As for testing progress, there are, thankfully, many ways to do this.  The NRS attempts to standardize this process to the point where participation is discouraged. There has to be another way.  I recognize it is far too early to argue  convincingly for changes to a system barely in place, and the decision-makers will no doubt be the last ones to see the need to re-examine the NRS, but I think for those of us at the grass roots, the handwriting is already on the wall.  

  Deborah W. Yoho
  Co-moderator, NIFL-Health  and
  Executive Director
  Greater Columbia Literacy Council
  921 Woodrow Street, Columbia, SC  29205
  803-765-2555   Fax  803-779-8417   dwyoho at earthlink.net


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