[NLA] What caused the decline of the AELS?

[Andres Muro]

Art: since I do not work for ABE, I don't know the specifics of the new demands. However, as I understand it, there is more testing in the ABE system. I have no doubt that that may have intimidated students. In my program, we do not do any testing when students come in, nor we have any requirements for them to come in the door and join a class. 
 Based on you message I have to assume that testing may have contributed to the decrease in students. However, the timing of welfare reform has coincided with the decline. As soon as welfare reform was implemented the clock started ticking for many participants. By 1998 the first group of welfare recipients lost welfare eligibility forever, and had to find ways to support themselves. many of these people have found jobs in the job "black market". Furthermore, before welfare reform a constant referral source of students was, in fact, DHS case workers, and employees of other social service programs, since ABE was a legitimate activity for people to engage in while procuring social services. After welfare reform, ABE ceased to be a legitimate activity for people to engage in, unless it is directly tied to workforce development. A constant source of students is referrals form other agencies. However, agencies cannot refer their participants to ABE anymore, so that has contributed to the decline. The need for people to go to work anywhere has also contributed to the decline. Also, as you say, resistance to the increase in testing may have contributed. Any other reasons?

Andres



>>> arthur at ellijay.com 06/14/02 06:10PM >>>
Andres,

In the counties I'm familiar with here in N GA we did see a decline in
welfare and DFACS students, however that only accounts for approximately
a one percent drop.
When you put the 'requirement' for 'testing' on the table in front of an
adult literacy student and then read the body language they respond
with, regardless of the verbage that accompanies it, realize fully that
the energy that produced the body language will prevail.  Chances are
you won't see that person again.

One of my real problems with the statisticians reporting on adult
literacy is that a very large percentage of them are using data that
stems from adult students in a college atmosphere receiving remedial
instruction.  Trust me, if that student is even in the college building
chances are it is a quite simple case of 'remediation' or review of
skills and not representative of the bulk of the mostly rural population
in 'need' of real reading instruction from the ground up.  They're the
other 95%.  Sounds like anecdotal information to me.

art



Art LaChance
Gilmer Learning Center
Ellijay, GA


AndresMuro at aol.com wrote:

> the following may have already been discussed, so I may be repeating
> it. I don't think that students  disappeared, however, after welfare
> reform, the rules for receiving afdc-tanf changed considerably and a
> lot of people lost eligibility. It did not happen that all people lost
> eligibility immediately, but, rather,  progressively (even though at
> first a lot of people lost eligibility immediately and had to go to
> work anywhere right away) . those people that lost eligibility were
> forced to find employment, any kind of employment regardless of the
> conditions. for this reason many students previously attending ABE
> like programs slowly dropped out of the programs. Also, before welfare
> reform, DHS case workers used to tell their clients that they needed
> to attend ABE classes. After welfare reform, this changed. Only those
> that were potentially employable were referred to workforce training
> programs.  many ex-ABE students are in minimum and less than minimum
> wage jobs trying to support themselves and their families. In
> addition, with WIA a lot of programs are targeting students that can
> show employment as an outcome.  Many students that are not seen as
> potential employees within a short period of time are not be targeted
> anymore.  With
> AFDC, case workers had 3 different dessignations for their clients.
> low, medium and high potential emplyability (service levels 1,2, 3).
> They would all be served and low and medium level clients were
> referred to ABE. With TANF, they still have the same designation,
> however, they serve people who are highly employable, and after a
> certain period people loose their eligibility forever. I probably
> don't have the classifications or the present rules for TANF exacltly
> right, but I am pretty close. I have anecdotal evidence of all this,
> from my students. however, I have not done a study of this.
>
> andres
>
>
>
> andresmuro at aol.com 
> Visit my art webpage at:
> http://www.geocities.com/andresmuro/artwork.html
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