[NLA] Access for ABLE students to Postsecondary Education

[RoyceSJ@netscape.net]

When we consider the problem of "access", we must consider not only access to ABLE programs but access of our graduates to post-secondary education. In my recent study of 70 successful ABLE graduates, I discovered that the 20 that attained higher education degrees had immediate financial assistance (loans, scholarship, disability checks) or two working family members.  Another 10 are still enrolled in higher education taking course after course, year after year as time and money allow. Access to ABLE programs must not be a dead end. 

My question is:  Has any state formed an alliance between their ABLE programs and postsecondary institutions to provide financial assistance or even referral to funding sources for "qualifying" GED/Adult High School graduates?   

Our concern for access must be both coming and going.  If you have an answer to my question (and David does not consider it a policy issue) please contact me at the address below.

Sherry Royce

Dr. Sherry Royce
Royce & Royce, Inc.
1938 Crooked Oak Drive
Lancaster, PA 17601
email: sjroyce at comcast.net
tel: 717-569-1663


Thomas Sticht <tsticht at znet.com> wrote:

>Research Note
>12 September 2002
>
>Year 2 of The National Literacy Summit of 2000 Has Passed:
>Has There Been Any Action on the Action Agenda?
>
>Thomas G. Sticht
>International Consultant in Adult Education
>
>In September of 2000 the National Literacy Summit 2000 steering committee
>launched An Action Agenda for Literacy entitled "From the Margins to the
>Mainstream". The Action Agenda called for an education system of QUALITY
>services for adult students with ease of ACCESS to these services and
>sufficient RESOURCES to support quality and access. This adult education
>and literacy system was set as the national goal to be achieved by the
>year 2010. Unfortunately, after the first two years into the Action
>Agenda, results in these aspects of the system are not encouraging.
>
>QUALITY: I have found no information to form a basis for a judgment as to
>whether or not in the last two years there has been an increase or
>improvement in the quality of services for adult students in the programs
>of the Adult Education and Literacy System (AELS) of the United States,
>i.e., those programs funded in part by State Grants from the WIA/AEFLA act
>of 1998, or any other programs such as those of ProLiteracy Worldwide,
>libraries, corrections, workplace, etc.
>
>ACCESS: From the peak of 4.1 million in 1997 enrollments in the AELS
>dropped to around 2.9 million in program year 1999-2000, the last year for
>which I have data. This is a drop of almost 30 percent, some 1.2 million
>enrollments.  At 2.9 million, we are nearly back to the 1985 figure of
>around 2.879 million enrollments. This is a loss of over a decade of
>progress in getting adults to access the Adult Education and Literacy
>System of the United States of America. Presumably the programs that
>served the 1.2 million adults who are no longer in the AELS are sill
>operating, but outside the framework and funding of he AELS. Indeed, there
>have been news stories about long waiting lists for adult literacy and
>language programs. At the present time, though, it looks like the Action
>Agenda item of ACCESS is failing with respect to increasing access to and
>enrollments in the AELS, and there are no data of which I am aware to
>suggest it is succeeding outside the AELS. I do not know if the DAEL,
>NIFL, NCSALL, NCL or any other organization is looking into the issue of
>ACCESS.
>
>RESOURCES:  In September 2000 the National Literacy Summit 2000 Action
>Agenda included  Action Agenda Priority 1: Resources, Outcome B: Action 2:
>"Persuade Congress to appropriate $1 billion annually to the adult
>education, language, and literacy system." In 2002 both the President and
>Senate have requested $575 million for FY 2003 for the AELS. This is the
>same as for FY 2002.
>
>The Action Agenda Commitments: Is the Field Uncommitted?
>
>In a year 1 report of progress in the Action Agenda,  some 163 commitments
>were made by 69 organizations for action they were going to take in future
>years to further the National Literacy Summit 2000 Action Agenda. In year
>2, however, I have checked the National Literacy Coalition’s web pages for
>the Action Agenda and found only three commitments by the NCL for year 2,
>and these are the same as in year 1. There is no year 2 report of
>commitments like that of year 1. Further, the NIFL has dropped a link to
>the Action Agenda from its web site and no loner refers to it on its home
>page, suggesting a drop in the NIFL’s commitment to the Action Agenda. 
>Likewise, there is no link to or discussion of the Action Agenda at the
>NCSALL web page to the Action Agenda.
>
>At the present time, then, it seems to me that during 2002, the National
>Literacy Summit 2000 has not had much action from the field or from any
>national leadership that would help achieve the Action Agenda’s goal of
>moving the adult education, language, and literacy system, however
>defined, from the margins to the mainstream of education in the United
>States. Instead, it appears that since the Action Agenda was released at
>the Literacy Summit of 2000, there has been a downhill decline in action.
>
>This leads me to wonder if there is actually much interest anymore in the
>Action Agenda among either the original sponsors and formulators of the
>Agenda, or the rest of the adult literacy education field, either?
>
>Well, we are at the start of year 3, and there are still several years to
>go before we reach 2010. Perhaps things will pick-up in these out years.
>
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