Friday, September 26, 2014

Adult Education: The Need for Dedicated Funding

From CATESOL News:

Adult Education: The Need for Dedicated Funding

Sep 22nd, 2014 | By | Category: Adult, Levels

By KRISTEN PURSLEY

—The current system of funding California’s adult schools sunsets at the end of this school year. After that, the future is uncertain. The only plan for funding adult schools after 2015 consists of a vague intention, stated in the 2012 state budget, to fund them through the regional consortia that include representatives of K-12–based adult schools and community colleges. All consortium funding would come through the Community College Chancellor’s Office. Supposedly some of the money would go to fund K-12 adult schools, but the amount of and delivery system have yet to be worked out.

The Legislative Analysts’ Office (LAO), in its 2012 report, “Restructuring California’s Adult Education System,” recommended that California’s adult schools be restored as a stand-alone categorical program in 2015, reasoning that such funding was necessary to begin rebuilding California’s decimated adult schools; however, while the LAO’s suggestions drive much of the change now sweeping adult schools, there are no plans to reinstate categorical status for adult schools.

Adult school advocates have begun to call for dedicated funding for adult schools, either through categorical status as recommended by the LAO, or through some other plan yet to be developed. Without dedicated adult school funding, adult education in California may become far more inaccessible than it already is, and K-12 districts may lose the valuable support they receive from their adult schools.

Accessibility

Under the current plan, all money for adult education will be routed through the community colleges, and there are no requirements that some or any of the money must be spent on adult schools. There is nothing to prevent community colleges from spending the money on their own needs first, even to the point of starving the adult schools within their consortium area. Potentially, the devastation wrought by categorical flexibility could continue under another name, with adult schools continuing to close down, and adult education in California growing ever more unavailable from those who need it the most.

Adult schools are more accessible than community colleges, in part because there are more of them. California has about 300 adult schools. The state has about 112 community colleges, mostly in urban areas. Rural areas, if they are served at all, are likely to be served by an adult school. While all adult schools and community colleges are now joined in consortia, some of those consortia must cover vast areas. California’s three northernmost counties of Del Norte, Siskiyou, and Modoc have one community college among them, College of the Siskiyous. One of California’s largest counties, Inyo, has no community college. These counties are not very populous, but people live there, and they need educational services. How will their adult schools fare when their budgets are controlled by a community college far away?

Even in urban areas, adult schools are more decentralized within their service areas than community colleges. Adult school classes in K-12 schools, churches, community centers, and nonprofit organizations provide access to adult school students, who often have limited access to transportation. Even for those who do own cars, the parking fees at community colleges can be an insupportable expense. Students do not find this barrier at their adult school sites.

To maintain the accessibility adult schools provide, the state needs to commit to providing them with their own funding.

Support for K-12 Schools

Adult schools provide significant support to the mission of K-12 schools, and they need dedicated funding through the K-12 schools to continue the close relationship with their districts. Adult schools increase parent involvement in children’s schools and help parents develop the skills to support their children’s school success through English as a Second Language, Family Literacy, and Parent Education classes at school sites. Adult school High School Diploma, GED, and Adult Basic Education programs help school districts provide basic literacy to all Californians. If community colleges control adult schools’ purse strings, they might not see the value of programs that primarily support K-12 schools. Dedicated adult school funding would assure that adult schools could continue to provide vital support to school districts.

If all adult school funding comes through the community colleges, school districts may come to regard their adult schools as alien. This could threaten features of adult school programs that have long successfully supported K-12 programs, such as Family Literacy and ESL classes that meet at K-12 school sites. While the state has supposedly committed to an adult education system that includes both community colleges and adult schools, the lines between the two systems are significantly blurred when all the money comes through one system.

Finally, the state needs to establish clarity regarding its intentions toward adult schools. The lack of dedicated funding for adult schools gives rise to the suspicion that the state’s support for adult schools is an illusion, and that the consortia are simply a slower and less obvious route to the governor’s original plan to make community colleges the single provider of adult education in the state. If all the money comes through one system, in what sense do we actually have two systems? The people of California have demonstrated their support for adult schools; only through dedicated funding can the state assure that adult schools will survive.

For more information about dedicated funding for California’s adult schools, see:

http://www.lao.ca.gov/Publications/Detail/2672
http://www.ccaestate.org/legislativenews.html
http://adulteducationmatters.blogspot.com/
www.a4cas.org

image of kristen pursleyKristen Pursley is the Adult Level assistant chair of CATESOL.
She works at West Contra Costa Adult Education.
She authors the Save Your Adult School Blog and is a long-time member of COSAS - Communities Organized to Support Adult Schools.

Monday, September 22, 2014

National Adult Ed & Fam Lit Week 2014: More Facts & Stats

From World Education:

Adult Ed Facts 

(Download these adult education facts)                   

What Is The Adult Education System?

The adult education system refers to programs across the US that offer instruction ranging from basic literacy and numeracy and English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL) to high school diploma equivalency, and college and career readiness.

Need: In the US, over 30 million adults do not have a high school diploma and 20% of US adults with a high school diploma have only beginning literacy skills. The US ranked 21st in numeracy and 16th in literacy out of 24 countries in a recent assessment of adults' skills.i Two-thirds of U.S. adults scored at the two lowest levels of proficiency in solving problems in technology-rich environments. Yet, the publicly funded adult education system is able to serve only slightly over 2 million young and older adults per year.ii There are waiting lists for classes in all 50 states.iii Current funding cannot begin to meet the need.

Providers: Adult education programs operate as free-standing organizations or as part of school districts, community colleges, municipalities, multi-services centers, libraries, faith-based organizations, housing developments, workplaces, and unions. Instruction is delivered by mostly part-time teachers and volunteer tutors.

Teacher Preparation: Given that the majority of adult education teachers do not receive pre-service training beyond an orientation, in-service training is critical to ensure high quality services.

Funding: The national, average annual expenditure per adult learner is around $800. By contrast, the national, average annual per-pupil expenditure on public elementary and secondary education nationally is over $10,000. Adult education programs receive less than 10% of the amount of federal, state, and local funding that goes to K-12, and less than 5% of what is spent to support higher education.iv

Who Are The Adult Learners?

Working Poor or Those Looking for Work: In 2010-11, 41% of adults enrolled in adult basic education were unemployed and 31% were employed; the rest were not in the labor force.v Enrollments in adult education have skyrocketed across the nation during the recession as adults are laid off and unable to find new jobs.

Youth: Every year, over three million youth drop out of school.vi They join the 6.7 million youth between the ages of 16 and 24 who are neither enrolled in school nor participating in the labor market.vii When they decide to complete their education, they enroll in adult education.

Immigrants: By 2030, nearly one in five US workers will be an immigrant.viii English Language Learners are a rapidly growing population across the nation.

Parents: Most adult learners are parents and primary caregivers of school-age children. Many are motivated to return to school by wanting to serve as better role models for their children and help their children succeed in school.

ADULT EDUCATION IS AN ECONOMIC IMPERATIVE FOR INDIVIDUALS AND THE NATION.

A robust adult education system is an economic imperative for the economic prosperity of individuals and the nation. The US is falling behind other countries and cannot compete economically without improving the skills of its workforce. High school graduates and dropouts will find themselves largely left behind in the coming decade as employer demand for workers with postsecondary degrees continues to surge.

Adult Education Helps Children and Families Thrive.

One in four working families in our country is low income, and one in every five children lives in poverty.xiv Studies have concluded that programs designed to boost the academic achievement of children from low income neighborhoods would be more successful if they simultaneously provided education to parents.

Adult Education Strengthens Communities and Democracy.

People with more education earn higher incomes and pay more taxes, which helps communities to prosper. They are less likely to be incarcerated and more motivated and confident to vote and make their voices heard on questions of public policy.

Wednesday, September 10, 2014

National Adult Education and Family Literacy Week - Facts & Stats about Adult Literacy in the US

September 22 - 28, 2014 is National Adult Education and Family Literacy Week.

The National Coalition for Literacy has many resources available on this page.

ProLiteracy provides an International Literacy Day and National Adult Education and Family Literacy Week Toolkit.  It has a lot of helpful information to help you get the message out the need for literacy in the US and around the world.


Here are some facts about Adult Literacy from the ProLiteracy Toolkit:


Adult Literacy in the United States
 
More than 36 million American adults struggle to read, write, do math, and use technology above a third grade level. The recent Program for the International Assessment of Adult Literacy (PIAAC) examined the United States and 23 other industrialized countries and found:

• The U.S. mean literacy score was below the international average—ranking 16th out of 24 countries.

• Only twelve percent of adults in the U.S. performed at the highest proficiency level on the literacy scale.

• Only nine percent of adults in the U.S. performed at the highest proficiency level on the numeracy scale.

• Only six percent of adults in the U.S. and 8 percent of adults under 35 in the U.S. performed at the highest proficiency level on the problem-solving/technology scale.
 
 
More Facts about Adult Literacy in the US
 
*  Current federal appropriations for adult basic education in the U.S. total just over $600 million, which provides funding to serve just three million individuals.

*  There is a correlation between a low literacy rate and a low paycheck.

• Just 35 percent of individuals with below basic skills are employed full time, while 64 percent in the proficient category have full-time jobs.

• The salaries of adults with below-basic literacy skills are, on average, $28,000 less than salaries of adults with proficient skills.

• Single mothers who lack a high school degree are much more likely to be on welfare than women who have a high school degree.

• Women with low literacy are twice as likely as men to be in the lowest earnings category of $300 a week or less.

• Minimum wage workers increased wages by 18 to 25 percent within 18 months of exiting an adult education program.


Health

• People with low skills are four times more likely to have poor health (two times the national average).



Employment
 
• The percentage of employed adults in the U.S. who performed at the highest proficiency level was lower than the international average of employed adults who performed at the highest proficiency level.

• The U.S. has the highest levels of income inequality and literacy skills inequality.


Education

• Americans with a high school diploma or less scored lower in literacy, on average, than their counterparts in the other 23 countries.

• People who come from low educated families are 10 times more likely to have low literacy skills.

• The difference in literacy proficiency between people with the lowest and highest education
levels was greater in the U.S. than in any of the other 23 countries.


Demographics

• The percentage of black and Hispanic adults in the U.S. who performed at the highest proficiency level on the literacy scale was lower than the percentage of white adults.

• Literacy differences between native-born and foreign-born Americans were greater than the average internationally.

• The difference in average literacy scores between the youngest and oldest Americans was
smaller than in any other country.


Civic Engagement

• Low-literacy Americans are far more likely than high-literacy Americans to express low political engagement and understanding.
 

 
 
5
 
 

4
ADULT LITERACY IN THE UNITED STATES


Current federal appropriations for adult basic education in the U.S. total just over $600 million,

which provides funding to serve just three million individuals.

There is a correlation between a low literacy rate and a low paycheck.

• Just 35 percent of individuals with below basic skills are employed full time, while 64 percent in

the proficient category have full-time jobs.

• The salaries of adults with below-basic literacy skills are, on average, $28,000 less than salaries

of adults with proficient skills.

• Single mothers who lack a high school degree are much more likely to be on welfare than women

who have a high school degree.

• Women with low literacy are twice as likely as men to be in the lowest earnings category of $300

a week or less.

• Minimum wage workers increased wages by 18 to 25 percent within 18 months of exiting an adult

education program.

Health

• People with low skills are four times more likely to have poor health (two times the national average).

Employment

• The percentage of employed adults in the U.S. who performed at the highest proficiency level

was lower than the international average of employed adults who performed at the highest

proficiency level.

• The U.S. has the highest levels of income inequality and literacy skills inequality.

Education

• Americans with a high school diploma or less scored lower in literacy, on average, than their

counterparts in the other 23 countries.

• People who come from low educated families are 10 times more likely to have low literacy skills.

• The difference in literacy proficiency between people with the lowest and highest education

levels was greater in the U.S. than in any of the other 23 countries.

Demographics

• The percentage of black and Hispanic adults in the U.S. who performed at the highest proficiency

level on the literacy scale was lower than the percentage of white adults.

• Literacy differences between native-born and foreign-born Americans were greater than the

average internationally.

• The difference in average literacy scores between the youngest and oldest Americans was

smaller than in any other country.

Civic Engagement

• Low-literacy Americans are far more likely than high-literacy Americans to express low political

engagement and understanding.

5

ADULT LITERACY IN THE UNITED STATES


Current federal appropriations for adult basic education in the U.S. total just over $600 million,

which provides funding to serve just three million individuals.

There is a correlation between a low literacy rate and a low paycheck.

• Just 35 percent of individuals with below basic skills are employed full time, while 64 percent in

the proficient category have full-time jobs.

• The salaries of adults with below-basic literacy skills are, on average, $28,000 less than salaries

of adults with proficient skills.

• Single mothers who lack a high school degree are much more likely to be on welfare than women

who have a high school degree.

• Women with low literacy are twice as likely as men to be in the lowest earnings category of $300

a week or less.

• Minimum wage workers increased wages by 18 to 25 percent within 18 months of exiting an adult

education program.

Health

• People with low skills are four times more likely to have poor health (two times the national average).

Employment

• The percentage of employed adults in the U.S. who performed at the highest proficiency level

was lower than the international average of employed adults who performed at the highest

proficiency level.

• The U.S. has the highest levels of income inequality and literacy skills inequality.

Education

• Americans with a high school diploma or less scored lower in literacy, on average, than their

counterparts in the other 23 countries.

• People who come from low educated families are 10 times more likely to have low literacy skills.

• The difference in literacy proficiency between people with the lowest and highest education

levels was greater in the U.S. than in any of the other 23 countries.

Demographics

• The percentage of black and Hispanic adults in the U.S. who performed at the highest proficiency

level on the literacy scale was lower than the percentage of white adults.

• Literacy differences between native-born and foreign-born Americans were greater than the

average internationally.

• The difference in average literacy scores between the youngest and oldest Americans was

smaller than in any other country.

Civic Engagement

• Low-literacy Americans are far more likely than high-literacy Americans to express low political

engagement and understanding.

5


 
 
 
 
 
 

Monday, September 1, 2014

"What's In A Name?" - Hard Questions from Save Your Adult School

This Save Your Adult School post asks hard questions about why K12 Adult Schools have faced so many challenges in recent years.  I've reprinted it here with the author's permission. 

What’s in a Name

What is the real reason for California’s relentless attack on its beleaguered adult schools? Could it be our name? Adult schools have to ask themselves questions like this, because there doesn’t seem to be a rational explanation for the way state government has continually attacked its adult schools and put them at a disadvantage vis-à-vis the community colleges at every turn. It has nothing to do with facts or data. For facts and data we go to the Legislative Analysts’ Office, which issued an extensive report on both community colleges and adult schools in 2012 entitled “Restructuring California’s Adult Education System”. On page 15 of that report, the LAO noted that outcomes for adult schools and community college non-credit programs are comparable.

So if our performance is comparable to the community colleges, why are we continually treated as the unwanted stepchild? Sometimes it feels as if we are being blamed for the recession of 2008. Don’t look at those Wall Street traders and bankers! Just look at that grandma taking a computer class! How about that immigrant mom learning English! What a bunch of freeloaders! It must be their fault.

Just look at the record:
2008
The state removed protections on adult school funding, allowing school districts to repurpose adult school monies for any use (“categorical flexibility”). At the same time, the state stopped paying adult schools for ADA (money based on attendance), removing the ability of adult schools to generate income. Instead, school districts with adult schools (not all had them) began to receive a yearly block grant in the amount their adult school earned during the last year they were able to collect ADA. Until 2013, they could decide to use some of this money to fund their adult schools, or not.
2008 was a bad year for education in general. All branches of education were severely cut, including school districts and community colleges. But the very existence of adult schools was put at risk, and some of them became extinct.
 
2011
The California Strategic Plan for Adult Education was issued, with no input from students or teachers. The announcement of the general public comment period in late 2011 was accompanied by a notice that no significant revisions would be made to the plan; in other words, the public comment period was a sham. The strategic plan noted that there is a significant return on investment in adult education in the form of improvements in civic participation, public health and improved educational outcomes for children of adult education students. (Again, note that FACTS show that adult schools are actually doing a good job). The plan then went on to propose eliminating many of the programs that produce these desirable results (such as Older Adult and Parent Education programs).
 
2012
The Legislative Analyst’s Report “Restructuring California’s Adult Education System” was issued. This report was about both adult schools and community colleges, and, as noted above, it found that adult schools do as good a job as community colleges do. However, the report subtly framed the issue  and threw around some incendiary language that suggested that adult schools were the problem, even though there were no facts in the report to support this insinuation.
 
January 2013
Governor Brown proposed to abolish adult schools and have community colleges take over all of their functions.
 
May 2013
Rather than destroying adult schools outright, the state directed community colleges and adult schools to come together in regional consortia. The consortia are defined by community college districts; adult schools can only enter into consortia with community colleges outside their districts if their own CC district does not want to consort. In other words, adult schools have no autonomy to pick their own partners.   The community colleges can opt out of the consortia if they want, and the community colleges have their own funding whether they join consortia or not. Adult schools still have no independent funding; there is a vague promise of some kind of funding through the consortia beginning in 2015.

The legislature does require school districts that haven’t managed to completely close down their adult schools yet to keep funding their adult schools at the same level that they funded them in 2013 for two years. That’s it. No guarantees after 2015, nothing to restore the adult schools that have been devastated. Be grateful we didn’t abolish you.

So, short version:

2008   We’re cancelling your funding and throwing you on the mercy of your school districts. Fend for yourselves. Good luck!

2013   OK, we’ve decided to destroy you now. You don’t deserve to exist.

Later 2013 OK, we’ve decided not to destroy you right away. But still no funding! Get into a consortium with the community colleges. Maybe you’d better do everything they say. After all, they have funding and you don’t.

So why the unwanted child treatment, really? There are no facts to support it anywhere in the two extensive reports that were done, the strategic plan and the LAO report. Both reports put us down with generalities, but the actual facts in the reports show that we’re doing a good job.

Maybe it’s our name. Seriously. Juliet famously sighed that “a rose by any other name would smell as sweet.” She meant that it doesn’t matter what you call something. However, names are powerful. When there is no rational reason for something, sometimes we have to look at words and the power of their subliminal associations. So “community colleges” vs. “adult schools”. What are the associations of for those words?

Everyone knows the educational system in the U.S. is defined by a strict hierarchy. At the tippy top of our alleged meritocracy: the Ivy League colleges, of course! They are schools for the elite. No one will ever question their efficacy. There won’t be a lot of reports about them and how they need restructuring. They are assumed effective. The fact that they admit mediocrities like our former president George W. Bush because they are the sons and daughters of the wealthy and powerful doesn’t hurt them; it actually adds to their cachet. The name Harvard sounds impressive and mildly intimidating even with the word “Lampoon” after it.

After the Ivy League schools come the great public universities, like the U.C. system in California, then the state colleges (in California, at least), then the community colleges. Everyone knows where these institutions fall in the hierarchy. Community colleges are certainly the low man on the higher education totem pole, but they are still part of the higher education system. They still have the word “college” in their name. And then “community”! Community is a warm and fuzzy word that everyone likes. They just sound more prestigious and important than “adult school”.

And where do adult schools stand in this hierarchy? Right at the bottom, below elementary schools. On the educational ladder, adult schools are one rung above the School of Hard Knocks.
And that name! Take “school”. School is a simple word, a humble word. It isn’t grand like “university” or even “college”. And it is a word with rich and complex associations both good and bad. In the minds of most societies with a formal educational system, the world “school” is so closely associated with childhood that it is difficult to separate the two.

And, for most of us, school is an intense experience which we go through when we are young and vulnerable. The word cannot help but elicit, somewhere deep down, strong emotions. The loneliness of a first long separation from a parent, the teacher who made you cry, the bully in the hall, the playground humiliation – echoes of all of these resound when you hear the word “school”, as do the memories of friends you made, the things you learned, the fun you had, and your gratitude at being an educated person. The negative associations we all have with our school days are probably one of the reasons it is so easy for “reformers” to beat up on schools and teachers these days.

So a name like “adult school” probably elicits, deep down, a certain cognitive dissonance for most people. School is for children. So what’s wrong with those adults that are still in school? Why didn’t they get it the first time? Even very sophisticated people, like our legislators and governor, may have this reaction at a subconscious level. People are much more comfortable with the idea of adults, preferably young adults, in college than they are with the idea of adults in school.

These are gut reactions, subliminal reactions, but such reactions are powerful. The facts in the LAO report and the State Strategic Plan report showing that adult schools are effective and a good investment don’t make a dent in such visceral responses.

So you may think I am about to suggest that we find another name for this rose, something euphemistic and pretentious like “Citizens’ Success Academy”.   But I think it would be better to take the course of movements that took words that had been slurs and turned them into words to be proud of. I propose that we turn the stigma on its head and proclaim everywhere that we are adult school teachers, students and supporters, and that we are proud of it. Or we could just call ourselves the Harvard of Second Chances,  orthe Princeton of those who never even got a first chance.

Advice from Adult Ed Advocates in Montebello

 
 
C  A  L  I  F  O  R  N  I  A 
     ADULT EDUCATION
                                                        A Newsletter on Adult Education in California August 2014
 
 
FALL 2014:  ADULT EDUCATION IN A TIME OF  OPPORTUNITIES, UNCERTAINTIES, AND CHAOS
 
As the state legislature finishes its two-year session on August 31st, Adult Education enters a period of uncertainty unlike any other experienced in recent years. With Fall 2014 around the corner, it is a good time to focus on the advocacy that is necessary to make sure Adult Education is funded in July 2015. The immediate looming items are the state collection of AB 86 consortia plans and the Governor’s 2015-16 budget introduction on January 10th that will send the first signals on what to expect in Adult Education funding for 2015-16. 

Meanwhile, as the state Legislature wraps its session, legislators are making plans to work primarily out of home district offices. This becomes an excellent time to reach out to local legislators and tell them your adult education story. 

Fall 2014 promises to be a challenging period for Adult Education in California because of the uncertainties on the future of the program. But this period also provides opportunities to balance the effects of the uncertainties: 

Opportunities:     

These include, but are not limited to, the following:

• A New Program with State Support: Based on the expectations and work of AB 86 Adult Education consortia, the potential exists to establish a sound adult education program that matches California’s needs for adult literacy and job training with its employment opportunities.

 • Defining Roles and Responsibilities: AB 86 outcomes also have the potential for defining roles for K-12 adult education and non-credit community college, including delineating who is responsible for delivering which program.

• Adequate Funding: A model that supports instruction and support services. 


Certainty:     

A commitment for Adult Education funding is in AB 86: “It is the intent of the Legislature to provide additional funding in the 2015-16 fiscal year to the regional consortia to expand and improve the provision of adult education.”


Risks:     

Negative consequences could be the result of the continued use of phrases that are counter-productive:

• Reinforcing the idea of community colleges taking over Adult Education.

• Continuing to say that Adult Education does not have 2015-16 funding.

• Taking on the Governor by mounting a campaign aimed at him rather than focusing on advocacy with the 140 legislators.


Chaos:   

The lack of a clear and positive statement on what to expect for 2015-16 will add to the rumors and confusion regarding the future of the Adult Education. 


WHAT TO DO? . . . .

Advocate at the local offices of state legislators, and make sure your AB 86 consortium plan includes Adult Education 2015-16 funding recommendations. 


Developed by Adult Education Advocates in the Montebello Community

Montebello Adult School