Modesto Bee Portrait of Adult Ed in Central Valley Community Ceres

This August 29th, 2015 Modesto Bee article by Nan Austin provides a good portrait of what's happening in Ceres, a community in the Central Valley, as it utilizes the new Regional Consortia system to provide Adult Education.

New Ceres campus home to adult education classes, part of regional effort

Read more here: http://www.modbee.com/news/local/education/article32762943.html#storylink=cpy

Highlights:

Ceres Unified and Modesto Junior College spearhead consortium
Dropouts, immigrants, low-income adults served by classes
Recession-slashed programs rebuilding with collaboration, oversight

Read more here: http://www.modbee.com/news/local/education/article32762943.html#storylink=cpy

CERES

Of all the cuts to education during the Great Recession, classes for grown-ups likely took the hardest hit. The patchwork of offerings given at neighborhood schools fell apart in most places, chopping off the bootstraps long used by low-income parents who wanted to get ahead.

Click on the "read more" link to learn more.

CATESOL Adult Level Student Essay Writing Contest

Here's an opportunity for an Adult Education student to receive recognition and reward for their writing.  Please share widely.

Adult Level Student Essay Writing Contest

Sponsored by Cambridge University Press

Please Share with Your Colleagues  

Click on the "read more" link to learn more.

Perspective: George Porter on Acalanes Adult School's "Older Adults Program"

George Porter, a fourteen year veteran teacher of Older Adults classes at Berkeley Adult School, two term chair of the City of Berkeley's Aging Commission, and member of CCAE (California Council of Adult Education) and CFT (California Federation of Teachers), wrote this perspective piece in response to the news about Acalanes Adult School's survival and their Older Adult program.  (You can read the news report here.)

A PERSPECTIVE ON ACALANES ADULT SCHOOL'S "OLDER ADULT PROGRAM":

Congrats to Acalanes Older Adult Ed. for surviving, but at what cost and should they be viewed as a model?

Click on the "read more" link to learn more.

Update on Acalanes Adult School: Belt Tightening Survival

From The Contra Costa Times:

Acalanes Adult Ed tightens belt, drops some classes, survives to see another year

By Lou Fancher Correspondent

Posted:   08/14/2015 05:52:21 PM PDT0 Comments | Updated:   a day ago

The first thing that Steven France, director of Del Valle Education Center, wants people to learn this fall is that the Acalanes Adult Education program is open for business. Then he wants them to sign up for their favorite classes.

Last year things were not looking good for the district's popular adult ed program. But a combination of belt tightening, increased course fees, fundraising initiatives and other measures have afforded the 70-year-old program a one-year reprieve.

Click on the "read more" link to learn more.

Change Agent Call for Writing about Race by Adult Learners

The Change Agent is a magazine for Adult Learners and Adult Educators.  It addresses issues that are important to Adult Learners.  Many of the articles are written by Adult Learners.

Here is information about their latest call for writing:

Write for Us!

The Change Agent features writing by adult learners. All submissions must be received by the deadline to be considered for publication. Suggested length is 200-1000 words. We pay $50 stipends to adult education students whose work is accepted for publication. All submissions are reviewed by our Editorial Board. Final decisions are made by The Change Agent Editor. Please see the current call for articles for more details about our current theme.

Click on the "read more" link to learn more.

Some Advice from CCAE

This was sent out August 8, 2015 to CCAE members:

Some Advice from CCAE

As some of you might have noticed the previous message was sent out last year.

(Note from Cynthia:  I deleted the post from this blog.) 

Seems like the important issues then are still the important issues now. Below is updated advice on MOE vs MOC which should be relevant to your current consortia conversations.As Adult Schools move into challenging conversations with our consortia partners we in CCAE realize that if we are to be successful providers of adult education services in this new world we must be successful within our consortia. As such CCAE will be providing advisories that are intended to give the best advice from state leaders of Adult Education within our organization. These advisories are not intended to represent state policy or Ed Code but rather guidance based on the most current information (laws and policies) available and best Adult Ed practices within the state. Our goal is to inform our members of options and recommendations that will ultimately provide the best services for our students and the best return on investment for our state.

MOE is NOT MOC (Maintenance of Effort is NOT Maintenance of Capacity)

Hit the "read more" link to learn more.

Perspective: Kristen Pursley on the Issue of Fees for Adult Education

Kristen Pursley

COSAS
 Communities Organized
to Support Adult Schools

The following is a perspective piece from Kristen Pursley, founding member of COSAS (Communities Organized to Support Adult Schools) and author of the Save Your Adult School Blog.   She is against charging fees for Adult Education.  She lays out her reasons for this and gives background on the topic in this letter to CCAE (California Council for Adult Education).

 

 

 

To: California Council for Adult Education (CCAE)

Dear CCAE,

As I renew my membership in CCAE, I wish to register my opposition to legislation that will lock in fees for adult school ESL and Citizenship classes.  As an ESL instructor in an adult school that has managed to survive without charging fees for these classes, I am very concerned that legislation allowing districts to  permanently charge for ESL and Citizenship  classes would greatly damage our program and shut many of our students out of an education.

Hit the "read more" link to learn more.