8/25/2013
Getting Double Duty Dollars: Then and Now
Tom Sticht International Consultant in Adult Education
In 1983, I wrote a report entitled "Literacy and Human Resources Development at Work: Investing in the Education of Adults to Improve the Educability of Children". In it I argued that “Today, the predominant approach is, in effect, to write-off as lost causes youth and adults who have not learned the basic skills well, and to place billions of dollars in remedial money in school-based programs for their children. …It may will be that a commitment to the continued development of youth and adults, that matches our commitment to the remediation of their children in pre-school and elementary school programs, would pay double rewards. Through education of the adults, we might also improve the educability of their children.”
Later, I learned that in the early 1900s and up into the 1960s, African-Americans were encouraged to follow the doctrine of getting “Double Duty Dollars.” This meant that African-Americans should avoid businesses that discriminated against them or had separate entrances or separate water fountains for Whites and Blacks, and to instead shop at African-American owned businesses. This way their dollars would perform double duty: they could get needed goods and services and they could also sustain and support the growth of businesses in the African-American community.
I borrowed the idea of getting Double Duty Dollars and applied it to overcoming discrimination against the education of youth and adults and argued for investing in the literacy education of adults to help the adults overcome limitations in their own education, while also helping their children achieve better in school.
Twenty years after the publication of my 1983 report, in 2003, the National Coalition for Literacy produced an adult literacy education advocacy report entitled "A Legislative Position Paper on Adult Education & Literacy". The purpose of the paper was to advocate for fiscal year 2004 appropriations from the federal Congress and Executive administration and it was largely based on a position paper I wrote in 2002. In the 2003 National Coalition for Literacy report it was stated:
Quote” Adult education researcher, Thomas Sticht asserts that the federal government can get double duty dollars by “redirecting how monies are spent by the Departments of Education, Health and Human Services, and Labor on education and employment training.” He asserts that by focusing on the intergenerational transfer of cognitive skills and functional context education “it is possible to get twice or even three times the education or employment outcomes that these programs aim to produce.” His paper “Double Duty Dollars: Investing in the Education of Adults to Improve the Educability of Children and the Employability of Their Parents” (attached) explains how this can be accomplished.” End quote
Getting Multiplier Effects From Adult Literacy Education
From 1979 through 2003 I served on UNESCO's International Literacy Prize Jury selecting winners of UNESCO's annual literacy prizes awarded on September 8, International Literacy Day. One of the important lessons I learned from reading hundreds of applications for literacy prizes and speaking with adult literacy educators from around the world was that adult literacy programs generally produce multiplier effects, meaning that important outcomes beyond the learning of literacy are frequently forthcoming.
Now, in 2013, the National Coalition for Literacy is mounting another advocacy campaign with a similar theme about the returns on investment in adult literacy education as was used in the 2003 Double Duty Dollars activity. This time, however, the advocacy campaign draws upon the professional wisdom and scientific research indicating that adult literacy programs frequently produce multiplier effects. The 2013 campaign will be launched October 8 when the first results of the Program for the International Assessment of Adult Competencies (PIAAC) are released. This time the theme for the advocacy effort is called “Investing In Adult Education PAYS!”
In the forthcoming campaign, the NCL will be developing advocacy messages consistent with the theme Investing in Adult Education PAYS! Each message will be supported by a fact sheet summarizing the applicable PIAAC findings and other relevant, recent data as it pertains to the focus of each message. Perhaps by documenting the multiplier effects of adult literacy education advocates will be able to convince policymakers and private foundations that they will get Multiple Duty Dollars! That's a good ROI!
Tom Sticht