Hello Program Management Colleagues,
You might be interested in this brief description of a new national study on how adult basic skills education is being implemented. It is an interview with Stephanie M. Cronen, Managing Researcher of the National Study of the Implementation of Adult Education being conducted by the American Institutes for Research under the U.S. Department of Education’s Institute of Education Sciences (IES) with funding from the Office of Career, Technical, and Adult Education (OCTAE).
Here are some parts of the interview with Stephaine Cronen that I want to call to your attention:
- As required by Title II of the 2014 Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act, the U.S. Department of Education’s Institute of Education Sciences commissioned a national study to evaluate how adult education operates at the state and local level, including who adult education providers are, the services they provide, and the challenges they face. AIR will conduct this implementation study, which will primarily involve collecting and tabulating data from state director and local provider surveys.
- Recent statistics show that approximately 21% of adults in the U.S., or 43 million, have low English literacy skills. These individuals may be able to read, but they struggle to understand, evaluate, use, and engage with written texts on a deeper level to participate in society or achieve their goals. These adults are more likely to be unemployed compared with their counterparts who have higher-level skills; even those who are employed earn relatively lower wages. On top of that, 25 million people in the United States self-identify as speaking English 'less than very well.'
- The last national study of adult education took place in 2003.
- With the data from the 2019-20 study’s surveys, we’ll be able to conduct in-depth analyses on the types of instructional and support services being provided through the adult education system and describe the ways in which community and state partners are contributing. The study will also allow us to describe the challenges that local and state providers of adult education have experienced under the federal legislation that was re-authorized to fund adult education.
- The hope is that understanding these challenges can lead to discussions about technical assistance needs at the local and state levels and inform decisions about policy changes that may be needed.
- By participating, local education providers will contribute to this field of knowledge. They’ll be able to compare what they know about their student populations, challenges, and practices with those of other providers in their state and nationally—and that will help them understand their own program better and consider other options that are being implemented by similar providers.
- At the federal and state level, this detailed information will help stakeholders understand what their grantees need around technical assistance and professional development, and provide information on the extent to which specific aspects of state and federal policies are working. We’ll use the survey information to create a national snapshot, as well as state snapshots, which will be made publicly available on the websites of the U.S. Department of Education and AIR once the study is complete.
David J. Rosen, Moderator
LINCS CoP Program Management group