Adult Education: Outcomes, Measurement, and Building Capacity

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Adult Education Outcomes, Measurement, and
Building Capacity
Hans K. Meeder Deputy Assistant Secretary Office
of Vocational and Adult Education United States
Department of Education July 2004
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A Shared Vision for Adult Education and Literacy

• Adults will have opportunities to improve
  their basic and literacy skills in high-quality
  research based programs that will equip them to
  succeed in the next step of their education and
  employment.

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What is Literacy?

• Definition from the Workforce Investment Act of
  1998
• an individuals ability to read, write, speak
  in English, compute and solve problems at levels
  of proficiency necessary to function on the job,
  in the family of the individual and in society.

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The literacy skills of Americas adults

• 21-23 percent (40 to 43 million) at Level 1 -
  lowest level of prose, document, and quantitative
  proficiencies.
• 25-28 percent (about 50 million) at Level 2.
• (source National Adult Literacy Survey, 1992)

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NALS Levels

• Level 1. Able to perform simple, routine tasks
  involving brief and uncomplicated texts and
  documents.
• Level 2. Able to locate information in text, to
  make low-level inferences using printed
  materials, and to integrate easily identifiable
  pieces of information.
• Levels 3-5. Able to integrate information from
  relatively long or dense text or long and complex
  documents.

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U.S. Department of Education 491.5 million,
state grants 69.5 million, EL-Civics 10.1
million, incentive grants 9.2 million, national
leadership 6.7 million, National Institute for
Literacy
Designated State Agency Receive state grant
allocation Hold 12.5 percent state leadership
activities Allocate 87.5 percent competitive
grants
Community and Faith-based organizations
K-12 Education Systems
Community colleges
Corrections, employers, others
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Purpose of AEFLA

• Federal-state-local partnership to provide adult
  education and literacy services to
• Assist adults to become literate -- employment
  and self-sufficiency
• Assist adults who are parents -- full partners in
  development of their children and
• Assist adults -- completion of secondary school.

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What is Adult Education?

• Services below postsecondary level, 16 years
• Not enrolled in secondary school under state
  law
• Lack basic educational skills
• Do not have a secondary school diploma or its
  equivalent or
• Are unable to speak, read, or write in English.

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Adult Education Enrollment (2002-2003)

• Adult basic Education 1,079,386 (39)
• English Literacy 1,175,531 (43)
• Adult Secondary
• Education 479,269 (18)
• Total 2,734,186

(U.S. Department of Education, Office of
Vocational and Adult Education, Division of Adult
Education and Literacy, 2004)
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Enrollment of 16-24 year olds
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Outcomes and Measurement

• 5 Core Outcome Measures
• Primary Goal Educational Gain

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Core Outcome Measure 1 Educational Gain

Definition Learner completes or advances one or
more educational functioning levels Applicable
Population All learners. Collection Procedure
At intake, an individual learners educational
functioning level is determined using a uniform,
standardized assessment procedure approved by the
state.
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Core Outcome Measure 1 Educational Gain

Examples of standardized tests TABE, CASAS,
BEST, WorkKeys Met the Goal (FY 2002) 1,028,275
(38)
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Core Outcome Measures

• Core Outcome Measure 2 Entered Employment.
• Core Outcome Measure 3 Retained Employment
• Core Outcome Measure 4 Receipt of a Secondary
  School Diploma or GED
• Core Measure 5 Placement in Postsecondary
  Education or Training

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Measuring Outcomes

National Reporting System (NRS) Website
http//www.nrsweb.org/ This site provides adult
education teachers, administrators and others
reference materials and training related to the
National Reporting System.
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Measuring Outcomes

• National Reporting System (NRS) Publications
• NRS Follow-up Survey Guidelines.
• NRS Implementation Guidelines.
• NRS Data Quality Guide and Training.
• NRS Data Use Guide. 

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Building Capacity Through National Research
Investments

• Adult Literacy Network
• OVAEs contribution - 700,000
• Adolescent Literacy Network
• OVAEs contribution - 800,000
• Over a five year period.

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Building Capacity Through National Investments

• STudent Achievement in Reading (STAR) Project.
• Strategic Planning and Service Provision
  Demonstration Program.
• Community Partnerships for Adult Learning
  (C-PAL).
• Adult Education Standards Assessment Warehouse.

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Building Capacity Through National Investments

• Student Achievement in Reading (STAR) Project
• A pilot program in five states (CA, IL, OH, CT,
  SD) committed to the improvement of reading
  instruction.
• This is an effort to translate the research-based
  principles, into useable classroom practices and
  to infuse those practices into classrooms and
  instructional settings.

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Building Capacity Through National Investments

• Strategic Planning and Service Provision
  Demonstration Program
• To identify, document, and disseminate
  approaches to strategic planning among state
  agencies, effective leveraging of funds, and
  coordination of programs.
• The results will support the efforts of all
  states to increase the quality, efficiency, and
  effectiveness of adult basic and literacy
  education services.

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Building Capacity Through National Investments

• Community Partnerships for Adult Learning (C-PAL)
  
• Development of a web-based toolkit.
• Case studies of successful community
  partnerships.
• Identification and dissemination of promising
  practices derived from case studies.
• Website http//www.c-pal.net/

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Building Capacity Through National Investments

• Adult Education Standards Assessment Warehouse
• Improving the quality of instruction through
  the development of content standards is a
  critical step in developing effective curriculum
  and meaningful assessment to enhance student
  learning.

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Building Capacity Through National Investments

• Adult Education Standards Assessment Warehouse
• Electronic information warehouse providing
  universal access to data.
• How To Guide for establishing state standards
  and assessments.
• State collaborative working groups to develop
  state adult education content standards.

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Workforce InnovationsJuly 2004
Hans Meeder Deputy Assistant Secretary U.S.
Department of Education Office of Vocational and
Adult Education