Title: New Expectations for a New Century: The Adult Education Imperative
1New Expectations for a New CenturyThe Adult
Education Imperative
Cheryl Keenan, Director Division of Adult
Education and Literacy Office of Vocational and
Adult Education United States Department of
Education
2Skill Level Changes
Skilled 20
Unskilled 15
Unskilled 60
Professional 20
Skilled 65
Professional 20
1950
1997
National Summit on 21st Century Skills for 21st
Century Jobs
3Fastest Growing Jobs Require Some Education
Beyond High School
4High Learning High Earning
S A L A R Y
5Percentage of population with a postsecondary
credential
Losing Our Edge?
55-64
45-54
35-44
25-34
Education at a Glance OECD Indicators 2003
6Losing Our Edge?
Students Enrolled in Postsecondary (in thousands)
UNESCO, 2003
7Losing Our Edge?
- NAEP 2002 Math Assessment
- 12th Graders Scoring Below Basic
- 35 percent of all students
- 56 percent of Hispanic students
- 69 percent of African-American students
- 60 percent of low-income students
8College remediation ratesEntering freshmen, 2000
Source NCES, Remedial Education at
Degree-Granting Postsecondary Institutions in
Fall 2000,
9Literacy skills of American adults
- 21-23 percent (40 to 43 million) of the 191
million American adults 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)
- The latest survey, the 2003 National Assessment
of Adult Literacy, will provide the first
assessment of adult literacy since 1992.
10NALS 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.
11Adult Education Target Population 2000 Census
Data
- 51 million (23) adults have not completed high
school - 31 of those have 8 or fewer years of education
- 31 of those do not speak English as their first
language
12US Census Bureau, Census 2000 Summary FileWho is
the target population?
13Target Pop 2000 Census Data
- Racial distribution of target
- 66 White
- 15 Black
- 26 of target is of Hispanic or Latino origin
14The Costs of Low Literacy
- Adult without high school diploma earns 42 less
than an adult with a high school diploma. - Limited literacy skills cost business and
taxpayers 20 billion in lost wages, profits and
productivity annually.
15The Costs of Low Literacy
- 50 of the chronically unemployed are not
functionally literate. - 41-44 of adults who scored in Level 1 on the
National Adult Literacy Survey (1992) were in
poverty (federal guidelines), compared with 4 -6
of adults who scored in the highest level.
16Workers/Workplace Literacy
The Conference Board (1999)
17Workers/Workplace Literacy
The Conference Board (1999)
18Workers/Workplace Literacy
The Conference Board (1999)
19Large numbers of adults are engaged in education
and training
Source National Council for Education and
Training (2004)
20Why Invest in Adult Education
21What is the need for adult education?
- Educating the workforce to compete in a global
economy. - Helping adults to positively influence their
families lives. - Encouraging adults to become engaged in their
community.
22Preparing for a rapidly changing economy
- By 2006, 2/3 of all jobs will require education
and skills beyond high school diploma. - Job growth at lower skill levels are insufficient
to support a family. - New Economy requires flexibility of workers and
adaptation to change. - Growing need for adult literacy and skills
remediation - Strong link between literacy and earnings.
23Preparing for a rapidly changing economy
- A lack of formal schooling and solid base of
literacy skills place adults at a considerably
higher risk of poverty and economic dependency
today in the U.S. and other high-income countries
around the world. - The US appears to be living off past higher
education investments and will inevitably lose
ground in the coming decade.
24Adult Learners as family memberscan impact their
childrens lives
- Percentage of parents who reported attending a
school event in 1999 - 39.2 - less than a high school education,
- 59.0 - high school diploma/GED,
- 67.2 - some college/vocational/technical
education, - 76.2- bachelor's degree, and
- 79.0 - graduate/professional school education.
- Source National Household Educational
Survey (1999)
25Adult Learners as family memberscan impact their
childrens lives
- Parents who reported acting as a volunteer or
serving on a committee in 1999 - 13.5 - less than a high school education,
- 26.7 - high school diploma/GED,
- 38.1 - some college/vocational/technical
education, - 50.4 - bachelor's degree, and
- 54.6 - graduate/professional school education.
- Source National Household Educational
Survey (1999)
26Civic Responsibility
- Since democracy is the context and the condition
for everything else that is valuedwork, family
life, religion, politics, recreation, and
leisurepreserving its vitality and integrity
must be a central objective of adult education.
(Boggs 1991b, p. 54).
27New Expectations forAdult Education in a New
CenturyThe Role of the Office of Vocational and
Adult Education
28A shared vision for Adult Basic and Literacy
Education
- 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.
29Improving Learner Outcomes
- Focus on what works
- Advance content standards and assessment
- Improve program quality and accountability
- Expand options for adult education services
30Focus on What Works
- Investments in research
- Reading Partnership
- ESL Study
- ESL Assessment Design Study
- Translating research to practice
- Project STAR STudent Achievement in Reading
31More on Research
- Keeping the public eye on literacy
- NAAL Survey
- ALL Survey
- AEP Survey
- Monograph production
-
32Advancing Standards
- Increase focus on reading, writing, numeracy, and
English proficiency - Guide development of curriculum and instruction
and aligned assessment - Improve program quality
33Advancing Standards
- 15 states forming two consortia
- Development of standards warehouse
- Goal Move states forward in their efforts to
use standards to improve the quality of services
34Improving Accountability
- National Reporting System
- Data Quality Standards
- Using data for program improvement
- Increased focus on local program evaluation
- Linking funding to performance
35Setting Standards
- Center for Adult English Language Acquisition
- Practitioner Toolkit Working with Adult English
Language Learners
36Expanding Access
- The Role of Technology
- Distance Learning and Project IDEAL
- Extending learning beyond the classroom
- New applications for classroom learning
37Expanding Options Partnering
- Employer partnerships for workplace investments
in workplace education - Adult Education Coordination Project
- Partnering with One-Stops
38Expanding Options Partnering
- White House Task Force report on disadvantaged
youth - Interagency collaborative to help states utilize
resources and mobilize for action - Federal-state support team
-
39Education Our Competitive Edge
Productivity in the United States has increased
generation after generation, creating ever-rising
standards of livingOur knowledge-based skills in
a business environment, supported by a rule of
law, have enabled our workforce to create
ever-greater value added--irrespective of what
goods and services we have chosen to produce at
home and what and how much we have chosen to
import. -- Alan Greenspan (2004)