Good evening, everyone,
I thought you might be interested in knowing the 2001-2002 Adult Education and Family Literacy Act: Report to Congress on State Performance is now on the web at http://www.ed.gov/about/offices/list/ovae/resource/index.html#research

There are lots of things in this report that could be interesting topics for discussion, but there are two things jumped out at me:

1) Nationwide, in ABE/ASE classes, 40% of students are enrolled in the lowest 3 NRS levels and 60% are enrolled in the top 3 NRS levels. In comparison, 74% of ESL students are enrolled at the lowest 3 NRS levels and 26% at the highest three NRS levels. What do you think this means? Do you think that there are fewer ABE/ASE students who need instruction at the lowest literacy levels? Or, do you think we're not doing a good enough job of recruiting and serving students at the lowest ABE levels?

2) In the narrative portion of the report, it says that programs are increasingly moving away from open/entry - open/exit and toward managed enrollment. Is this true in your state? In Pennsylvania, cost per student is still an issue and that is problematic when you're trying to increase intensity and duration. I'd be interested in hearing how other states approach this.

Over all, the report is a meaty document, but I will say it's always fascinating to see the differences in state performance numbers. Also, it's interesting to think that for some of our policy makers, this is their entire experience of adult and family literacy education. As I was looking at the numbers, graphs and charts, I couldn't help but wonder what they might mean to someone who hasn't been immersed in this work for a very long time. 
Sandy Strunk
Lancaster Lebanon Intermediate Unit 13
Adult Basic and Family Literacy Education
1110 Enterprise Road
East Petersburg, PA 17520
(717) 519-1006