Hello,
My name is Lorene James and I direct the adult education program for the Kansas City School District. I am a 40 year veteran to the field and I am very pleased with some of the developments in the adult education field. It is so unfortunate that our programs do not receive adequate funds to do a more thorough job with educating our adults. When I say thorough (because I do not want to take anything away from our awesome instructors who turn out to be miracle workers) I mean that we do not have funds to set up programs that meets the needs of adults from beginning reading through job placement/post secondary.

Ideally our programs should be equipped with a full time counselor (in/or directly available to) the Adult Education classroom) so that early on in the enrollment process students can receive individual attention designed to chart their course from beginning to end or goal achievement.  This will help us address those students with beginning to intermediate reading skills in a manner that is uplifting because they can be guided through the steps that are necessary to gain academic gains. For instance, we have developed several unique models over the past several years. For those who are intermediate readers, we are providing a separate class that brings them together as a group in strong interactive learning activities. Since doing this we have experienced greater academic gains and improved attendance. There is still lots of work to be done in this area but I am encouraged to continue planning in this manner.

I have also developed a transitional model called "Parent Power Institute" in which the major emphasis has been to prepare adult students to be successful in entering college functioning at the college level. All of the preparation has to be done at the adult education level. However we partnered with the area community college, universities trade schools to determine specific skills our students must master to be successful. We designed a curriculum based on our findings to include reading/language, mathematics and introduction to computers. I felt if our students had strong skills in these areas they would not have a problem coping with other skills. We have experienced great successes with this program and continue to develop the transition component of "Parents to College".  If you are wondering why we targeted parents, we felt that parents have such a great impact on the education or lack of education of their children, this would be a great effort to improve the education and economic base of parents living in the school district. However, the program can be used in any adult program.

Another unique thing about the PPI program is that one of the area universities actually supported the curriculum content so much that they awarded college credit to students completing the entire program.

I hope I have been helpful in this discussion.


From: assessment-bounces at nifl.gov [mailto:assessment-bounces at nifl.gov] On Behalf Of Mechem, Thompson
Sent: Wednesday, May 27, 2009 10:14 AM
To: The Assessment Discussion List
Subject: [Assessment 1911] Re: Basic Reading Skills Discussion Begins Today!(TM)

I'm right with Toni on this. For our Next Steps Committee, the transition from GED through the college placement test to credit-bearing college courses is a major focus, but we have also identified several other leaks in the transitions pipeline, specifically the low percentage of Intermediate Readers who ever get to the all-important Advanced level and the higher-level ESOL students having difficulty transitioning to ABE. I think Transitions is the rising tide that lifts all boats.


Tom Mechem
GED State Chief Examiner
Department of Elementary & Secondary Education
Commonwealth of Massachusetts
781-338-6621
"GED to Ph.D."


________________________________
From: assessment-bounces at nifl.gov [mailto:assessment-bounces at nifl.gov] On Behalf Of Borge, Toni
Sent: Wednesday, May 27, 2009 10:23 AM
To: The Assessment Discussion List
Subject: [Assessment 1909] Re: Basic Reading Skills Discussion Begins Today!
I can understand your concern that students at the lowest level will be neglected with the focus on transitions but as someone who manages a program that offers classes from Basic Literacy through transitions, I believe that the focus on transitions highlights the need to provide students at the lowest level the strongest foundation in reading skills in order to successfully succeed in transitioning to higher education or job training.   We know that one barrier our adult students are facing in their quest for better jobs and education is their weakness in reading skills and transitions classes have arisen to address this deficit.

What is needed is to focus more on strengthening reading skills in the lower level which through time will eliminate the need for transitions classes.
Toni Borge
Director Adult Education & Transitions Program
Bunker Hill Community College
Boston, MA

From: assessment-bounces at nifl.gov [mailto:assessment-bounces at nifl.gov] On Behalf Of Dianna Baycich
Sent: Tuesday, May 26, 2009 2:28 PM
To: 'The Assessment Discussion List'
Subject: [Assessment 1898] Re: Basic Reading Skills Discussion Begins Today!

In response to Marie's question, the report shows that there is a continuing need for adult literacy, especially at the lowest levels. With the current focus on transitions in adult education, there is a concern that students at these lowest levels will be neglected.

The report also highlights the importance of reading fluency. Adult literacy teachers often neglect fluency, saying their students would "rather die than read out loud". How can we help students improve their reading fluency in a non-threatening way?

Dianna

________________________________
From: assessment-bounces at nifl.gov [mailto:assessment-bounces at nifl.gov] On Behalf Of Marie Cora
Sent: Tuesday, May 26, 2009 9:28 AM
To: Assessment at nifl.gov
Subject: [Assessment 1897] Basic Reading Skills Discussion Begins Today!
Hello everyone, I hope this email finds you well.

Today begins our discussion on
Basic Reading Skills and the Literacy of the America's Least Literate Adults: Results from the 2003 National Assessment of Adult Literacy (NAAL) Supplemental Studies
I am pleased to welcome Dr. Sheida White and Dr. John Sabatini as guests for this 4-day discussion.  Please visit the URL below for the full announcement and information on accessing the report.
http://www.nifl.gov/lincs/discussions/assessment/09readingskills.html

I hope you have had the opportunity to read through the Executive Summary of the report.  Please send your questions and comments about the report to the discussion list now.

I will start us off with a question for subscribers:  What does the report tell you about the need for adult literacy services today, and how might this affect your program practice?

Thanks!

Marie


Marie Cora
Assessment Discussion List Moderator



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