About TEAL

The Teaching Excellence in Adult Literacy (TEAL) Center, funded by the Office of Career, Technical, and Adult Education (OCTAE) of the U.S. Department of Education, was designed to improve the quality of teaching in adult education in the content areas. Focusing on the content area of writing for Adult Basic Education (ABE) students, the TEAL Center offered an intensive program of professional development and individualized technical assistance to participating local staff in 12 states. The TEAL Cente rsupported quality instruction in adult education programs through the following:

  • Professional development and technical assistance.

    State teams participated in online professional development as well as a four-day face-to-face institute in research-based instructional approaches and components of effective teaching, with an emphasis on writing instruction. Participating instructors received ongoing technical assistance for implementing new practices via site visits and distance support.

  • Materials and strategies for professional development.

    TEAL Center materials, which are adaptable to a variety of program environments and instructional levels, were designed to help instructors learn to integrate practices within the content area of writing instruction. TEAL professional development opportunities provided opportunities for instructors to practice new skills, receive feedback on their performance, and collaborate and problem solve with peers cohort as they incorporate new ideas into their teaching.

The participating states included: California, Florida, Idaho, Mississippi, Missouri, Nebraska, New York, Oklahoma, Rhode Island, Texas, Virginia, and Wyoming. Four teachers and a state-level coordinator teamed up from each state to participate in a year of online and face-to-face training. In the second year of the project, teams continued to apply the new learning and instructional strategies they have gained through the online courses to apply in adult basic education (ABE) classes. Technical assistance and online communication offered by project staff helped the teachers apply new approaches and the project team to refine their professional development activities. Click here to access content from the 2011 TEAL Summer Institute.

This project provided resources that we continue to share with the larger adult education and literacy teaching profession. All TEAL materials can be found at https://lincs.ed.gov/state-resources/federal-initiatives/teal.