Summary of Recommended Topics for Discussions

Summary of Recommended Topics for Discussions

[SpecialTopics 558] Summary of Recommended Topics for discussion

From: David J. Rosen djrosen at comcast.net
Sun Sep 2 07:22:05 EDT 2007

Colleagues,

Below is a summary of the recommendations from a recent discussion here
about possible topics and guests. There are many good ideas, although
some may be better suited for other National Institute for Literacy
discussion lists such as assessment or family literacy. Some are ideas
that I am now considering for the coming year on the Special Topics
discussion list. I am very grateful to those who made these recommendations.

David J. Rosen

Special Topics Discussion Moderator
djrosen at comcast.net

Immigration

• Local immigration policies and how they impact students and teachers
  of Adult Education
• The impact of the Bush administration’s Homeland Security plans to
  enforce current immigration laws and the development of a national plan
  for citizenship education. See http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2007/08/20070810.html
• Incarcerated immigrants: how many participate in ABE classes, and the
  long-term results for those who participate and those who do not. (This
  could include a discussion of why some do not participate and how
  available these classes are to incarcerated immigrants, especially
  illegal immigrants.)
• Qualitative studies of immigrants pursuing ABE and ESOL education;
  perspectives of students, teachers and administration
• Collaborative efforts between state and federal agencies and
  non-profits to expand the human rights of immigrants, women, and low
  income adults pursuing education and self-improvement
• Immigrant integration and the role that language and literacy
  development can play in that goal – perhaps with a strong focus on what
  it takes to not only support immigrants making a new life in the U.S., but what we as a society can do to support communities that have a hard time
  absorbing large numbers of newcomers – and what we in adult education
  can do so we don’t pit the different kinds of needs of native born and
  foreign-born citizens/residents against each other.

Possible Guests

• Professionals in the field to discuss their perspectives of immigrants
  working towards assimilation, citizenship and language skills

Technology

• Technological literacy: who has it, who doesn’t, how we can improve it
• Gender differences in technological pedagogy (for example, is there a
  difference between the way males and females teach basic technical
  skills? Do men and women have different learning styles when it comes to
  technology? How does this affect students?)
• What is being done around the US to better use educational
  technologies to provide more and better learning opportunities for adults?

Possible Guests

• Teachers in the field of technological literacy
• People who are using technologies in creative ways.

Corrections Education/Ex offender re-entry
(7 people mentioned this topic)

• Helping ex-offenders transition to productive lives has tremendous
  implications for our society. We are starting a new program and could
  benefit from learning from others who are already running successful
  programs.
• Transition programs for ex-offenders who studied in jail/prison and
  need to connect to educational opportunities in the community. Too many
  ex-offenders leave prison and are faced with immediate housing and
  employment needs, and have no easy access to complete their studies.
  Access to educational services becomes a way to reduce recidivism.
• Specific Transitions Issues:

1. Locating the appropriate program(s) in the community
2. Communication between programs to "hand-off" the student -- flow of academic info
3. Coordinating the Program and instructional delivery
4. Sharing information -- Since correctional ed has accountabilities that they have to meet as do community adult ed programs, is there a way to provide feedback on offender success. The classic example is that all too often, the learner is ready to take the GED Test, but (s)he is released before the test could be taken. (Yes, there are even tales of the offender being pulled out the middle of the GED testing situation to be released.) I am sure there are stories of the adult learner in the community ready to take the test, but does something that gets them incarcerated, so the community program would like to have feedback too. While we do not like to admit it, the "road" to transition goes both ways -- so what info does each program want if on the receiving end of the new student? Are there effective models currently working?

Possible Guests

• Administrators in the criminal justice system and law officers who
  will openly discuss communication efforts and issues from their
  perspectives and interactions
• I have suggested two potential "panelists" to David who have recently
  completed doctoral dissertations that involved interviews with
  incarcerated individuals. While not focused specifically on literacy -
  their research does give voice to the views of students from whom we do
  not hear often if at all (i.e. actually incarcerated individuals). One
  paper focused on perceptions about corrections education, and the other
  about K-12 experiences of drop-outs who are now incarcerated -- each
  with a view to informing current educators about potential efforts to
  deter current students from such future ends.
• John Linton, former correctional educator and now Director of
  Correctional Education for the U.S. Department of Education
• Bill Muth, former Director of Education for the Federal Bureau of
  Prisons and currently a professor of correctional education at Virginia
  Commonwealth University
• Steve Steurer, former correctional educator and now Executive Director
  of the Correctional Education Association
• Carolyn Buser, former director of correctional education and current
  adult education specialist at the U.S. Department of Education who has a
  wealth of knowledge about how the adult education system and
  correctional education system works together.
• John Nally, director of CE in Indiana who is Chair of the Council of
  Directors of CE

Work-related Literacy/Basic Skills

• Work-related basic skills: What is now being done around the US and
  world (at national, state, and local levels) to help job seekers and
  incumbent workers develop the basic skills and other career tools (e.g.,
  technical knowledge, credentials, connections, etc.) to move into and
  succeed in rewarding jobs? (Possible guests: In addition to US-based
  people, we might invite representatives of New Zealand, the UK, and
  Canada to participate.)
• Looking at workforce education programs that are partnerships between
  businesses and local literacy organizations: the structure of the
  program, curriculum and assessments

Family-related Literacy/Basic Skills

• Family-related basic skills: What is now being done around the US and
  world (at national, state, and local levels) to help adults develop the
  basic skills and other life tools they need to help their families deal
  with educational, health, financial, housing, and other needs? (Possible
  guests: People who are thinking outside the box on what constitutes
  "family literacy.")

Civics-related Literacy/Basic Skills

• Civics-related basic skills: What is now being done around the US and
  world (at national, state, and local levels) to help adults develop the
  basic skills and other life tools they need to participate actively as
  community members and citizens? (Possible guests: People who are
  thinking outside the box on what constitutes civic literacy/citizenship
  education.)

Leadership

• What is being done to build leadership for adult education among
  stakeholder groups (e.g., employers; populations with low levels of
  reading skills, language fluency, and educational attainment; criminal
  justice agencies; etc.) who theoretically should have an interest in
  this field but who have largely been silent and invisible? (Possible
  guests: critical thinkers in this area. Maybe tie this in with the state
  policy topic below.)
• Adult learner leadership: What is being done to promote/develop the
  leadership capacities of adult learners? Why is it important to do so?
  What are ways of doing so? What are challenges and resources for doing
  so? (Possible guests: Representatives of national, state and local adult
  learner groups and the practitioners they work with.)

Policy

• State policy: What are states doing to build adult learning systems
  that prepare adults for work, family, and civic responsibilities?
  (Possible guests: Representatives of some states which have shown
  innovation and commitment regarding adult education policy.)

Advocacy and Public Awareness

• How to encourage adult learners to advocate for education for
  themselves and others including those for whom the GED is not a viable
  goal.
• What do the public, donors, and elected officials REALLY need to know
  about the impact of low-level literacy skills in our country so that
  professionals get the help that they need to meet service demands? What
  is essential information we should be collecting or calculating? We have
  to appeal to different audiences: What messages are attractive to the
  general public vs donors vs elected officials?
• How do we grab the attention of the general tax-paying population and
  major funding organizations to the critical need of literacy programs. I
  have seen the extensive research and results but not seen strategies to
  engage the general and specific populations.
• There was a big push in the wake of the 2000 National Literacy Summit, From the Margins to the Mainstream, an Action Agenda for Literacy. Seven years later we are still very clearly at the margins. Was it the wrong agenda? In a nutshell, the agenda was three pronged.
  
  Priority 1- Resources
  
  Priority 2- Access
  
  Priority 3- Quality

  Could we use the discussion list to revisit and reformulate an Action
  Agenda? As a first thought, I would think that Priority 1 would be
  answering the following question: How do we make a compelling case to
  the general public, the media, the politicians, and policy makers that
  the achievement of universal adult literacy (in English) is central to
  the preservation of our nation’s founding principles as well as our
  social and economic well being?

Possible Guests

• People with influence who have the ability to be advocates… or people
  who are adversarial who also have influence. We could learn from those
  who are anti.

System Building

• In a time of limited resources, are adult educators retreating from
  building effective learning systems or are we finding new ways and
  resources to provide more and better quality services? (Possible guests:
  Critical thinkers in this area. Maybe tie this in with the state policy
  topic above.)
• What is the essence of the US ABE/ESOL system (what works and what
  doesn’t?) and how does it compare to systems in other countries?
  For example, In the U.S. the adult education system is somewhat (ok a
  lot) separate from the job training and workforce development system
  making it difficult to implement integrated models that combine
  education and training. How are other countries managing to embed
  language and literacy development into services designed to help
  adults get jobs with a future.
  
  
  
  Another example, here in the U.S., family literacy focuses on teaching
  language and literacy skills in the context of life skills and helping
  parents understand the U.S. school system so they can help their
  children succeed. Other models (in the UK and some in Canada), help
  parents who’ve had few opportunities for schooling acquire the content
  knowledge their kids are learning (math, social science, geography,
  history) so that when there are questions the child has (about school,
  homework, tests), the parents can answer them with authority. I can see
  this system meshing nicely with what the GED is trying to do but if
  would be good to hear from experts in other countries about their
  insights into what has worked and what hasn’t.

Learning Disabilities (styles, disorders, differences)

• We know that students drop out of high school for a variety of
  reasons. How many drop out because they do not fit into the standard
  educational model? One respondent noted that many adult learners do not
  do well in traditional test-taking situations. Would they do better with
  alternative assessments? Should we educate them using the same model in
  which they were previously unsuccessful? How many are AD/HD? How many
  have what a psychologist might describe as an "Anti- Social Personality
  Disorder"? Should we continue to try to put them in a one-size-fits-all
  learning situation? Is it even practical, given the limited adult
  education resources, to try to assess differences beyond literacy levels?

Writing

• How to develop/encourage/support independent/critical readers and
  writers. At what point do/can adult learners "leave the nest" and
  challenge ideas on their own? Is that not the epitome of literacy?

Assessment

• Assessment as a way to capture what counts and giving learners the
  opportunity to demonstrate knowledge and skills in ways that reflect
  real life tasks. Have we all just gotten so beaten up by the required
  standardized testing that there is no room or desire to consider
  alternatives?
• Exploring both (1) assessments of the learner before and after
  instruction and (2) what
  degree of English language functioning is sufficient for learners to
  continue developing language proficiency on their own. The federally
  funded ESL assistance provided through programs, like the Refugee
  Resettlement Program, expect the ESL activities it funds to focus on
  economic self-sufficiency and on the learner's ability to function in
  the workplace. Those who contract with resettlement providers struggle
  with knowing (i) what expectations to have of ESL activities and (ii)
  what results are sufficient.

Other Topics

• How do we know that the learners we work with have reached the
  "critical/independent" stage of literacy where they can stand on their
  own and continue their learning? When should a program certify the
  learner - that is, does having "gone through" the program suffice for
  the learner to have reached the level of independence that enables
  him/her to be a continuing and active learner, or should more be
  required? How should teachers be trained, how should curriculum
  be designed, how should programs be designed to support learners
  becoming critical and independent readers?

Other Possible Guests

• Local and national policy makers willing to discuss impact of literacy
  issues and plans for reform

In the future, emphasize:

• Discussion of student profiles and specific, personal, qualitative
  anecdotes about students, ESOL and ABE teachers
• More focus on specific students, classes, and student populations
  (such as immigrants, adults, K-3, 4-6, postsecondary, etc.) Look from
  the ground up and not the top down in order to really make sense of the
  issues related to literacy and THEN apply the information to the level
  used by policy makers and administrators
• More links to national and local studies with follow up discussions
  (but not too many studies at one time)
• Further explanation and exploration of related statistics and how
  these impact daily interactions between students and teachers in Adult
  Ed and K-12
• Simultaneous unification of the ABE and Literacy field. We all came
  together when ABE was on the verge of being cut. We need to be proactive
  (not that I have been) not reactive.

Other Comments

• Use live chatting instead of asynchronous text discussions
• Combine topics (e.g. corrections, data and advocacy – including
  learners as advocates) using the Special Topics list for synergistic
  discussions
• Begin some discussions "ourselves" before inviting guests. It could be
  that with 'just us' questions will bubble up that we can then seek
  responses to/input from others with particular expertise?
• Slow down and really pace ourselves between conversations
• Why have we not compiled statistics in a way that serves all of our
  purposes? Most of the data on the NIFL web site is very dated. That’s sad.
• I don’t think we are very politically outspoken. Over the past seven
  years, the media has failed us and the many of us have opted to be
  CAREFUL about how we express our discontent. Support for people most in
  need has dwindled down to a pathetic state and, in general, the outrage
  is but a peep in the night. It’s disgusting. I don’t know that it serves
  us to bash The Administration…but let’s stop pretending that there
  wasn’t a genuine attempt to dismantle the ABE systems just a couple of
  years ago. The worst kind of politics is when one side doesn’t want to
  acknowledge blatant abuse of the public…because it makes their party
  look bad. I don’t really care for the left or the right. We need to do a
  better job of being on OUR OWN SIDE…the side of greater literacy for
  all. We need to take risks that might regenerate the movement. I’m
  under- impressed with discussion lists in general. They tend to be heavy
  on philosophy, intellect, and light on raw truth and gutsy calls to action.

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