Adult Literacy

A Little Bit of News About WIA Reauthorization in the Senate

/ The Old Crank / 3 Comments

The (very) little I know about any work going on in the Senate on a Workforce Investment Act (WIA) reauthorization bill this session is mostly on background, but what I do know is pretty consistent with what was reported by Neil Bomberg for the National League of Cities (NLC) a couple of weeks ago.

Unlike the House bill passed earlier this year, we know the Senate bill will be a bipartisan effort, and leads on it are Senators Patty Murray (D-WA) and Johnny Isakson (R-GA). According to NLC’s sources, Senators Murray and Isakson “are using last year’s Senate draft bill as the starting point for this year’s bill.” (I believe that is supposed to read “last session,” as the only recent Senate draft bill I’m aware of was released in 2011.) Although not perfect, most of my colleagues in adult education seemed to be reasonably happy with that older draft bill, while the recent House bill was universally panned.

There’s no timeline for the introduction and consideration of a Senate bill. NLC notes that it is unlikely that it would be introduced before June.

Watertown

/ The Old Crank

Photo of Watertown LibraryJust a quick note about Watertown, Massachusetts. Watertown has been described in news reports the last two days as a suburb of Boston—which it is—but it’s also worth mentioning, in light of recent events—and the efforts of some to exploit those tragic events for political reasons—that it’s also a town with a very strong immigrant community, the product of a proud history of welcoming and supporting immigrants that goes back decades: Armenians especially; Russians more recently—plus dozens of other nationalities. Over a quarter of Watertown residents are foreign-born, in fact. It’s strange to think that two men of Chechen heritage would cause such terror in the place where I’ve probably met more Russian immigrants than anywhere else.

Over a decade ago, when the library lost state adult education money to support their adult ESL program, town council members—some of whom, if I recall correctly, were 1st-generation immigrants themselves—didn’t hesitate to use local money to keep it going. I visited last year for the program’s 25th anniversary—Project Literacy is now a prominent part of the town’s beautiful remodeled library—which, like a lot of libraries in old New England towns, is located right in the center.

Addressing Adult Literacy: “A Key Step to Ensuring That All Young People Become Literate”

/ The Old Crank

From Reaching Full Literacy in Pakistan by 2025, a report commissioned by Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf Party Chairman Imran Khan released this week:

While it is tempting to argue that the priority is to ensure that no child leaving primary education is illiterate, the evidence from both Pakistan and elsewhere is that adult illiteracy has a direct effect on the performance of the young. In effect, addressing adult illiteracy is a key step to ensuring that all young people become literate, especially as adult illiteracy is one reason why children drop out of school early. (my emphasis)

They Write Letters

/ The Old Crank

GED Testing Service LetterThe GED Testing Service released a letter yesterday in response to a recent, widely circulated Associated Press story about the changes coming to the GED exam in 2014. I’ve written a lot about the controversy over the new exam—you can search the archives if you are interested.

The letter asks the adult education community to be “more courageous” when making decisions about the new test, “because that is what it will take to ensure [adult learners] are prepared for the future.”

It goes on to say that the alternative exams from McGraw Hill and ETS now competing with the GED in the high school equivalency testing market fail to measure college and career readiness, and that the revamped GED will be the only test “truly capable of measuring depth of knowledge and the skills that employers and colleges now expect.” Choosing one of the competing assessments “will just leave your adult learners behind.”

Other highlights:

  • “We believe adults are capable of acquiring the skills necessary to compete, including demonstrating basic technology skills and college and career readiness in 2014 and beyond.”
  • “It’s important that we have substantive conversations about all the issues and changes that we need to make, instead of settling for a cheaper, less effective test. It’s past time that the media and policymakers acknowledge the role that your staff and adult educators play in economic development in your jurisdiction and that you need resources to do the job right.”

So there you have it: those state officials who have chosen one of the alternative assessments are gutless cheapskates who don’t think their learners can actually acquire  the skills to compete. Let the substantive discussion begin!