September, 2003

NAEPDC Web Resources, September 16, 2003
LEP Study, September 3, 2003
HEA Reauthorization Audio Conference, September 3, 2003
 Public Schools Push Out Students, September 2, 2003
Congratulations Becky Dyer, September 2, 2003 

NAEPDC
News, Views, and Clues

September 16, 2003

NAEPDC WEB RESOURCES

This year NAEPDC is focusing efforts on updating and expanding its website to provide more timely resources for you and your state staff.  With the guidance of the Professional Development Committee, we will be collecting and posting state-level policies, procedures, manuals, strategies, and other state-developed resources linked to the categories contained in the State Adult Education Management and Leadership Functions:  A Self Assessment.  Resources will include such items as sample funding formulas, local program applications, assessment policies, staffing structures, local director training manuals, pre-service training models, and curricular frameworks. 

Obviously, the identification of good resources depends on your willingness to share your products with your colleagues.  We hope, therefore, that you will respond whenever you see special Web News, Views, and Clues requesting specific web resources.

The Professional Development Committee has recommended that we initially focus on resources that could assist in the next state plan development process.   Please click here to view the list of categories we are seeking.  If your state has developed or used any particular resources that would benefit other states as they develop their state plans, please consider sharing them with us.  We are particularly looking for materials that are:

• Clearly written and well-formatted,
• Current or have up-to-date application,
• Consistent with WIA and/or DAEL guidelines (if applicable), and
• Currently housed on your website or available in electronic format.

If your resources are currently on the web:

• Use the electronic form referenced above to send us the specific URL and a brief description, and
• Hit the submit button.

If they are not on the web but you have an electronic version:

·        Use the electronic form to send us a brief description, hit the submit button, and

·        Email your files separately to Kathi Polis at kpolis@charter.net.

We would like to get the state plan resources posted by early November so please respond as soon as you can.  Thank you for your willingness to share with your fellow colleagues!

NAEPDC
News, Views, and Clues

September 3, 2003

LEP Study

Following upon Build to Last, the study of welfare, education, and training services, NAEPDC and CLASP (Center for Law and Social Policy) have co-sponsored a second study, The Language of Opportunity, focusing on the needs and services for limited English proficient (LEP) adults.

If you do not have time to read the entire study, please look at two sections of the eight page policy brief:

Pages 5-6:  Recommendations for Program Design and Operations

Pages 6-7:  Recommendations for National and State Policies. 

 Here is the announcement which includes web sites for the publications. 

The Language of Opportunity: Expanding Employment Prospects for Adults with Limited English Skills by Heide Spruck Wrigley, Elise Richer, Karin Martinson, Hitomi Kubo, and Julie Strawn. This report describes the demographics and economic circumstances of low-income adults with limited English proficiency (LEP) as well as the language and job training services available to them. The authors summarize lessons from scientific evaluation research on employment programs for low-skilled adults and provide recommendations for policy and practice that would increase opportunities for LEP adults to gain access to higher-paying jobs. The appendix includes profiles of several programs that are successfully training and working with LEP adults. 

62-page report:

http://www.clasp.org/DMS/Documents/1062102188.74/LEP_report.pdf

 8-page policy brief:

http://www.clasp.org/Pubs/DMS/Documents/1062101599.5/LEP_brief.pdf

 Thanks to Garrett Murphy who coordinated this project with CLASP.  

 Keep up the good work.  Let me know when we can help.

 NAEPDC
News, Views, and Clues

September 3, 2003 

HEA Reauthorization Audio Conference 

The Center on Law and Social Policy (CLASP) conducts monthly audio conferences on Federal policy issues.  The registration fee is $16.00.  The announcement below and referenced web page will give you all the information. 

Those of you who work with community colleges may be interested in this Higher Education Reauthorization topic.  Here is the information. 

“Because of your work on education policy and programs, the Center for Law and Social Policy (CLASP) hopes that you will join our Friday, September 12, audio conference (12:30-1:30 EDT) which is about reauthorization of the Higher Education Act.  Our guests include; Ellyne Bannon, Minority Staff, U.S. House Committee on Education and the Workforce, Kathleen Smith, Majority Staff, U.S. House Committee on Education and the Workforce, as well as, Julie Strawn, Center for Law and Social Policy.

 It’s easy – and inexpensive – to register.  Simply link to http://www.claspstore.org and follow the directions regarding audio conferences on the left hand side of the screen.  We encourage you to try and listen around a speaker phone so that others in your office can listen and so that you can use the audio conference as a “briefing” on the issue.”

CLASP is the organization that NIFL and the Consortium partnered with to produce the welfare policy issues booklet, Built to Last that we sent you earlier in the summer.

 Keep up the good work.  Let me know when we can help.

 NAEPDC
News, Views, and Clues

September 2, 2003

 Public Schools Push Out Students

Because of the impact on adult education programs, I thought you would be interested in this article from the “Public Education Network, Weekly NewsBlast for August 1, 2003.”

TO CUT FAILURE RATE, SCHOOLS SHED STUDENTS
Growing numbers of students -- most of them struggling academically -- are
being pushed out of New York City's school system and classified under
bureaucratic categories that hide their failure to graduate, report Tamar
Lewin and Jennifer Medina. Officially the city's dropout rate hovers
around 20 percent. But critics say that if the students who are pushed out
were included, that number could be 25 to 30 percent. The city data make
it impossible to determine just how many students are being pushed out,
where they are going and what becomes of them. But experts who have
examined the statistics and administrators of high school equivalency
programs say that the number of "pushouts" seems to be growing, with
students shunted out at ever-younger ages. Those students represent the
unintended consequence of the effort to hold schools accountable for
raising standards: As students are being spurred to new levels of academic
achievement and required to pass stringent Regents exams to get their high
school diplomas, many schools are trying to get rid of those who may
tarnish the schools' statistics by failing to graduate on time. Even
though state law gives students the right to stay in high school until
they are 21, many students are being counseled, or even forced, to leave
long before then. And yesterday, after declining to comment on the issue
for two months, Chancellor Joel I. Klein conceded the point. "The problem
of what's happening to the students is a tragedy," he said, "It's not just
a few instances, it's a real issue.
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/07/31/nyregion/31PUSH.html

Keep up the good work.  Let me know when we can help.

 NAEPDC
News, Views, and Clues

September 2, 2003 

Congratulations Becky Dyer 

BARBARA BUSH TO AWARD $272,995 FOR MAINE FAMILY LITERACY INITIATIVE

“Augusta -Mrs. Barbara Bush today announced that $272,995 has been awarded for Maine Family Literacy Initiative programs in nineteen Maine communities. Representatives from each program accepted their grant awards from Mrs. Bush and Maine’s First Lady, Karen Baldacci, at an awards ceremony in Biddeford. Maine Family Literacy Initiative money supports programs that improve the reading skills of parents and their children, while developing solid literacy practices in the home.

“I'm so proud of what the Maine Family Literacy Initiative has been able to accomplish over the past nine years. We know that thousands of parents and children are now able to share the joy as well as the benefits of reading as a result of their hard work in the more than 100 family literacy programs funded by this Initiative, and that's just great!” said Mrs. Bush, Honorary Chairperson of the Foundation.

"Families that read are families that succeed," states Maine's First Lady Karen Baldacci. "Barbara Bush has devoted many years of work to promote and increase family literacy. I would like to thank and honor her on behalf of the people of the State of Maine for her dedication to such a worthy cause." “

Congratulations Becky. 

 Keep up the good work.  Let me know when we can help.