SPRING SPOTLIGHT: Transitions Missouri AEL
is embarking on many new projects that help adult students move into the workforce and post-secondary. It is exciting to know that this meaningful work provides an opportunity for advocacy and access to future funding. The current trend is to invest in educational programs and agencies that provide direct pathways into the workforce, making an impact on local economies. In that spirit, we would like to spotlight Mandy Rose of the St. Charles Community College AEL program for her leadership in developing successful transitions services in her region on Integrated Education and Training programs, Ann McCauley of Moberly Area Community College AEL for responding to her local workforce needs with an IET, and Deborah Briggs of Kansas City’s Don Bosco AEL for her innovative partnership building that has created many workforce opportunities for her students, while improving the local workforce economy.
Missouri Adult Education Tops the Nation in Student Advancement
Missouri is the top state in the nation in academic gains among adult education students. For the period July 2016 to June 2017, 65 percent of the state’s adult education students advanced an educational level in the program. For example, a student may advance from an adult basic educational level to an adult secondary educational level. Missouri was the top state in 2014-15 as well, and ranked second in 2015-16.
In other states, the segment of adult education students showing similar progress was between 28 and 64 percent. The numbers are based on data reported to the U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Career, Technical and Adult Education National Reporting System.
“We are proud of our adult education programs, students and teachers for improved academic achievement,” said Interim Commissioner of Elementary and Secondary Education Roger Dorson. “Missouri is committed to ensuring that all students are ready to succeed.”
Through the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE), Missouri funds approximately 28 adult education programs offering instruction in more than 250 class sites around the state. Several steps have been taken at the program level to improve instruction for adult learners:
· A portion of program funding has shifted from attendance-based to performance-based outcomes.
· Students now enter the program as part of a cohort as opposed to enrolling individually at any point in time.
· Programs now have access to their student performance data from an overall program level to the individual student level.
Missouri adult education served more than 18,000 students in 2016-17, the latest numbers available. Of those, nearly 11,000 were enrolled in adult basic education, about 1,300 in adult secondary education, and nearly 6,000 were enrolled in English literacy. Adult education services are provided at no cost to the student.
“Missourians who earn their high school equivalency make an average of $7,500 more per year than those without a high school education,” said Elaine Bryan, director of DESE’s Office of Adult Education. “Many of these students will pursue job certification or postsecondary education to further enhance their chance for success. The success of our students and helping them to achieve self-sufficiency is our program’s top priority.”
Thank you,
Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education | Communications | 573-751-3469 | dese.mo.gov
See News Story through link below:
Integrated Education and Training in Adult Education
Deborah Briggs
Director of Adult Education, Independence AEL
The ISD AEL: Don Bosco program provides instruction on the first steps of a career pathway for adults. We are currently offering Contextualized Instruction in the following trades: Construction, Warehouse, Hospitality, and Nursing. We also partner with Job Corp in Excelsior Springs and Kansas City that provides certification in 12 different trades. Our program provides academic instruction and remediation using curriculum that is industry and skill specific.
Through a partnership with the Full Employment Council, we are also able to place Youth ages 16 - 24 in on the job training and internships.
We work with ESL, HSE, and Remedial College students by providing case management and academics that are contextualized through specific industry trades. Our most comprehensive partnership is a project to build a house from the ground up in Independence that will be given to an Independence family once completed. The Independence School District donated land to Habitat for Humanity. They in turn partnered with us to create an "academy" for training out of school youth in the construction trades. YouthBuild and AEL joined forces to jointly train these youth in HSE attainment and NCRC credentials. FEC joined our team to provide classroom space and case management through Community Services League of Independence. They will ensure that all of our Youth in the project have the resources needed to successfully complete the nine month program. After completion, our students will be able to enter at a Journeyman level in the trade unions and make approximately $60,000 a year to start.
Another project we are participating in is a pilot CNA class for immigrants and refugees. This class is exceptional in that we are working with non-traditional students in a non-traditional nursing course. Most nursing classes require that students be proficient in English and score at 9th grade or above on TABE. We enrolled ESL students scoring at upper Intermediate and Advanced levels in the class. The class started in October and will not finish until the end of March. Students attend 5.5 hours of Nursing Instruction on Mondays and participate in a contextualized ESL/Nursing remediation the remainder of the week with the ESL/IET teacher. The curriculum to teach English is based on the CNA nursing manual. The AEL teacher attends all of the classes and takes notes. The AEL teacher was present during clinicals and was there for support and remediation as needed. When students complete the course and pass the state exam, they have been offered jobs at a local hospital who is eager for them to start because our students are multi-lingual. St. Luke's has even offered to pay for additional certification and training so that students may continue on their career pathway.
Our forklift driver training class has been a valuable success. To date, we have certified 56 students in 7 different types of forklift certification and OSHA safety certification. The majority of our students have been refugees and immigrants. The course is 6 weeks long and students spend 1 day a week with the Forklift trainer in class and 1 day a week with him in the warehouse driving. Our AEL instructor is present for all training sessions and remediates the instruction the remainder of the week in ESL style instruction. She has also gained her forklift certification. The AEL teacher uses the vocabulary words from the text and exam to teach English that is specific to this industry. She also assures that Reading, Writing, Listening, and Speaking are part of each lesson. Students also attend her digital literacy class two days a week to learn workforce readiness skills that include resume writing and interview skills.
We started a pilot this year with the Hospitality trades at Don Bosco. Our AEL teacher with a background in the hospitality industry enrolled in the ServSafe program offered through the National Restaurant Association and was able to receive her credentials in proctoring the Servsafe exams, certify students in food handlers and safety, and certify students in restaurant management. Her ESL class which meet four days a week allows students to not only learn English reading, writing, listening, and speaking,but it also allows them to complete their certification in the hospitality field. We have partnered with hotels and restaurants in the area and students are able to secure jobs based on our recommendation.
Our IET program is new and constantly evolving as we gain more partnerships and knowledge in the field of contextualized instruction. I am pleased with the success we have achieved for our students in this program and look forward to it's growth.
Continuing Resolutions for Federal Budget negotiations expire March 23rd. Republican and Democrat Legislators are preparing for what they hope will be the final budget negotiations for 2018. Senators are working on rewriting the new appropriations bill which will then go to the House. Now is the time to contact your Senators and U.S House Representatives and ask them to allocate more funding for education investments in 2018 appropriations, and continue to fund adult education. U.S. Legislative Update—Continuing Resolutions Continue Read more, and find a link to send electronic messages to your Representatives through COABE: Send an Email Here Letters from students, directors, and teachers make the most impact. Please send plenty of letters to our Senators and U.S. House Representatives. Find your Senators Here and Find your U.S. House Representatives Here Tell us how it’s going! We want to hear how many letters you were able to send from your program. Send your success story to: musemick@ritenourschools.org
UPDATE March 26, 2018:
The FY 18 budget approved late last night by Congress contains a $35 million increase in funding for adult education. This increase is due to the efforts of thousands of adult education advocates over the last year, which began with the Trump Administration’s budget proposal that was sent to Congress in March, 2017.
Not only did Congress reject the Administration’s proposed and restore the 16% cut but they added another 7% to our funding.
Thanks to all of you and your students who have been part of this effort.
Art Ellison, SPOC Network Administrator
Letter from the State Director
I know all of you are busy and have a lot going on with your typical day-to-day activities, not to mention a new data system and TABE 11/12 knocking on our doors. But as busy as everyone is, I’d like to take this opportunity to remind everyone of the importance of advocacy. The main purpose of advocacy is to protect our ability to provide meaningful service to our students by ensuring that our funding is continued at its current level with the hope that maybe someday we could even get an increase in funding. Obviously maintaining our current funding is crucial to all of us. Speaking with legislators through letters from our students, postcards, telephone calls, etc. is the most effective way to advocate for our program and maintain funding. The key element in speaking with legislators is the ability to tell a compelling story, and our best story is the success of our students. In order for our students to be successful, they must be able to get a job that ultimately results in self-sufficiency. Transition services are critical to that outcome. Integrating various transitions activities such as career planning, workforce preparation, soft skills, FAFSA enrollment, etc. into our classroom is one of many factors leading to student success. Spending time in our classrooms on these transition services motivates our students and makes it more likely they will continue on to post-secondary and/or obtaining a job. Our students and their success is why we do what we do!! Thank you for all you do to assist in these efforts!
Elaine Bryan, Missouri State Adult Education Director
Ande Shaba, former STLCC Meramec AEL Student enrolled in BUD Program
Letter Writing Campaign
Help Missourians who love AEL hold a successful letter writing campaign in 2018! Write Missouri Senators. Write your U.S. House Representatives. Tell them about adult education and how AEL contributes to the workforce. Encourage your students to tell their stories. Our goal is for each Missouri AEL program to send letters from a minimum of 10% of number of students served yearly.
Emails are the most convenient, but letters from students, directors, and teachers make the most impact. Please send plenty of letters to our Senators and U.S. House Representatives Find Missouri Senators here:Find Senator Contact Information. Find your U.S. House Representatives here: Find your Representatives
Integrated Education and Training in Adult Education, Mandy Rose, Associate Dean of AEL, St. Charles Community College
The letters “I E T,” contrary to popular belief, are not an acronym for Incomprehensible Educational Trauma. They are an acronym for Integrated Education and Training. Integrated Education and Training is a common sense way of training and learning that allows low skilled adults to enter into life sustaining wage work with valid and recognized credentials, while also gathering the academic skills to make them successful in life, work and post-secondary education. IET blends workforce education with skills remediation. These two types of training are provided within the same context and during the same period. This model serves the student and the community in many different ways. IET students are typically adult learners. Many do not have a HS diploma, are learning English as another language and if HS graduates. They lack labor-specific skills needed in certain job industries. Focusing IET programming on local, relevant workforce industries allows students to train in high demand jobs that are currently in a pattern of growth within a student’s local region. It also allows the student to receive a credential that is recognized and respected by local industry. All these factors assist the adult student with landing their first job, transitioning to a new job or upskilling for their current position. The convenience of mixing skills remediation with the credential programming works for adult students that work, have children and other family responsibilities. Resources and time are maximized in this model where the instruction occurs concurrently. Many students are also able to earn post-secondary credit for programming if they choose to continue their higher education. Integrated Education and Training programs serve communities on a huge scale while demanding very little monetary and time investment. Students who have opportunities for training, skill remediation and networking within local industries are more civically involved, shopping locally, and contribute to the local tax base through income and sales taxes. Job specific training focuses on the needs within local regions. This encourages workers to apply for jobs in their region, be hired regionally and remain local while building families, purchasing houses and shopping near where they live. Upskilling talent while building workforce skills is a natural match and makes efficient use of class time, allowing students to jump into the workforce at a much quicker pace. In economic regions with little job specific talent, programs are tailored to fit the workforce located there. Instruction can cover workforce needs, while also making low skilled workers more proficient at computer usage. IET benefits students and communities. IET benefits industry, big business, little business and post-secondary institutions. IET is fiscally sound and is student friendly. Programming can start simple and stay simple. It can also start simple and grow. Recognizing the value to all involved is the key to success with this type of programming.
Advocacy Tip from Art: “Knowledge does not equal action. In the Field of Advocacy for Adult Education, we have the knowledge needed to be successful, now we need to take action!” Art Ellison, New Hampshire Department of Education, National AEL Advocate, and Facilitator of the Public Policy Working Group
Missouri Adult Education Facts
Missouri Adult Education serves an average of 20,000 students per year. Classes are tuition-free for students.
The average Missourian earns $7,500 per year more with a High School Equivalency than without.
Adult Education reduces crime and poverty in Missouri.
Adult Education programs are designed to transition students into the workforce and postsecondary.
Adult Education programs have an 89% High School Equivalency pass rate.
Missouri Adult Education is efficient, spending an average of $644.00 per student per year.
Integrated Education and Training in Adult Education Ann McCauley, Director of AEL, Moberly Area Community College
Integrated Education and Training in Adult Education Ann McCauley Director of AEL, Moberly Area Community College Last fall the Moberly Area Community College (MACC) Adult Education and Literacy (AEL) Program formed a partnership with the Early Childhood Education Department (ECE) at the college and with the early childhood programs in the community, in an effort to create an IET (Integrated Education and Training) model that can be replicated throughout the state of Missouri. The partnership was formed as a result of an expressed workforce need in the Moberly community, and consists of AEL, MACC, and the Community Daycare Learning Center. The Community Daycare Learning Center is the major child care provider in Moberly and is struggling to become nationally accredited because its employees lack the appropriate credential necessary for accreditation. The center is licensed to serve 100 children but is unable to serve that number because the community lacks trained childcare providers to fill positions. Other smaller child care facilities in the community are faced with the same problems. This has resulted in a systemic problem that negatively impacts the entire community, because employees in numerous sectors are unable to find quality childcare while they are at work, resulting in lost wages and productivity.
MACC, AEL, and the child care centers collaborated in an effort to meet the industry workforce needs by introducing a new IET initiative called the AEL-CDA. Funding for the early childhood component was obtained through a grant offered by the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education’s Family Consumer Sciences Division. Adult education students enroll in the AEL program and the MACC-Early Childhood Education (ECE) Program where they graduate with a high school equivalency and a Child Development Associate (CDA) certification from the college. Students attend adult education classes and early childhood classes in addition to working in a lab-type setting at the Community Daycare Learning Center to practice the skills learned in the classroom and with the prospect of employment at the center upon program completion. The partnership does not end with the students’ successful employment in the early childhood field. Once students obtain the HSE, the CDA credential, and become gainfully employed in the field, T.E.A.C.H MO will cover the cost of all community college classes plus the entire cost of a bachelor’s degree for those students who continue in child development or early childhood education and maintain employment in an early childhood center. The goal is to create career ladders for workers, to increase opportunities for minorities and females, and to meet the industry workforce needs by providing parents with quality childcare services while they work. The students enrolled in the program have gained immensely by participating in an integrated model. In many cases, adult education students are intimidated by the thought of attending college classes, and many don’t know where to begin. While they are comfortable in AEL classes, they have unfounded fears about being in college classes. Our integrated model has proven to be very beneficial to these students, because the AEL teacher works with the community college faculty to support the students and ease their transition. The early childhood faculty also teach their classes in our AEL classroom, so students are in a familiar setting. One of the learners in the program recently replied to my request for her input on the benefits of being in this program. She wrote, “I entered the IET class with Adult Education and Early Childhood Education in October, 2017, and I have been completing my HiSET education and taking early childhood classes through the college. I am currently far enough along in the program that I am doing my early childhood observations at the community day care center. I was completing my observations and internship when I was hired to work for pay at the center. I will complete this program and earn my HiSET and CDA certification during the summer of 2018, but I already have a job in my field. This program has really worked well for me. I always knew that I wanted to work with children but I lacked direction and didn’t know how to go about it. I didn’t know anything about going to college. Because I took the classes and did my observations at the same time I worked on my HiSET, I feel like I got pointed in the right direction. I have really enjoyed this opportunity.” Perhaps the greatest benefit of this partnership is the ability for local child care facilities to reach capacity and serve an unmet need for quality care in the Moberly area. As more parents are able to secure placements for their children, industry is able to fill more positions and productivity is positively impacted.
State of Missouri Government News: Adult High Schools in Missouri By: Stephany Schler
Adult high schools have been a key topic of discussion in the realm of adult education in Missouri lately. MERS Goodwill Industries of Missouri will be opening and operating these Excel Centers starting with one in St. Louis in October 2018 and then Poplar Bluff, Springfield, and Columbia by the end of 2019. The Excel Centers will provide services free of charge to students over the age of 21 as well as free on-site child care and life coaches. Life coaches will be similar to AEL Case Managers/Advocates. Certified teachers will provide instruction to 14-18 students per class during 90 minute courses at the Excel Centers that will operate from 9:00 AM - 9:00 PM. Students that graduate will earn a high school diploma, not a high school equivalency (“New adult high schools heading to Missouri communities,” January 25, 2018). Performance benchmarks include: 75% of students must graduate each year, 50% of graduates must earn industry certification or enter higher education or advanced skill training within 6 months of graduation, and 85% of graduates who do not enter training or higher education must be employed within 6 months of graduation with a wage at least 20% higher than the average state wage for people who lack a high school diploma. (Taketa, January 10, 2018). The funding for these free adult high schools is also an important piece of the puzzle. MERS Goodwill Industries must provide $2M toward startup costs which can include infrastructure. After that, they will be requesting $3M from the state of Missouri for the first year and then up to $8M yearly when all four Excel Centers are open. The Excel Center in St. Louis is expected to serve 200-300 students while the other Excel Centers are expected to serve 100-200 students. If all of the Excel Centers together serve 900 students with $8M, then the cost per student is $8888.89. For those wondering why a need was established for these Excel Centers, Kristen Taketa stated in a St. Louis Post-Dispatch article, “Although Missouri already has about 27 adult education, or GED programs, which served about 21,100 students last year, legislators said they wanted to open adult high schools because they thought a diploma carries more weight in the eyes of employers than a GED” (Taketa, January 10, 2018). However, Matthew Tarpey stated in a Career Builder article that, “employers generally consider GEDs and typical diplomas to be equivalent” (Tarpey, January 26, 2018). Finally, public libraries in St. Louis City and county launched an online high school diploma program last year for people age 25 and older that have successfully completed 8th grade. Please see https://www.slcl.org/cohs for more details on the St. Louis program, and you can find more general information at http://www.careeronlinehs.org/. S
COABE Advocacy News Juli DeNisco, Director of Adult Education, Crowder College
New this year at COABE 2018 is an Adult Education Ambassadors representational leadership Training. COABE will choose 10 students to award with the conference fees and a $1,000 travel stipend. The training includes the student, the teacher and the director of the program altogether for the sessions on Sunday, March 24th. The hope is that Adult Education students will learn to advocate for Adult Education in their community or on a state or national level. The Ambassadors representational leadership training program focuses on the development of student's voice in the fullest sense. It provides adult learners a recognized role in which they can publicly speak about their own experience and represent the common interests and needs of others. Students develop confidence and skills that transfer to other personal and professional roles. The trainer session, participants will learn and participate in the four crucial components of representational leadership for adult basic education. • Awareness – statistics and research. • Stories -a powerful tool to affect change. • Public speaking - crafting a message and delivering it effectively. • Meeting with officials - planning and facilitating a meeting with a person in power Visit the COABE Legislative Center: https://www.coabe.org/legislative-center/