Alexandria Adult Basic Education Consortium

The mission of Adult Basic Education in Minnesota is to provide adults with educational opportunities to acquire and improve their literacy skills necessary to become self-sufficient and to participate effectively as productive workers, family members, and citizens. 

ABE Programming Available:

• GED: National high school equivalency assessment operated by GED Testing Service. Includes a set of four tests: Math, Reasoning through Language Arts, Science and Social Studies.

• State Competency-Based Adult High School Diploma: Portfolio-based high school diploma completion programs for adults that embed prior experience, standardized assessment scores, ABE instruction and applied learning. 

• ESL: Instruction for learners whose native language is not English. 

• Basic Skills Enhancement: Elementary or secondary level basic skill building, such as work-related math, functional literacy, reading or writing assistance. 

• Family Literacy: Instructional programs for adults and their preschool aged children. Features instruction for adults in literacy, math and/or ESL, instruction in parenting and educational.developmental services for kids. 

• Integrated English Language and Civics Education: Civics education includes ESL, work readiness and contextualized career skills to encourage full participation in US communities and employment. 

To be eligible, learner must be:

• 17 years old and over

• not enrolled in a K-12 school

• seeking a high school credential or lacking skills in any of the basic academic areas including math, reading, writing and/or speaking English

ABE Content: 

Learners must have a core content goal in order to also have conditional content goals.

Core Content

Reading

Writing

Speaking

Listening

ESL/ELL/ESOL

GED/Adult Diploma

Conditional Content

Citizenship/Civics

Technology skills

Transition to higher ed

Employment readiness

Mathematics

Workforce education

Study skills

Personal, group and societal effectiveness

Knowing how to learn and solve problems

Adult Basic Education

Adult Basic Education (ABE) is available statewide at no cost to adult learners. It is administered through the Minnesota Department of Education. Each year, more than 500 delivery sites serve approximately 75,000 adult students.  About one-half of these students are enrolled in English Language Learner (ELL) programs.  Licensed teachers provide ABE instruction and are assisted by more than 3,000 trained volunteers.

Characteristics of an Adult Learners

• Adults are highly pragmatic learners and need to see the practicality of what they learn and be able to apply that learning to their own lives.

• Adult education students often need to understand the reason for acquiring knowledge and skills they see as academic as they attempt to assess themselves and their own skills realistically. 

• Four principles of adult learning: 

  • Adults are autonomous and self-directed.

  • Adults have a foundation of life experiences.

  • Adults are relevancy-oriented.

  • Adults are practical. 

Our approach to teaching adult learners is to assess current knowledge, build on skills already  attained and offer instruction that meets the needs of the learner to accomplish their educational and occupational goals. The pace is set by the learner, with guidance from ABE staff as needed.  We offer classroom study using textbooks and computer based programs, as well as, online learning platforms and specialized programming or tutors as necessary.