Empowering Bright Futures!

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:  Turn your GED into an MN Adult Diploma by combining the GED exams, standardized assessment scores, ABE instruction, and applied learning into a portfolio-based high school diploma.

• 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. 

• 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, the 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 to also have conditional content goals.

Core Content

Reading

Writing

Speaking

Listening

     Mathematics

ESL/ELL/ESOL

GED/Adult Diploma

Conditional Content

     Career Exploration & Courses - click to see current courses!

College Preparation

Citizenship/Civics

Technology skills

Employment readiness

Workforce education

Study skills

Life Skills - personal, group, and social effectiveness

Learning Styles - knowing your unique learning strengths

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.  Licensed teachers provide ABE instruction and are assisted by more than 3,000 trained volunteers.

Characteristics of an Adult Learner

• 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 relevance-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.