Overview of Key Issues Working Poor Families Project State Policy Academy on Adult Education Julie Strawn Center for Law and Social Policy [email protected]

Overview of Key Issues

Working Poor Families ProjectState Policy Academy on Adult Education

Julie Strawn Center for Law and Social Policy

[email protected] 2007

What this academy is about • Introduce you to key state policy issues and

ideas – emphasis here is on the people (adults with low skills/limited English), not on one program, and on job advancement– Scope is not limited to your state’s adult

education/ESL program– Not going to be covering all the myriad goals and

benefits of adult education /ESL—workforce focus

• Provide a chance to hear about experiences of peers who are already working on these issues

• Equip you with some resources for future work

CLASP State Policy Academy on Adult Education

Why should policymakers care?• Lesson from 2006 state min. wage campaigns--

“Start with shared value not with the problem”

• Such as. . . “ Doors to opportunity should be open, help parents to help their children, college for all, compete for good jobs in knowledge economy, skill shortages, war for talent,” etc.

• E.g. Philadelphia Workforce Board “Tale of Two Cities”


Why should policymakers care?

• Themes related to shared values

• Evidence that we can make a difference

• Emphasis on solutions and benefits to individuals, to business, to state.

• High expectations – because that’s what individuals need to support their families and what our community needs to get ahead


Education, Weekly Earnings and Unemployment, U.S. 2004

Source: Current Population Survey

$0$100$200$300$400$500$600$700$800$900

$1,000

< 9th Grade HS Somecollege

AA Deg BA Deg

0%1%2%3%4%5%6%7%8%9%10%

Weekly Earnings Unemployment Rate

“Literacy in Everyday Life” (NCES 2007)

• Median weekly earnings increased with each level of literacy.

• At each higher level of Prose literacy, more adults were employed full time.

• 1/2 of adults with Below Basic Document literacy said their job opportunities were limited a lot by lack of computer skills.

• The % of parents who never helped their school-age child with homework declined at each higher Prose literacy level

• 1/2 of US citizens with Below Basic Prose and Document literacy reported voting in 2000 compared with 84 percent of citizens with Proficient Prose and Document literacy.


Can we make a difference?• Go beyond correlations to outcomes related to

shared values—i.e. if adults increase skills. . .– They will work more and earn more

– Their children will do better in school

– If they were in prison, less likely to return

– All these things add up to benefits for community as a whole (helps employers grow, community to compete for knowledge jobs, increases tax revenues, etc.)


Can we make a difference?

– Increasing parents’ skills helps their children succeed

“Results from these recent rigorous studies have provided consistent and rigorous evidence that improvements in low-skilled parents’ education have positive payoffs for children. Moreover, these links are found across a range of potentially important outcomes, including birth outcomes, school readiness, academic achievement, grade retention, and educational attainment.” (Magnuson, 2007)


Can we make a difference?

– Increasing ex-offenders’ skills means they’re less likely to return to prison

“Various studies have found that raising education levels reduces recidivism. A Virginia study found that out of a sample of 3,000 inmates, 49 percent of those who did not participate in correctional education programs were re-incarcerated compared to 20 percent of those who did participate.” (Murphy 2006)


What is the urgency to addressing this?

• Problem of low wage work—one in four families working but poor. Postsecondary a ticket up and out.– Employers now pay 75% more to college grads. than to

those with high school only, used to be 40% back in the 1980’s. (Wall Street Journal, April 2007)

• Looming skills shortage, at least for some sectors and regions. 24 of 30 fastest growing jobs require postsec.– Native workforce is aging—no new net growth expected

through 2020 in prime age workers, immigrants becoming main source of workforce growth nationally

– The rapid increase in skills of the workforce seen over the last 20 years is expected to slow dramatically (Aspen Institute 2002).


Share of Workforce Growth Due to Immigration

10.2%

26.7%

50.3%

1970's 1980's 1990's

Source: Sum, A., Fogg, N., Harrington, P. with Khatiwada, I., Trubb’sky, M., and Palma, S. (2002, August). Immigrant Workers and the Great American Job Machine: The Contributions Of New Foreign Immigration to National and Regional Labor Force Growth in the 1990s. Boston, MA: Northeastern University.

Workers with education beyond high school

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

40

Lab

or fo

rce,

in m

illio

ns

1980-2000, 138% growth 2000-2020, 19% growthSource: Grow Faster Together. Or Grow Slowly Apart. (2002) Washington, DC: The Aspen Institute.

What is the urgency to addressing this?• School reform can’t fix this alone.

– About two-thirds (65 percent) of our 2020 workforce is already beyond the reach of our elementary and secondary schools. (Aspen Institute 2007)

– Trends in wrong direction—US only industrialized country where younger adults (25-34) are less educated than previous generation (45-54) (NCHEMS for CAAL 2007)

• Current potential pool of skilled workers among prime-age adults—those nearly 50 million people aged 18 to 44 with a high school diploma or less—is equal to the next 16 years of high school graduating classes.

• States need to “grow their own” skilled workforce from within the workforce they already have.


What does the primary system look like? • Adult Education and Family Literacy Act (AEFLA):

Primary federal/state adult ed. program

• Adult Basic Education (ABE): instruction in basic skills designed for adults at the lower literacy levels to just below the secondary level (40% 02-03)

• Adult Secondary Education (ASE): instruction for adults whose literacy skills are at approx high school level and who are seeking to pass the GED test or obtain an adult high school credential (18% 02-03)

• English Literacy (EL): instruction for adults who lack proficiency in English and who seek to improve their literacy & competency in English (43% 02-03)


AEFLA governance & administration• Federal level: Department of Education, Office of

Vocational and Adult Education

• State level: Adult education increasingly being administered by state departments other than the state K-12 agency

• Administered by various departments at state level

– Department of Education (in 2004, 62% of states ↓)

– Department of Higher Ed (3)

– Department of Community or Technical Colleges (8 )

– Within workforce agencies (8, Labor or Workforce Dev.)


Demographics of participants• In ‘04-’05, 2.6 million participants, most (83%)

ages 16-44 but age varies across instruction area– 66% of ASE participants between 16-24

– ESL participants tend to be older (57% between 25-44, 20% over 45)

• Ethnicity varies but largest group is Hispanic– 43% Hispanic, 27% White, 20% African-American, 7%

Asian-Pacific Islander

• Participants increasingly younger (possible effect of school reform?) – 39% between ages 16-24. In 2005 one third of GEDs

awarded to those 18 or younger.


What is the capacity of the system?• Serves only tiny fraction of eligible population

• Needs more resources—median funding per student is $645, state averages range from $312 to $2356

• Current adult education services do not help most participants to increase basic and English lang. skills in ways that increase earnings

– Not intensive enough—often only 4 to 6 hours a week, 70% of instructors part-time. Majority do not stay long enough to even move up one grade level, most do not get GED.

– Not connected to postsecondary education and training—primary program goal remains getting a GED, despite modest economic payoff and failure of most to reach that goal.


2002 Welfare Reform Adult Education Study

• Participants received three times as many hours of instruction as typical adult education student—244 hours vs. 68 hours.

– Generally thought to need about 100-150 hours of instruction to move up one grade level.

• Gains in reading skills linked to how long students stay in adult education programs

– Stays shorter than a year did not improve reading skills measurably, whereas longer stays were associated with substantial gains, comparable to those associated with regular high school attendance (one year of hs = 800 hours of instr.).


2002 Welfare Reform Adult Education Study• Participants earned GEDs within the first six

months of adult ed. or not at all (within two years of follow up). Ditto for improving math scores.

– Those most likely to get GED certificates and go on to postsecondary were those who had higher initial reading and math skills when they entered.

• There was no clear link between hours of participation and GED receipt or average test scores. – Students increased reading and math skills more when their

teachers were more experienced and better educated.


2002 Welfare Reform Adult Education Study

• Earning GEDs, increasing basic skills, or subsequently participating in postsecondary programs all paid off in terms of employment, earnings, and self-sufficiency. – Few adult education participants achieved these

milestones, though. E.g. 11% earned a GED or high school diploma over a two year period.

• Those who got a GED were more likely to go on to postsecondary—but only 15% of all adult ed. participants did go on.


Community College Adult Basic Skills Education Outcomes

(Prince and Jenkins, 2005)

Source: Prince & Jenkins (forthcoming).

Five-Year Highest Attainment of Adult Basic Skills Students Who Started at a WA Community or Technical College

By Initial Program Type

9%

62%

16%7% 4% 1%0%

87%

7%2% 3% 1%

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

70%

80%

90%

100%

GED No CollegeCredits

< 10 Credits 10-44Credits

Certificate AssociateDegree

ABE

ESL

Diverse population of learners• Some have skills in the high school range

– Just need a little refresher in specific areas (often math) to get GED quickly—e.g. those who’ve recently left high school. Models: Fast track GED, integrated adult ed/postsec., college prep. adult education.

• Some have skills in roughly the middle school range (5th-8th grade)

– May take a long time to get GED, more targeted remediation for entering job training may be better. Models: Bridge programs, integrated adult ed./postsec.


Diverse population of learners

• Some have very low skills (below 5th grade) and may have learning disabilities. Models: Transitional jobs programs, specialized LD interventions, bridge pgms. designed for low skills – Bridges to Practice federal learning disability

initiative and statewide action around this, e.g. http://www.floridatechnet.org/bridges/


Diverse population of learners• Some are well-educated immigrants who just need

to learn more English, transfer existing skills.

– E.g. Eastern European, Nigerian. Models: Integrated English and occupational training and/or college courses.

• Some are immigrants who lack both English skills and formal education in their native countries

– E.g. Somali, Hmong, some Hispanic groups. Models: Transitional jobs, bilingual job training followed by post-employment continued English classes.


Key state policy tasks• To help low skilled/LEP adults gain marketable

skills, state has to be able to do four things:

– Define and document what success is for low skilled adults, who’s getting there, who’s not—set high but realistic expectations and shorten the timeline

– Connect adult education and ESL to postsecondary credentials for in-demand, family-supporting jobs

– Connect these adult ed/ESL/occupational training programs to employers in direct ways

– Support success in tangible ways—case managers, support services, paid release time, work-study jobs


Documents

Overview of Key Issues Working Poor Families Project State Policy Academy on Adult Education Julie Strawn Center for Law and Social Policy [email protected]