When it comes to adult literacy education, professional development is not just a nice thing to offer teachers, it’s essential. In order to provide high quality instruction in literacy, numeracy, and high school equivalency, and prepare adults for success in college and careers, we must provide in-service training. Many adult educators do not have a degree in adult education. And, of course, our understanding of what constitutes high quality practice changes in adult education as it does in other fields.

Professional development (PD) providers are often unsung heroes of adult education, charged with promoting and ensuring program and instructional quality. That is why it gave me great pleasure, as a Board member of the National Coalition for Literacy, to present one of the four 2017 National Literacy Leadership Awards to the Minnesota ABE Teaching and Learning Advancement System (ATLAS) at Hamline UniversitySchool of Education.

Millions of Americans are employed but lack key literacy, numeracy, or technology-related skills that would enable them to achieve economic mobility. The issue is especially acute in the service sector where 20 million people lack key foundational skills. World Education is a partner in Building the Foundation a new initiative led by the National Skills Coalition (NSC), with funding from Walmart Giving.

NSC is providing technical assistance to select states to align public and private investments and policy frameworks that enable adults with basic skills gaps to achieve economic mobility.The National College Transition Network (NCTN), a World Education project, is providing technical assistance to communities in selected states focused on designing and implementing a variety of up-skilling strategies that may include: integrated education and training to accelerate learning; education and career navigation/advising; applying braided funding approaches; and incorporating technological tools to expand the reach and quality of programs. NCTN will identify best practices and tools and share expertise gleaned from implementing similar strategies in prior initiatives to assist localities in planning and implementation.

The anticipated outcomes are that:

• State-level adult education and workforce administrators will take steps toward improved or expanded upskilling opportunities for low-skilled adults in at least three states.
• Business leaders across a variety of sectors will help inform the development of materials demonstrating the return on investment of upskilling.
• Three states will have identified and begun to address systems change goals, such as greater public awareness, new multi-stakeholder partnerships, and increased capacity related to upskilling.
• At least three specific state or federal-level recommendations for systems change or reform will have demonstrated progress aligned with NSC’s set of progress indicators.

For more information, contact Sandy Goodman, NCTN Director of Career Pathways, sgoodman@worlded.org