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Immigrant integration! What do you know about it? How do you talk about it? Where and how is it discussed in your consortium? Is it integrated into your consortium's plans for the future? Are you including immigrant voices in your discussion of and planning for? Are you including adult learner voices in your discussion of and planning for? These are pivotal questions as we continue to shape and refine the new form that Adult Education is taking post catastrophic cuts and closures and into the narrowed mission, workforce-focused Regional Consortia system.  Is the new form okay?  Does it need tweaking?  Now - in budget season and while there is money to spend - is the time to look at what we have and where it can be improved to better serve the people of California. Thank you to Bob Harper and Usha Narayanan - who presented on this topic at the CCAE Bay Conference on Saturday, March 3rd in the " ALLIES and the Immigrant Integration Framework " workshop. To better understa...

Posted from OTAN News : LAO Provides Overview of Adult Education   Posted on 04/10/2017 The Legislative Analyst’s Office (LAO), the Legislature’s nonpartisan fiscal advisor, issued a report to the Senate Budget and Fiscal Review Subcommittee No. 1 on Education, which provided an overview of adult education in California. The report provided background and an assessment of the adult education program including key policy issues that remain unresolved. According to the report, school districts and the California Community Colleges (CCC) are the main providers of adult education in California. The state restructured its adult education system in 2013-14 due to historical fragmentation between school districts and the community colleges. The new system made the following structural changes: Created 71 regional adult education consortia of school districts and community colleges in collaboration with other stakeholders Provided funding to develop and implement regional adult educat...

Kristen Pursely raises important and urgent questions about the future of credentialing for Adult Education in the following blog post, shared with permission below. Anyone Can Teach Adult School? The Fate of Credential Requirements for Adult School Teachers Posted on April 11, 2016 by kpursley In 2012, in a report entitled “Restructuring California’s Adult Education System”, the California Legislative Analyst’s Office (LAO) recommended that the State of California no longer require adult school teachers to hold a credential. While it is strange to see a recommendation to actually relax standards in a document devoted to suggesting ways to improve adult education in California, it’s right there on page 21 of the report. The reason given is that teachers could move more easily between adult school and community college jobs without the adult school credential requirement. AB 104, the law that creates the Adult Education Block Grant (AEBG) provides, in section 84906, that in order t...

Borrowed from Kristen Pursley's blog Save Your Adult School : Urgent:  Write Governor Brown Today to Request Restoration of Adult Education Funding to $750 Million Posted on February 28, 2016    Between 2008 and 2012, funding for California’s adult schools was slashed by half and never restored.  Adult schools have a new mandate to partner more closely with community colleges and other educational organizations that serve adults, but they struggle with inadequate funding.  Governor Brown needs to hear from adult school students and teachers, from business people who rely on the adult schools to train workers, and from community members who see how their adult school enriches their community. Hit the link to read more. These letters are part of a statewide push , headed up by Assembly Member Patty Lopez (D- San Fernando) , to get adult education the funding it desperately needs. I would recommend that letters start as follows: Dear Governor Brown, Today I write ...

The issue of how to manage credentialing for Adult Education within the parameters of the new Regional Consortia system is complicated.  It's also urgent because we are in the midst of a growing teacher shortage as older teachers retire, new programs and schools emerge as funding for Adult Education stabilizes, and a housing crisis in many urban areas pushes old teachers out and dissuades new teachers from moving in. In order to come up with good ways to meet this challenge, we need to hear from a variety of voices. We need to really grasp all that is involved before we settle on a solution we will most likely have to live with for a long time. Click the "read more" link to learn more. Here is the original post about the challenge of credentialing . Here are three more perspectives on the problem: "I think credentialing is a big problem in California across the board, K-12 and adult education.  I, too, have my MATESOL. Thankfully I have a multi-subject cred...

CFT's Adult Education Commission met on January 23rd, 2016.  One of the topics for discussion was credentialing.  With the new Regional Consortia system, which entails Adult Schools and Community Colleges working together to provide Adult Education, there is a need for clarity and streamlining where credentialing is concerned.   Click the "read more" link to learn more. Shari Deghi, Coordinator of the new La Costa Adult School, details why she is concerned about this issue: "I am happy the Adult Education Commission is shining a light on credentialing and I would like to add a major concern. The Adult Ed requirements for teachers are archaic, out of step with other post-secondary institutions and significantly hamper our ability to hire teachers and serve students. I am an administrator of La Costa Adult School on the San Mateo coast. I recently recruited a teacher with an MATESOL (Masters in Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages) who could not teach ESL in...

December 21, 2015 From Kristen Pursley's "Save Your Adult School" Blog: A Look at AB 104: The Adult Education Block Grant Program by kpursley As  2015 comes to a close, adult schools have just completed their first fall term under the new Adult Education Block Grant.  The Regional Consortia turned in their first three-year plan at the end of October.  2015-2016 is a transitional year; things will change again at the end of this fiscal year, at which time funds for adult schools will begin to be distributed to the consortia rather than being distributed directly to school districts as they were this year.  It seems like a good time to take a look at the language in AB 104 that establishes the Adult Education Block Grant (AEBG) in order to see what lies ahead. AB 104 addresses funding for all K-12 schools. The portion that establishes the AEBG begins with Section 39, Article 9.  The entire legislation can be viewed here: http://legin...

From Kristen Pursley's Save Your Adult School blog : Adult School English as a Second Language and Citizenship Classes Must Be Offered Free Again – Let’s Keep It That Way! by kpursley Under California law, adult school English as a Second Language (ESL) and Citizenship classes must once again be offered free of charge. AB 189, a 2011 emergency measure allowing adult schools to charge for these classes until July 2015, expired this year, and was not renewed or extended.  AB 189 legitimized a haphazard pattern of charging for ESL and Citizenship classes that sprang up in the wake of California’s 2008 budget crisis and the resulting “categorical flexibility” that removed protections on state adult school funds.  While some districts chose not to charge for adult school ESL and Citizenship classes, others worked out their own systems for charging with no overall coordination at the state level or, often, consultation with neighboring districts. The result...