Basic Skills for the Future

1. Basic Skills for the Future Randy Whitfield, Ed.D. Associate Vice President of College and Career Readiness North Carolina Community College System

2. College and Career Readiness Reorganization • Name of our area at NCCCS, not program name which is Basic Skills • New reorganization

3. Questions • Is your program organized effectively for the future? • Is your program using outdated job titles? • Does your program’s organization reflect that your program’s main purpose is on transitioning students to postsecondary education and training and the world of work?

4. J. F. Hillerich

5. Bud Hillerich

6. Open Entry/Open Exit • Lab Instruction and Tutoring • Only • Academic Emphasis Only • Teaching to a High School • Equivalency Test • Managed Enrollment • Small and Large Group Instruction • Emphasis on Transitioning to • Postsecondary Education and • Training • Teaching to Help Students • Transition to Jobs and Postsecondary

7. Cheryl Keenan “The education world is undergoing dramatic changes. If adult education is to remain a viable educational service, it must keep pace with that change.” Director of Adult Education and Literacy Office of Vocational and Adult Education US Department of Education

8. Cheryl Keenan • The adult education system cannot stand still while the world around it is changing. • Failure to act is failure to institute changes that keep pace with the changing world, and will result in adult education being viewed as an obsolete program, using outdated methods and achieving mediocre results.

9. Cheryl Keenan • The importance of college and career readiness for adult students cannot be overstated. • Increasingly, students entering the workforce are discovering that they need critical knowledge and skills that are used on a regular basis.

10. CLASP & NAEPDC • At no time in recent history has the importance of adult education been greater and the funding more threatened. Julie Strawn, CLASP Lennox McLendon, NAEPDC

11. CLASP & NAEPDC • Despite the fact that as many as 93 million adults in the U.S. may need basic skills services to improve their economic prospects, funding for these services is stagnating at the federal level and being slashed in statehouses and state agencies across the country.

12. CLASP & NAEPDC • At the same time, the labor market is shifting to one that requires workers to have postsecondary credentials to compete. • With this shift, the adult education system must transform the way that services are delivered—helping students meet these new demands by preparing them for college and career success, not just a secondary school diploma.

13. Robert G. Templin, Jr. “You can’t get to the future by doing better what you’ve been doing in the past.” (President, North Virginia Community College)

14. New Normal • Have significantly better outcomes • Serve more people • Have more diversity • Receive less money per student

15. Alan Tucker • Funding Formulas and Performance Funding

16. NC Budget Clarify Community College Audits – Requires a study to determine how program audit procedures may be streamlined and how funding mechanisms may be changed to reduce reliance on contact hours.

17. Topics • State Budget Cuts • Sequestration Cuts for 2014 • State Leadership Funds for 2013 • Basic Skills Transitions Grants

18. Questions • What changes do you need to make in your program to ensure that your program will get its share of funding and/or performance funding? • How are you going to ensure that all instructors/volunteers/staff understand what your program outcome measures are and what needs to be done to improve your program outcome measures?

19. Questions • What differences will you make/have you made in your program due to outcome measures/funding formulas? • How will changes in transition grants affect your program?

20. WHAT ????? • We have 96 instructors with certifications in the system that we have not even offered. • One college has only 2 instructors teaching 835 students. • Another college has 3 instructors teaching over 618 students.

21. WHAT ????? • One program has an instructor with 115 years of experience. • 582 instructors do not have personnel records. • Another program has an instructor with 201 years of experience. • One student was born in 1899. • Another student was born in 20913.

22. WHAT ????? • During the program year 5,864 students were not given a test. • 17,513 students with 60 or more hours had no post-test. • There were over 150 invalid test scores. • TABE scores of 4.9 and 0; TABE Survey score of 5614; CASAS Reading score of 554 • One beginning ABE student scored a perfect score on the TABE at the end of the year.

23. WHAT ????? • Many colleges had their presidents sign papers that said they had more Adult High School graduates than they sent names to us.

24. Topic • High School Equivalency Debate • GED (Pearson Vue) • TASC (Test Assessing Secondary Completion – Mc-Graw Hill • Hiset (High School Equivalency Test – ETS & the University of Iowa)

25. Questions • How might the change to a new high school equivalency test affect your program? • What changes will you have to make and how long will it take you to make those changes?

26. Topic Basic Skills Program Change • 5 programs (Adult Basic Education, Adult High School, GED, Compensatory Education, English as a Second Language) • 3 programs (Adult Basic Education, Adult Secondary Education, English as a Second Language)

27. Question • How will the program name changes affect your program?

28. Topics • Teacher Effectiveness • Using Data for Program Improvement

29. North Carolina Data Research “Students of certified teachers when compared to students who were not taught by any teacher who was certified experienced slightly higher gains in test scores, a higher percentage made level gains, and also accumulated more total contact hours.” Kristen Corbell, Data Researcher

30. Questions • If you had a Basic Skills/literacy data research team, what would you ask them to research? • How would you use the results of the research? • What would you do to ensure that research drives instruction?