PENNSYLVANIA—ARIGHT TO LEARN STATE
An AdultEducation Platform for Pennsylvania
Pennsylvaniamust become a “Right to Learn” state so that every citizen has anopportunity to participate and succeed in a global economy. Adult basic education is a need and a right of each citizen, and it isthe Commonwealth’s responsibility to provide quality opportunities.
Onbehalf of the 50,000 person network of adult learners, education professionals,and volunteers, the Pennsylvania Association for Adult Continuing Educationrequests that the next Governor publicly endorse the following principles:
· For theproductivity of the workforce and the economy of the Commonwealth, the statemust invest in adult basic education for its workforce. Investment in humancapital is both a public and a private responsibility.
· InPennsylvania, nearly 1.3 million citizens do not have a high school diploma. In 2000, 14,155 citizens (1.1%) achieved their GED. This number must be increased.
· Educationof parents and caregivers is critical to children’s success in school. Early reading success is linked to intergenerational learning. When you educate a parent, you educate a family.
· Theself-sufficiency of our citizens requires an educated workforce. Educational opportunities must be provided for undereducated low-incomeand/or welfare recipients.
· The fieldof adult basic education must continue to be professionalized with an increasein full-time staff. Inadequateresources lead to part-time staff with low wages.
· Economiccosts of managing illness and prevention require outreach and health literacyprograms.
· Access totechnology currently supports a digital divide, with those without a high schooldiploma or GED least likely to be able to be part of the technologicalrevolution. The use of distanceeducation as one medium for delivering instruction requires further investment.
· Coordinationand cooperation of state agencies is required for efficient and effectiveprograms.
· Statewideawareness is needed to promote services, and to reach out to those in need andfoster volunteerism to increase the number of volunteer tutors.
· Increasedservices must be made available to fill the large gap between those being servedand those in need of classes/tutoring, including those for whom English is theirnative language and those for whom it is their second language.
Lowliteracy levels impact on critical services and initiatives, includingworkforce, welfare, health, and the family. Failure to invest in adult literacyresults in poverty, unemployment, and incarceration. Pennsylvania is responsible for the education of itsresidents.
BACKGROUND
“Adultliteracy” is not just one set of services. It includes:
· AdultBasic Education (ABE)
· Servicesfor adults who are functioning at or below the eighth grade level areindividualized and customized to address the learner’s skill level andlearning goals—family, work, community, or a combination
· AdultSecondary Education (ASE)
· Adulthigh school programs which allow adults to complete their credits to receive ahigh school diploma, pursue adult diploma programs toward achieving the diploma,and GED (General Education Development) programs which prepare adults for thebattery of five GED tests to demonstrate a competency level equivalent to a highschool diploma.
· Englishas a Second Language (ESL)
· ESLprograms provide English language learning opportunities for adults who speaklanguages other than English
· FamilyLiteracy
· FamilyLiteracy programs typically offer four components for families with childreneight years of age and under: adultliteracy services for parents, training for parents as teachers of theirchildren, early childhood services including school readiness skills for thechildren, and parent-child literacy activities.
· WorkplaceEducation
· Workplaceeducation services are customized ABE, GED, and/or ESL services that address thebasic skills needs of employees and employers. Business and adult educators partner to provide theseservices, with the services usually provided at the work site.
· CorrectionsEducation
· A widerange of adult literacy services provided in state and county prisons with thegoal of reducing recidivism.
The National Adult Literacy Survey, conducted by Educational TestingService and released in September, 1993, provides the most recent andcomprehensive data. Pennsylvania’s results showed that:
· 18-22%(1.8 million adults) scored at the lowest of five levels. Adults are this level could perform simple, routine tasks involving briefand uncomplicated tests and documents. Adultsat this level were not able to calculate the total cost of a purchase, determinethe difference in price between two items; locate a particular intersection on astreet map; or enter background information on a simple form.
· 25-28%(2.2 million adults) scored at the second level of the five levels. Adults inthis level were not able to write a brief letter, use a sign-out sheet torespond to a call about a resident, or calculate miles per gallon usinginformation on a chart. Theseadults did not have the skills to function effectively in society, findemployment, or be trained for new jobs.
Thus,approximately 4 million adults in Pennsylvania are in need of literacy services. Current state and federal appropriations enable 100,000 adults to receiveservices annually (4% of those projected in need).
Theseadults are at risk of not being self-sufficient and not succeeding in theemerging high performance workplace. Theircommunities are at risk of an inability to attract, support and keep suchworkplaces. Furthermore, currentand future children are at risk of perpetuating intergenerational cycles oflow-literacy and under-education.
However,most individuals in Level 1 or 2 did not perceive themselves as “at risk.” They described themselves as being able to read or write English“well” or “very well.”
AsSusan Greenblatt (Director of Technical Assistance for the Administration ofChildren and the Family, US Department of Health and Human Services) said,“Jobs will get them off of welfare, but education will get them out ofpoverty.” The National AdultLiteracy Survey showed the strong correlation between literacy skills andwelfare, with Pennsylvania data showing that over 2/3 of adults whose familiesreceived Aid for Dependent Children, food stamps or public assistance in thepast year scored in the lowest two levels.
Statisticsshow that almost 50% of adults on welfare lack a high school diploma, with:
· over 60%of individuals who spend five years on welfare having less than a high schooleducation, and
· over 65%of those who have a high school diploma or GED leaving welfare within two years.
Nationwide,70% of adults with the lowest literacy skills are unemployed or work inpart-time jobs; more than 40% of adults in the lowest literacy level live inpoverty (National Adult Literacy Survey).
The challenge now is two-fold: moving the firstwave from their entry-level job into one that will provide for self-sufficiencyand moving the second wave with its multiple barriers into employment. Members of this second wave have limited education, poor work history,drug and alcohol dependency, and half are estimated to have learningdisabilities.
PRODUCTIVITYIN THE WORKPLACE
Research shows the following:
· By improving employees’ skills,
-Employeeswork smarter and better
-Employees cope well withchange in the workplace
-Union/management relationsimprove
-Output and profitabilityincrease (Conference Board)
· American businesses lose more than $60 billion in productivityeach year due to employees’ lack of basic skills (NIFL, 1998)
· U.S. experts on workplace literacy have estimated the direct andindirect costs of illiteracy on the American economy to be $225 billion a yearin lost productivity (Grimsley, 1995).
· The number of companies reporting skilled worker shortages almostdoubled between 1995 and 1998, from 27% to more than 47% (NIFL).
· A survey of more than 300 executives found that while 71% reportedthat employee improvement in basic written communication skills was critical tomeeting changing skills demands in the workplace, only 26% offered this kind ofbasic skills training. In addition,47% reported the need for improved basic math skills but only 5% offered basicmath instruction (NIFL).
· A 1999 national survey of mid-sized firms found that less than 5%of the firms surveyed provide basic skills training to their employees, eventhough respondents estimated that 37% of their workers needed such training(Jobs for the Future, 2001).
· Approximately four out of 10 workers in the Commonwealth havebasic skills deficiencies; these adults, on average, work fewer hours and earnsignificantly less than those with higher levels skills (State Adult LiteracySurvey).
Across the nation, hundreds of business/adult educationcollaboratives provide workplace education classes on site so entry levelworkers can improve basic skills in the work context. In Pennsylvania, the Workplace Improvement Network provides asuccessful model to developing these cooperative arrangements. However, more needs to be done to develop and implement programs to meetthe work-based skills needs of incumbent workers. Retention is less expensive for business than retraining.
Workforce development requires a public/privatepartnership. Aggressive marketingto business to support program and incentives for employers to provide on-sitebasic skills programs in collaboration with their local adult education andliteracy provider (such as streamlined tax credits) for business are bothneeded.
PUBLICHEALTH AND LITERACY
Low literacy, poor health, and early death areinexorably linked (Hohn, 1997). Low-literateadults lack the skills to access and understand health-related information, andas a result, often fail to engage in preventive health and early detectionpractices. Experts estimate that inadequate patient literacy skills increasenational health-care costs by $75-100 billion per year (Pennsylvania, 1999). Individuals with low literacy skills have a limited ability to readmedication labels and written instructions for follow-up medical care, are lesslikely to make regular doctor visits or have preventative tests, have jobs thattend to be more hazardous, smoke more, and exercise less (Perrin, 1989). Low-level literacy skills can result in poor prenatal care and lowbirthweight which, in turn, increases a child’s risk of developing health,learning, and behavioral problems (Pennsylvania, 1999).
Health literacy can:
· provide a better, quality system of health care
· lower costs
· ensure the public understands basic health issues and acts on themappropriately
FAMILYLITERACY
Research into early reading success clearly points tothe ties with parents’ educational achievement and the degree to which parentsparticipate in their children’s education:
· A parent’s educational attainment is a strong indicator of achild’s academic performance
· Parent’s attitudes about literacy and reading influencechildren’s literacy development (DeBaryshe; Baker et al; Speigal)
· Children of parents who are unemployed and who have not completedhigh school are five times more likely to drop out of school than children ofemployed parents (NIFL).
· Parents with higher skills levels and higher socio-economic statustend to talk more to their children, read to them more often, buy themeducational games, and provide them with more literacy enriched environments.
· Participants in family literacy programs are benefited byincreased literacy interactions in the home between parents and child as acorrelate of their participation (Tracey, 1994).
· Children who participate in family literacy programs make gainsthree times greater than would have been expected based on their pre-enrollmentrate of development, demonstrate an 80% increase in reading books, and maketwice as many trips to the library (NIFL, National Center for Family Literacy).
· Adults participating in family literacy remain enrolled longerthan those in most adult-only programs and attend at higher rates, with 50%earning their GED, 40% becoming employed, 10% enrolling in higher education ortraining programs, and 23% becoming self-sufficient (NIFL, National Center forFamily Literacy).
Family literacy programs improve the educationalopportunities of families by integrating early childhood, adult literacy andparent education in a unified program. Theevaluation of Pennsylvania’s family literacy programs found that:
· Adults basic skills improved
· Parents achieved employment and academic goals. Data showed that
- 14% of adults obtained employment
- 15% of adults upgraded to full time employment
- employment benefits increased from 19% to 25%