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Summer 2009
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Volume 33,
No. 2
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by Diane C. Inverso, Mayor's Commission on Literacy, PAACE President
My goodness, these last few weeks have been busy and stressful. Many practitioners have been engrossed with ending classes, program planning and grant writing. There too have been the numerous events and celebrations in the last few weeks that help mark the program end or the program transitions for many of our students.
In May, I attended Pennsylvania ABLE's Annual Outstanding Adult Student Awards, also known as Success Stories. This event recognizes adult learners who have discovered that education can help them achieve their goals. As PAACE President I was on hand to give the Larry Goodwin Memorial Award. What an honor to sit there with all these individuals. It was a wonderful chance to celebrate their perseverance and accomplishments. There were many friends and family members there to also share in this happy and momentous event. Many of the recipients talked about how education has changed their lives and some even beseeched the legislators (and there were some in the room) to not cut funding for adult education services. The quality of their lives and their community, have been enhanced through their educational achievements. All of their hard work serves as an example to all of us. It also serves as a reminder to me and to all of us as to why we work in adult education.
So when we struggle with our grants, funding, lesson plans and paperwork, think of the thousands of learners in Pennsylvania who enroll each year in educational programs to reach new and higher goals. Let that be the light that guides us through the tough times and the light that reveals the best in adult education practice.
On a slightly different note, we are looking for those involved in adult and continuing education to get involved with the board. As I said earlier this time of year is a time of transitions. So we say our heartfelt thanks to three board members who will be leaving us, Bill Schaffer, Suzanne Webster and Jim Yeager. Their hard work and time given to PAACE has only made it a stronger organization. If you feel you have the time to make a difference, please call me at (215) 686.5253, or e-mail inversod@freelibrary.org. Also members are always welcome to attend board meetings. Sites and dates are listed on the PAACE Web site at paacesite.org. And, if you have questions you are welcome to contact any board member or me.
Chart a Course: Destination Adult Education
by Lori Keefer, Greater Pittsburgh Literacy Council, 1st
Vice President PAACE
We
are pleased to
announce a change in location for the 2010 PAACE Midwinter
Conference from Hershey, PA to The Penn Stater in State
College, PA. This new location offers reduced overnight
accommodations from previous years and includes large buffet
lunches on Wednesday and Thursday, four snack breaks (two of
which are mid-morning) and all day beverage service.
Request for Proposals (RFPs) will open earlier this year
(mid-July) so PAACE can advertise conference offerings
earlier to practitioners.
This year’s theme is Chart a Course: Destination Adult
Education. It promises a mix of industry-relevant hot
topics
and tropical fun for all. Don’t forget your luau wear for Thursday night
festivities! The President’s reception, Thursday night
dance
party, and PDC Hospitality suite will continue to make this
conference a fun networking experience for all.
The Penn Stater offers reduced room rates from last year ($99/night). Register early to book your room; overflow will be available at the Nittany Lion Inn with free shuttle service, at your convenience, between the two! Early bird registration for the conference is $170. While this is a slight increase from last year, the new price includes two elaborate lunch buffets, four filling break sessions, all day beverage service as well as a decrease in the room rate – all in all, the price can’t be beat! Thursday banquet ($30) will have a large buffet as well. Menus and additional meal options will be posted on PAACEsite soon, so keep an eye out!
There is space on the conference planning committee. Contact Lori Keefer if you want to be involved via email (lkeefer@gplc.org) or phone (412-661-7323 ext. 131). Remember to check PAACEsite for RFPs and conference updates throughout the year: http://paacesite.org.
Join PAACE and advocate for funding to support educational opportunities for all Pennsylvania adults
by JoAnn Weinberger, Center for Literacy, PAACE Legislative Committee Chair
Thank you to all PAACE members who have contacted your state legislators and the Governor. Your voice was needed, and it has been heard. In this process, I hope that you, your Board members, tutors, and learners have saved the e-mail addresses, snail mail addresses, and telephone numbers. They will continue to be important! Educating legislators is not something that happens once a year! It is an ongoing process.
State Appropriations: As you prepare for summer, the Pennsylvania State Legislature continues to debate the budget. In addition to the first $500,000 cut in his original budget, the Governor has proposed another $1 million reduction to the Adult Basic and Family Literacy line item bringing the proposed allocation to $21.5 million.
See the list of reduced and eliminated programs at the following link.
Given the current economic climate, Adult Education continues to be fortunate. Please stay tuned to the final action taken by the State Legislature and ultimately signed by the Governor.
Federal Appropriations: Action was taken for states, such as Pennsylvania, hit with a reduction in funding due to the change instituted by the Office of Vocational and Adult Education (OVAE) to use the American Community Survey instead of the Census. As part of the supplemental appropriations bill on Iraq and Afghanistan, Congress approved the use of up to $10+ million of federal adult education lapsed money to make up the difference. The outstanding issue, however, is the amount of the lapsed funds and how much Pennsylvania will receive. OVAE is estimating there may only be about $3 million.
Senator Arlen Specter will play a critical role on appropriations for 2010-11 because he sits on the Senate Appropriations Sub-Committee Labor, Health and Human Services, Education and Related Agencies.
Reauthorization of the Workforce Investment Act: Congress is beginning to hold hearings on Title II of the Workforce Investment Act (WIA) which encompasses adult education. Action is anticipated in the Fall and extending through December.
During the month of June, Bureau of ABLE family literacy programs participated in Adult Child Interactive Reading Inventory (ACIRI) trainings across the state. These three training sessions were facilitated by Andrea DeBruin-Parecki, Ph.D., who developed the ACIRI tool. The ACIRI is unique, in that, it measures both adults and children separately for their skill level within an interactive reading inventory. This training was designed to instruct participants on how to use the ACIRI to measure the quality of adult and child interactions during joint book reading. The ACIRI is used for multiple purposes including program evaluation, instructional planning, and teaching parents/guardians about interactive reading.
The ACIRI trainings also included strategies and resources provided by the PA Family Literacy Professional Development and Technical Assistance Team; to assist programs in implementing interactive reading into their curriculum. These resources will soon be posted and made available for access on the ABLE website for family literacy programs.
We invite all family literacy programs to consider sharing strategies they may already have in place that support implementation of the ACIRI. By working with the ACIRI, and becoming familiar with materials and criteria, new strategies may be developed to support other programs. We encourage programs to consider submitting a proposal to the 2010 PAACE Midwinter Conference. Proposal information will be sent out this fall.
Adult Basic And Secondary Education
Teaching Adults to Read - Your Suggestions Needed!
by Bootsie Barbour, Northwest Professional Development Center, Adult Basic And Secondary Education Chair
The Adult Basic and Secondary Education Division (ABSE) of PAACE has chosen the topic of ‘teaching adults to read’ as the focus of professional development. The decision to focus on such a broad topic was the result of an informal survey sent to 50 practitioners, discussions with many teachers and tutors, and a comment Michael Westover, Bureau of ABLE Director, has made on several occasions. Michael has stated the two things we in the field of adult education are tasked to do are:
1) We should be working with our workforce partners to transition mid-level literacy students who lack basic workforce readiness skills to careers in Pennsylvania’s High Priority Occupations and Industry Clusters.
2) We should be working with educationally disadvantaged Pennsylvanians to help these adults and their families be able to function more effectively in their personal lives and as citizens and be better prepared for workforce training and employment.
These are simple and straightforward goals adult educators in PA need to have in mind. Both goals have very important implications of how we look at teaching adults to read.
The ABSE Division would like to highlight each component of reading – alphabetics, fluency, vocabulary, and comprehension in a way that would help teachers and learners. Not only do these components needs to be defined but practitioners need to know how to assess each component and plan accordingly. Of course this is a complex task! The ABSE Division would like to make practitioners aware of the importance of the issue and support the wide variety and richness of training in the state.
We need your help! We need your thoughts, suggestions, and creative ideas as to how the ABSE Division can proceed with this project to best help the field.
A suggestion from one teacher is gathering the names of “experts” in the state and the area of their expertise in the field of teaching adults to read. Having a resource available to programs would be useful as they think about planning professional development plans. Another suggestion was to have a Reading Strand or selected reading topics at the PAACE Midwinter Conference. We would like your ideas or comments these suggestions.
Do you have any other creative ideas or suggestions that would help provide good information about teaching adults to read? We would like to have these resources available for the PAACE Conference so work will begin very soon. Please email or call Bootsie Barbour, ABSE Division Chair at nwpdc@stairwaysbh.org or 814-878-2008.
Western Division Report
What are your students and supporters saying about your program?
by Alex Dow, Greater Pittsburgh Literacy Council, Western Region Representative
Feedback
is always crucial in whatever we do. We want to
know if we’re on the right track, if our efforts
are worthwhile and garnering the results our
agencies need. Similarly, politicians need to
know if what they are fighting for is working.
This means hearing from their constituents.
What better way to give them the feedback they
need, than by educating them with direct student
and supporter voices. This can be done through
letter writing campaigns and advocacy efforts of
all kinds. Through PAACE’s advocacy efforts we
heard from many western region students and
supporters about their reasons why adult
education was important to them:
1. As times change we as adults have to change to compete with the changing times. Please do not stop funding these programs. Help keep America strong. - ABE student
2. These programs make the U.S. as a World leader. By means of these programs lots of foreigners learn to speak English, and improve their English speaking skills. – ESL student
3. We need to make Pennsylvania a destination for new business and we need an educated workforce to support this. - Program Board Member
4. Adult Education is very important to my family and I. If it weren’t for this program I would not be able to attend school. I need this program so I can support my family in the future – ABE student
5. Otherwise I wouldn’t be able to live a normal life in America. I wouldn’t be able to understand American people and communicate with them. Without this program, integration would be almost impossible!!! – ESL student
6. We as adults have to show the children and other adults that it’s not too late to want, have, or start a better life for you and your family. – ABE student
What are your students and supporters saying about your programs? Do you know? Can you articulate this back to representatives? Make it a priority in this upcoming program year to listen and collect these stories. Encourage your students today to write or call their legislators and let them know Adult Education works and our students can’t afford any more cuts.
National Coalition for Literacy Online Advocacy Toolkit
The National Coalition for Literacy (NCL) has launched its new online Advocacy Clearinghouse and Toolkit (www.ncladvocacy.org). Developed with an aim to change the conversation about adult education in the U.S., the Toolkit provides adult education and literacy advocates with the tools and knowledge to raise awareness and speak for the needs of 30+ million Americans with limited literacy and the 11+ million who cannot communicate in English.
Containing dozens of resources, facts and reports provided by member organizations of the NCL, the Advocacy Clearinghouse and Toolkit is a “one-stop shop” for all advocates interested in improving adult education. This project has been generously supported by the Dollar General Literacy Foundation, which invests millions of dollars each year in literacy programs that help individuals reach their full potential.
The NCL is a national adult education leadership organization comprised of member organizations and adult education professionals, committed to promoting adult education and literacy, family literacy and English language development in the US. For more information about the Toolkit, contact Jennifer Maloney, NCL Director, at: jennifer.maloney@ncldc.net or Jackie Taylor, website developer at Jackie@jataylor.net.
AAACE 58th International Conference
November 3 – 6, 2009
Cleveland, OH
www.aaace.org
3rd National Conference on Effective Transition in Adult Education
November 16 - 17, 2009
Crowne Plaza Hotel
COABE ProLiteracy Joint Conference 2010
March 16 - 19, 2010
Chicago Hilton Hotel
Chicago, IL
http://www.coabeproliteracy2010.org
Extra Eyes Needed!
Would you like to be more involved with PAACE, but don’t think you have the time? Consider joining the PAACE News Editorial Board. The PAACE newsletter is published quarterly, and we’re always looking for people who can help us ensure the quality of the information we put forth! For more information, please contact Colleen Duran, PAACE News Editor, at cduran@gplc.org or 412-421-0525.
Comprehensive conference listing!
Whatever your interest in adult education may be, the LINCS conference calendar has something for you--actually, LOTS of things for you. Check out this thorough list of conferences and events related to adult education, technology and affiliated topics at:
www.nifl.gov/cgi-bin/Calendar/calendar_world.cgi
PAACE News available in PDF
For those who like to print out PAACE News, you have the option of printing directly from your browser or downloading a PDF file of each issue.
Download the current issue of PAACE News as PDF file here.
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If you are a PAACE member and are not subscribed to the members e-mail list, you may use the simple sign-up process by going to www.paacesite.org, clicking on the link on the main page for the PAACE lists, and following the link for the members@paacesite.org list. Subscribers also may follow the link to change subscription information. Only subscribers may post to the list.
PAACE members are encouraged to be on the e-mail list in order to receive announcements and late-breaking legislative news, especially now!
President: Diane C. Inverso (Mayor's Commission on Literacy)
First Vice-President: Lori Keefer (Greater Pittsburgh Literacy Council)
Second Vice-President: Henry Wardrop (Lincoln Intermediate Unit 12)
Secretary: Anita Cola (Lackawanna College)
Treasurer: William Schaffer (Northampton Community College)
Immediate Past President: Tana Reiff (TIU 11 Community Education Services)
Remote Past President: Chuck Klinger (TIU 11 Community Education Services)
Western Regional Representative: Alex Dow (Greater Pittsburgh Literacy Council)
Central Regional Representative: Mary Mingle (Central Intermediate Unit 10)
Eastern Regional Representative: Rebecca Wagner (Lancaster-Lebanon IU 13)
Adult Basic and Secondary Education Division Director: Bootsie Barbour (Stairways Behavioral Health)
Continuing Higher Education Division Director: Mary Anne Varacalli (Delaware County Community College, retired)
Corrections Education Division Director: Randy Bacon (Allegheny County Prison)
ESL Division: Susan Adams (YMCA of Philadelphia), Martin Senger (GECAC), and Cathie Whitmire (Hispanic American Council)
Family Literacy Division: Lori McMonigal (TIU 11 Community Education Services) and Katherine Vastine (Central Susquehanna Intermediate Unit 16)
Tutors of Literacy in the Commonwealth: Kim Rossman (Tutors of Literacy in the Commonwealth)
Workplace Education Division: Cheryl Hiester (Literacy Council of Lancaster-Lebanon)
PDE Bureau of ABLE Representative: Susan Mansuetti
Commonwealth Libraries: Eileen Kocher
Committee Chairs/Full Board list: See the PAACE website.
PAACE News Editorial Board
Colleen Duran, Greater Pittsburgh Literacy Council, Editor
Destiny Long, TIU
11 Community Education Services
Lynette Hazelton, District 1199C Training and Upgrading Fund
Diane C. Inverso, Mayor's Commission on Literacy
Peggi Kelley, Greater Pittsburgh Literacy Council
Chrissie Klinger, Bedford County Literacy Council/Chestnut Ridge School District
Karen Mundie, Greater Pittsburgh Literacy Council
Tana Reiff, TIU 11 Community Education Services
Mary Anne Varacalli, Delaware County Community College (ret.)
Drucie Weirauch, The Pennsylvania State University
The purpose of PAACE News is to inform members of PAACE about the activities and plans of the Association and how they can participate in them. Remaining consistent with the mission of the organization, the newsletter connects a diverse audience of adult education practitioners, researchers and students throughout Pennsylvania. The opinions expressed in this newsletter do not necessarily reflect the position or policy of PAACE and no official endorsement should be inferred.
This issue published July 13, 2009.
To submit material for PAACE News, please e-mail the editor at cduran@gplc.org.