Located in:
- Program-specific Requirements for Adult Education and Family Literacy Act ProgramsThe Unified or Combined State Plan must include a description of the following as it pertains to Adult Education and Literacy programs under title II, the Adult Education and Family Literacy Act (AEFLA).
a. Aligning of Content Standards
Describe how the eligible agency will, by July 1, 2016, align its content standards for adult education with State-adopted challenging academic content standards, as adopted under section 1111(b)(1) of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965, as amended (20 U.S.C. 6311(b)(1)).
Current Narrative:
Initially, the West Viriginia Department of Education (WVDE) adopted the Common core State Standards (CCSS) and alighned its K-12 Next Generation Content Standards and Objectives (NxtGen CSO's) to the CCSS. With the release of the national College and Career Readiness Standards (CCRS) for Adult Education in 2013, WV Adult Education adopted the CCRS for Adult Educatoin and launced rollout of the standards in 2014.
Teaching to the standards was the basis for the professional development designed to guide teachers in the process of using the standards to create curriculum and lessons. Instructors attended professional development where they created fully articulated lesson plans, designed classroom activities integrating research-based instructional practices, created engaging student-centered assignments that incorporated new technologies, and created assessments, all explicitly designed to transfer the content of the standards to students.
In 2016, under pressure from the West Virginia state legislature to repeal the use of CCSS, the WVDE replaced the Common Core-based NxtGen CSOs with the West Virginia College and Career Readiness (WVCCR) Standards. On July 1, 2016, the West Virginia Board of Education implemented WVCCR English Language Arts and Mathematics standards - developed through the collaborative efforts of West Virginia teachers, parents, and business and community stakeholders-that address the learning needs of West Virginia's students. WVAdultEd has continued to use the CCRS for Adult Education and is still able to align with these new K-12 standards. The shift in WVDE policies and changes to the standards will force WVAdultEd to update and change our training on the standards and how they are aligned.
With WIOA's focus on career pathways, the focus will shift to training staff in how to contextualize instruction while continuing to use the CCRS for Adult Education. It is expected that during FY2018, the alignment of our instructional content with WV K-12 state standards will be revisted.