Located in:
- Program-specific Requirements for Adult Education and Family Literacy Act Programs
The Unified or Combined State Plan must include a description of the following as it pertains to adult education and literacy programs and activities under title II of WIOA, the Adult Education and Family Literacy Act (AEFLA).
a. Aligning of Content Standards
Describe how the eligible agency has aligned 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:
The Arkansas Division of Workforce Services, Adult Education Section (ADWS-AES) adopted the U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Career, Technical and Adult Education (OCTAE)’s College and Career Readiness (CCR) Standards for Adult Education developed by Susan Pimentel during program year 2014-2015, but was not fully implemented until the fall of 2016. Adult education’s content standards are aligned with K-12 Common Core State Standards (CCSS), which were adopted by the Arkansas Department of Education for K-12 schools during the 2013-2014 year, through the adoption of the Career and College Readiness (CCR) standards. The CCR standards were adopted due to its rigorous research and scientific evidence of effectiveness and applicability to Adult Education. Additionally, the standards are designed to prepare learners for postsecondary education and training and/or unsubsidized employment.
The CCR standards used the CCSS to “identify a manageable set of the CCSS most indispensable for college and career readiness and important to adult students”. The CCR Standards then are translated into curriculum and lessons for teaching within the content of the standards to students. Classroom activities, assignments, and a range of formative and summative assessments all help determine whether or not students are absorbing the essential skills and knowledge included in the standards.
The Arkansas CCR Framework encompasses language, math, reading, science, social studies and writing and contains a list of references and all materials utilized in the document in addition to a key of all terms used. The framework provides content standards, sample classroom activities and various learning materials to facilitate learning for all learning styles: visual, auditory and kinesthetic. Instructors can utilize the framework to build their own curriculum and lesson plans to further impact student learning. The framework is designed as a living document, changing over time as do resources and student needs.
Professional development training is provided to understand and instruct within the context of content standards. For example, during the Masterpiece- Reading/Language Art for Part-time Teachers workshop, adult education instructors learned how to lead students to master close reading and evidence-based writing. The facilitator provided a brief refresher on how to use the standards to develop curriculum and strengthen students’ critical thinking and problem solving skills. To ensure adult education instructors are able to have access to content related trainings, the state provides professional development opportunities in the evening, regionally, online, face-to-face, and by request, on weekends.
Statewide software purchased by the state for academic learning must also be aligned to content standards. In addition, at the local level, textbooks and other supportive learning tools must be aligned to the college and career readiness standards before being approved to purchase. Adult education instructors are expected to identify the CCR standards in lesson plans. During program reviews and technical site visits, lesson plans and/or syllabi are reviewed to ensure compliance.
Over the past two years, professional development has been focused on helping teachers to align the CCR framework into the curriculum and integrate employability, digital, and financial literacy standards within lesson plans. In addition, improving the quality of instruction is also a professional development goal. Therefore, ongoing professional development using evidence-based practices in core subject areas is a key area of focus for teacher development.
To improve student pass rate and outcomes on the high school equivalency assessment, the state office provided adult education center directors with direct access to analytical documents from high school equivalency testing site. This enables the directors to have constant access to data useful in determining the effectiveness of classroom instruction. The expectation is that student scores should be on the increase in tandem with the increased focus on teaching CCR standards. Directors may discern which content areas show strength and which show weakness by researching group data, rather than being totally dependent upon annual or quarterly reports.