Narrative: e. 1.

(1) Required Activities

 A. The alignment of adult education and literacy activities with other core programs and one-stop partners, including eligible providers, including the development of career pathways to provide access to employment and training services for individuals in adult education and literacy activities.

Due to Maine’s geographic challenges and limited state and federal funding, educational, workforce system and support agencies rely heavily on collaboration, coordination and alignment of services. At the state level, adult education and postsecondary leaders recognize the role adult education can play in addressing the challenge of adult education completion. Adult education participates in the Adult Promise and All Learning Counts (ALC) initiatives supported by grants from the Lumina Foundation. All partners, including representation from the Department of Labor, are working together to address the state goal of 60% of Maine’s adults having credentials of value by 2025. The ALC, with its focus on in-demand micro-credentials of value is a means of forming career pathways into Maine’s employment sectors. These micro-credentials can be especially effective in engaging learners who need to earn their high school credentials; need to accelerate their academic pathway through contextualized coursework, especially for English language learners; and for adults with some  postsecondary credits but no credentials. Literacy assessments often reveal these learners need to improve foundational skills in literacy and numeracy.

After three years of work, Maine Adult Education and the Departments of Labor and Vocational Rehabilitation have gone live with W.O.R.K. Services. This integrated referral and registration system is easily accessible to individuals and provides users with information to assist with education and/or employment. The system will also enable the partner agencies to share participant information (with permission) that will result in the ability to provide appropriate services and information in a coordinated and non-duplicative manner.

Successful full-scale deployment of this joint participant portal will require substantial cross-agency professional development in its use. The core partners will also analyze user data to determine opportunities for additional cross-training at the local program level.

Adult education representation on the state workforce board and on each of the three local boards also strengthens workforce development efforts. It facilitates communication by bringing decision makers together to work on program development that meets the needs of the state and local plans. They also work with partner agencies in the development and honoring of MOUs to support learner transition to college, career and employment.

B.The establishment and operation of high quality professional development programs to improve instruction provided pursuant to required local activities, including instruction incorporating the essential components of reading instruction as such components relate to adults, instruction related to the specific needs of adult learners, instruction provided by volunteers or by personnel, and dissemination of information about models and promising practices related to such programs.                                                                                                                                                                                       

The goal of Maine Adult Education’s leadership efforts is to provide Maine’s adult educators with the skills and supports they need to assimilate new learning and effectively implement new content/strategies that result in learner outcomes as associated with WIOA. This type of continual learning environment supports instructors, staff and administrators in their development of professional and leadership skills that in turn, maximize the potential for success of the adults they serve. Technical assistance that is intellectually stimulating, builds confidence, and values the attendees encourages participation. To make the most efficient use of leadership funds, a variety of professional development formats and delivery systems are utilized, including:

• Implementing a teacher-trainer model that builds local capacity;
• Supporting a state office professional development coordinator who creates, delivers, brokers and shares professional development and training opportunities for both paid and volunteer instructional staff. Contract providers are brought in as needed to provide specific areas of expertise;
• Offering a variety of delivery platforms to address the geographic challenges of delivering statewide training in a large, rural, state. These include webinars, video-conferences, blended learning formats, asynchronous courses, and regional meetings.
• Developing and supporting educational leadership in programs in order to build the capacity of administrators to effectively lead their staff and manage their programs;
• Exploring feasibility of enrolling program leaders in a leadership program designed specifically for adult education;
• Using the state’s adult education listserv to disseminate information about regional and national training opportunities, articles of interest, and encourage discourse and sharing of best practice among practitioners; and
• Utilizing the Maine Professional Development Portal, a web-based tool used to list professional development opportunities, register participants and serve as a repository for  participant transcripts.

 Each year the state surveys local program staff to determine professional development needs. Survey results, as well as performance data are used to assess identified needs. The state office offers training in best practices to address areas of weakness evident from program monitoring and alignment with federal adult education initiatives.

Targeted professional development is planned to address CCR standards, implementation of English Language Proficiency (ELP) standards, distance learning and technology integration, IET, instructional strategies, use of data for program improvement and decision making, college transitions, development of micro-credentials, IELCE, Ability to Benefit, and employability skills.

C. The provision of technical assistance to eligible providers of adult education and literacy activities receiving funds under this title, including –

    I. The development and dissemination of instructional and programmatic practices based on the most rigorous or scientifically valid research available and appropriate in reading, writing, speaking, mathematics, English language acquisition programs, distance education, and staff training;                                                                                                                                         Based on needs assessments of local program professional development surveys and compliance with federal and state requirements, Maine Adult Education will continue to offer training opportunities in rigorous and scientifically valid instructional practices and learning theories, data collection and management, assessment, academic and career advising, job skills, and college transition.

With the changing demographics of Maine, more local adult education programs are providing services to English Language Learners. For many programs this is a new area of work. The state team provides professional development to help programs and teachers serve them. These professional development opportunities help dedicated teachers of English Language Learners as well as content teachers who are finding an increasing number of ELL’s in their classrooms. Courses include:

• Introduction to the English Language Proficiency Standards
• Mathematizing ESOL
• Nexus of Rigor and ESOL Instruction

Technical assistance is also planned in:

• CCRS implementation as approved in Maine’s CCR-SIA Sustainability Plan
• Research-based professional development in mathematics. Maine will repeat trainings in Adult Numeracy Instruction (ANI) and AR2. A team of adult educators participated in a year-long process at the request of the community college system to be involved with its math pathways work. Follow up work will be done to align adult education math courses to meet community college expectations of learners.
  Instructors will be exposed to recent research that has identified conceptual understanding in mathematics as a key concept in mastering the College and Career Readiness Standards. Technical assistance to address this will be provided to help instructors promote conceptual understanding with their students at all levels of mathematics.
  English language instructors will learn how to deepen their understanding of math and how to integrate math and numeracy into ESOL classrooms. The goal of this training is to offer strategies for making math accessible to all levels of ESOL learners.
• Research-based professional development in reading. Maine will continue to implement the Reading Apprenticeship Program (RAP), a research-based and research-proven instructional framework for improving adult reading. Through a train the trainer model, instructor capacity is built in the essential components of reading instruction or the explicit and systematic instruction including the following: phonemic awareness; phonics; vocabulary development; reading fluency, including oral reading skills; and reading comprehension strategies.
• Maine Adult Education will reach out to neighboring New England states to explore the creation of a regional approach to Student Achievement in Reading (STAR) training. This collaboration may enable Maine and the partner states to share the financial responsibility of expanding STAR and enable each state to increase both the number of certified instructors and the implementation of STAR.
• The role of eligible providers as a one-stop partner to provide access to employment, education, and training services – The core partners are committed to cross agency professional development efforts at both the state and local levels. Steps will be taken to ensure that staff at all agencies is informed of partner services and able to help adults seamlessly access employment and workforce services.
  And
• ii. Assistance in the use of technology, including for staff training, to eligible providers, especially the use of technology to improve system efficiencies.

Maine Adult Education will continue to make use of technology to provide instruction and professional development. As part of the IDEAL consortium, the state office provides Distance Learning 101 and 102. These combined courses allow programs to become familiar with the characteristics of a successful blended/distance learning experience, learn about best practices for delivering distance education and develop a plan for how their hub/program will deliver distance learning. Professional development is regularly offered to support programs in choosing/creating accessible, engaging distance content and supporting distance learners. Courses such as Learner Accessibility and Universal Design for Learning provide teachers with concrete tools to create/evaluate online learning. Instructors and staff are also provided with opportunities to enhance their own foundational digital literacy skills. This enables them to model/create/facilitate successful blended learning.

D. The monitoring and evaluation of the quality of, and the improvement in, adult education and literacy activities and the dissemination of information about models and proven promises within the State.
Maine Adult Education implements a Continuous Improvement Monitoring Process for evaluating adult education programs. The monitoring process consists of three key components: on-going, data-based desk audits; educational program reviews; and on-site program monitoring. These are all guided by the goal of deepening relationships and understanding between the state office and local programs.

Annual Evaluations
The state office reviews each program for compliance with the Maine State Legislature’s definition (LD 1780) of adult education as well as WIOA requirements. Programs that score high on the risk analysis for such things as having a new director, consistent late or incorrect reporting, not meeting objectives, or fiscal irregularities become priorities for monitoring. Programs that are not meeting their responsibilities and/or objectives are provided with additional technical assistance to help them to come into full compliance.

Data-based Desk Audits
Student performance data and other program information are reviewed regularly by the adult education state office data coordinator. This data review guides ongoing conversations with local programs. All programs receiving AEFLA or state funds must enter student data at least monthly into MaineSTARS, an NRS compliant managed information system. Local programs must collect and document student information regarding student goals, educational functioning level, progress and achievements. Programs review data at least quarterly to ensure completeness, accuracy and to determine their standing regarding projected outcome targets. MaineSTARS generates annual reports on student performance measures for submission to OCTAE. The state data coordinator creates and distributes program specific reports which compare local program data with state targets.

On-site Reviews
The State Office conducts on-site reviews at least every five years guided by a review instrument tailored to programs funded by AEFLA. The on-site program reviews provide an additional effective tool for continuous improvement. The key benefits of this monitoring strategy are:

          Self-assessment by local programs,

          Cross fertilization of information for best practices and strategies,

          Development of baseline for program improvement, and

          Staff development and technical assistance.

An on-site visit may also be triggered based on the Maine Adult Education Risk-based Monitoring System indicators.