Narrative: e. 1.

Washington state’s combined plan addresses the activities that are required to be undertaken to meet the requirements of Section 223 of WIOA to promote transitions from adult education to postsecondary education and training through career pathways. Under the combined plan, all Basic Education for Adults providers are required to use funds made available under section 222(a)(2) for the adult education and literacy WIOA activities including the four new required national leadership activities to develop or enhance the adult education system across the state.

All funded providers were required to detail the process that is used to collaborate with all stakeholders and align Basic Education for Adults programming in their 2022-2027 competitive grant. They were required to develop plans with all partners named in the combined state plan. These plans are updated annually in their grant continuation applications. Eligible providers must provide services in alignment with local plans detailing how they will promote concurrent enrollment with Title I programs and activities in order to meet the state adjusted levels of performance and collect data to report on performance indicators. In addition, all providers are required to describe how they will fulfill one-stop responsibilities in their region. As members of local Workforce Development Boards, local providers participate in ongoing plan development and implementation of WIOA.

The following transition activities have been underway since 2014 in Washington to meet the four newly required state leadership activities requirements of WIOA:

1.  The alignment of adult education and literacy activities with other core programs and one- stop partners, including eligible providers, to implement the strategy identified in the combined state plan under section 103, including the development of career pathways to provide access to employment and training services for individuals in adult education and literacy activities. The following activities have been completed or are underway in support:

• The Washington State Workforce Training and Education Coordinating Board (WTECB) established a highly inclusive committee structure to identify key areas of work and implementation planning. Basic Education for Adults is represented on each of the committees with local providers being engaged as needed. The committees include:
  • Steering Committee: members include WTECB, Business, Labor, all core programs, Chief Local Elected Officials (CLEO), TANF, and the SBCTC. This committee’s work includes creating the WIOA vision and goals, state and local plan development, state policies and guidance to facilitate integrated services development, funding formula guidance, One-Stop certification and evaluation criteria, oversight of work plans and timelines, facilitation of communication state-to-state, local-to-state, local-to-local, and among WIOA implementation committees, and state legislative issues.
  • Committee for Sector Strategies to Close Skill Gaps in the Workplace: members include WTECB, Educational Service Districts (ESD), Business, Labor, all core programs, Washington Workforce Association (WWA), Commerce, CLEO, SBCTC, and the Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction (OSPI).This committee’s work includes regional designation and governance, data analysis, local workforce development council designations, local board configuration, and sector strategy and industry engagement.
  • Committee for Performance Accountability and Eligible Training Provider List (ETPL) Committee: members include WTECB, BEdA, DVR, Department of Services for the Blind (DSB), WWA, business, labor, and all core programs. This committee’s work includes alignment of current systems to WIOA for all core programs, establishment of procedures for WIOA performance target setting, alignment of ETPL with WIOA, and the development of performance criteria for Youth and On the Job Training (OJT) programming.
  • Committee for Education and Career Pathways through Integrated Service Delivery Models: members include WTECB, business, labor, all core programs, all relevant DSHS divisions, Commerce, NASCAP, OSPI, SBCTC, L&I/Apprenticeship, WWA, local and state stakeholders, and other industry partnerships.

In addition to Washington’s WIOA committee structure, the following activities are in place to meet the alignment requirement. These activities include:

• Annual BEdA system-wide trainings on the development and implementation of college and career pathways. These trainings were developed and expanded to support WIOA and the state plan requirement to implement college and career readiness pathways for all basic skills students;
• SBCTC in collaboration with the Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction (OSPI) facilitated work sessions with regional core program partners. Thirteen regional sessions were completed in the twelve WDC regions;
• WDCs facilitated work sessions on WIOA collaboration at the summer and fall 2015 Council of Basic Skills (CBS) meetings;
• Washington’s Governor appointed Adult Basic Education Advisory Council (AEAC) has worked on an on-going basis to identify, develop, and expand the establishment of local shared navigational support systems to students. This has resulted in a state-wide Student Aid Funding Guide for Navigators, Advisors, Coaches, & Pathway Planners.

2.  The establishment or operation of high-quality professional development programs to improve the instruction... and dissemination of information about models and promising practices related to such programs Washington state implements quality programs and professional development to support all BEdA state initiatives through various means. Federal leadership dollars are granted to providers in support of professional and program development initiatives that include:

• Team Teacher Training for all programming (ABE, ELA, HS +, Foundational pathway On- Ramps to I-BEST, I-BEST@Work, and I-BEST) to support integrated employment and training activities for future and incumbent workers;
• Training in distance education;
• Equitable Math Pathways;
• Series on navigational services
• Data Disaggregation 101;
• Trauma-informed Andragogy;
• Training in Integrated Digital English Acceleration, a hybrid, flipped classroom ESL program contextualized to the CCRS and digital literacy; and
• Braided Funding with workforce for co-enrolled ABE students.

3.  The provision of technical assistance to eligible providers of adult education and literacy activities receiving funds under this title, include:

• 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, IET and IELCE, and staff training. Current initiatives include:
  • Washington’s adoption in October 2014 of the College and Career Readiness (CCR) Standards as the basis for all instruction. Full implementation was accomplished as of 2017.
  • Team teaching and contextualized instruction training for I-BEST and any contextualized program of study;
  • Integrated Digital English Acceleration (I-DEA), which is a hybrid instructional model based on the flipped classroom, providing problem solving activities in technology rich environments. Students have access to laptop computers, Chromebooks, or tablets by which they complete 50% of their instruction online prior to attending class. Curriculum including language acquisition, rights and responsibilities of citizens and workforce training is thus available around the clock for ELA levels 1-3. Unlike traditional approaches in which students must learn English before pursuing job-training, I-DEA teaches English in tandem with college and career skills. This program has intensive training and implementation component in addition to on-going program support from SBCTC;
  • Training in distance education instructional tools and strategies;
  • Training in building equitable math pathways with articulations, co-requisite and I-BEST models;
  • Training on DEI including ABC’s of Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion and ongoing trainings with related topics including age, gender, race, and equity-informed leadership;
  • Training in trauma-informed andragogy;
• Assistance in the use of technology, including for staff training, to eligible providers, especially the use of technology to improve system efficiencies.
  • To enhance system efficiencies, Washington conducts trainings through web meeting tools such as Zoom. Staff have been trained in using the tools.
  • SBCTC also offers training in the online management system, CANVAS for faculty and staff wanting to enhance instruction with technology in the classroom. SBCTC also offers Accessibility Micro Courses and Open Educational Resources (OER 101) training to faculty and staff to ensure that materials developed are open and accessible.
  • A major focus is on increasing instruction in problem solving in technology rich environments and digital literacy/digital skill-building.

4.  The monitoring and evaluation of the quality of, and the improvement in, adult education and literacy activities and the dissemination of information:

• The SBCTC office of Basic Education for Adults monitors and evaluates all BEdA providers on a regular basis as required by the Workforce Investment and Opportunity Act (WIOA) and the National Reporting System (NRS) and based on our state plan. These procedures cover program review visits and regular desk monitoring.
  • Program review planning includes reviewing previous monitoring reports, approved program applications, and year-end reports, and any historical performance concerns documented in the monitoring tool.
    • For each provider reviewed, we request a list of students with their student IDs and their classes for 10 random students that should be CASAS tested, and 5 random students who are assessed via the HS Credit Option (if any.)
    • The following reports are also reviewed in advance of monitoring of a provider:
      • intake forms, post-test with additional hours across program years, provider management tab reports including performance summary, assessment rate, post-test rate filtered for I-BEST, students with 12+ hours no pre-test and 45+ hours no post test, Federal tables 2A, 4/b/c, 5, 7, BEdA quarterly performance dashboard, approved I-BEST programs, list of PD trainings attended, enrollment report, special programs count, other program-specific reports as needed.
  • Providers receive the monitoring tool 6-8 weeks prior to the monitoring visit. The monitoring visit itself is 4-5 hours with time to review the monitoring tool and reports. 
  • The follow-up letter contains commendations, recommendations, and any findings that require a corrective action plan. 
  • Corrective actions may require further monitoring such as follow-up desk audit reviews and follow-up visits. Technical assistance is provided to assist providers in meeting and clearing the findings included on any corrective action plans. 
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