Narrative: a.

Aligning adult education content standards is an integral part of proper WIOA planning and implementation. To ensure alignment with State-adopted challenging academic content standards, OSSE has adopted the Common Core State Standards (CCSS) and the College and Career Readiness Standards (CCRS) as the adult education content standards for the District of Columbia.

OSSE AFE began its effort to align instruction with CCSS and CCRS in FY 2012. In collaboration with the University of the District of Columbia (UDC), OSSE held a conference for adult educators that included several workshops that focused on the CCSS and CCRS. As a follow-up to the 2012 Conference, OSSE AFE, in partnership with UDC, has offered three Professional Development Institutes for adult educators in the District of Columbia. Each of the institutes focused on the integration and implementation of the CCSS and CCRS and CASAS competencies and basic skill content standards in adult education.

The Summer 2014 Professional Development Institute, titled “Promoting Teaching Effectiveness: Methods of Teaching Adult Learners,” included the following workshops:

1. Effective Teachers: Professional Learning and State Policy;
2. Linguistic and Cultural Assumptions in High School Equivalency Testing;
3. Preparing Adult Learners for the 2014 GED;
4. Essential Education 2014 GED Resources for Adult Educators;
5. Beyond ABE/GED/HSD - Preparing Adult Learners for College and Careers;
6. Methods of Teaching Math to Adult Learners;
7. Methods of Teaching Reading and Language Arts;
8. Adult Education and the Common Core State Standards for Mathematics: Focus on Teaching Quantitative Problem Solving, Rational Numbers and Measurements;
9. Adult Education and the Common Core State Standards for Mathematics: Focus on Teaching Algebraic Problem Solving, Linear Equations and Expressions, Graphs and Functions;
10. Oral Language, Math, and Science for Adult English Language Learners; and
11. Planning Instruction for Adult English Language Learners

The Spring 2015 Professional Development Institute, titled “Promoting Teacher Effectiveness: A Standards-Based Approach to Teaching Adult Learners” included sessions on the following topics:

1) Overview of the CCSS/CCRS;

2) Implications for Teaching and Learning;

3) Using Standards for Assessments;

4) Designing Standards-based Instructional Plans; and

5) Theory to Practice: Demonstrating and Modeling the Use of Standards.

The Summer 2015 Professional Development Institute, titled “Winning Strategies for Teaching Adults in the District of Columbia” included sessions on the following topics:

1 Integrating Career Awareness into the ABE and ESOL Classroom;

2) Team Teaching an Integrated Curriculum;

3) Helping Students Stay: Exploring Program and Classroom Persistence Strategies; and

4) Winning Strategies for Integrating Standards in ABE and ESL Instruction.

Each of the institutes was well attended by over 60 adult educators each day.

OSSE AFE will continue to work with UDC, Graduate School USA and other partners, to provide additional professional development and technical assistance to adult educators on the CCSS/ CCRS. Furthermore, the CCSS/CCRS are embedded in the 2014 GED and NEDP which are the two primary alternative pathways to a secondary credential for adults in DC. Moreover, in the next competitive grant, OSSE AFE will include the requirement that all AFE funded programs adopt and align instruction with the CCSS/CCRS. OSSE AFE will also work with its PD/TA partners to develop a CCSS/CCRS implementation timeline for local program providers and monitor for compliance. Adult educators in OSSE AFE programs are required to integrate the Comprehensive Adult Student Assessment System (CASAS) competencies and basic skills content standards in their lessons/programs. As such, the OSSE AFE team has drafted a crosswalk that links the CCSS/CCRS and CASAS competencies and basic skill content standards by test and test item for use by the adult educators in employing a standards-based approach to teach adult learners.