Executive Summary
Texas Adult Literacy Clearinghouse
Final Report
July 1, 2002 - December 31, 2003 Grant Period

The Adult Literacy Clearinghouse Project housed in The Texas Center for the Advancement of Literacy and Learning (TCALL) at Texas A&M University had for the first time a grant “year” extended to an 18-month period. This year and a half was also a unique period in Clearinghouse Project history because of the August 2003 transition in state leadership, whereby Texas LEARNS assumed operational functions of the TEA Adult and Community Education Division.

Under the new state leadership, the Clearinghouse assumed some additional special tasks to assist Texas LEARNS with the transition. One such special task was amending the Clearinghouse grant to fund the purchase of CIRCLE Classroom Start-up Kits and the Letter People and Let’s Begin Complete Program Kits for all 95 Even Start Family Literacy Programs in Texas. Those resources will be distributed to the Even Start programs in early 2004, accompanied by training arranged by Texas LEARNS in how to utilize these resources to enhance the early childhood education component of those programs.

That grant amendment also enabled the Clearinghouse staff to negotiate and purchase five-year state educational use rights licenses for three instructional television program series developed by PBS LiteracyLinks/Kentucky Educational Television and the Adult Literacy Media Aliance: GED Connection; Workforce Essential Skills; and TV411. Further, TCALL staff ordered duplication of 280 complete sets of the Workforce Essential Skills series of videos. Upon delivery in early 2004, a complete set of the videotapes will be provided free to each adult education co-op and Even Start program and to other TEA-funded programs on a first-come first-served basis. The cost to TCALL of these Workforce Essential Skills videos, including the state license cost, will result in a total savings to Texas (compared to purchase directly from KET) of over $82,000.

Another special task undertaken by the Clearinghouse during the transition was a temporary function of coordinating essential training around the state. During the final quarter of this grant period, TCALL staff coordinated trainers, host sites, scheduling and registration for the following training events:

• ACES New Users Training at five sites
• ACES Advanced Users Trainings at five sites
• BEST Test Administration Trainings at four sites
• Statewide TETN Training Event on Using the TABE in Texas Adult Education

TCALL staff also coordinated registration and hotel arrangements for these statewide events: a Statewide Director - Administrators' Conference Conducted by Texas LEARNS in Austin August 27-29, 2003 and an Even Start Early Childhood Assessment Training conducted by trainers from CIRCLE in Houston November 11 - 13, 2003.

The activities described above were in addition to the nine objectives that are integral to ongoing Clearinghouse Project activities:

1. Provide adult and family literacy educators in Texas with resources and information.
2. Manage three statewide adult and family literacy email discussion lists for adult education administrators, instructors, and family literacy coordinators.
3. Produce four issues per year of the literacy publication Literacy Links.
4. Maintain the TCALL website to provide information about adult and family literacy education needs, issues and resources for practitioners and others throughout Texas.
5. Distribute the Basic English Skills Test (BEST) to adult and family literacy programs designated by TEA under the discounted purchase agreement between TEA, the publisher of BEST and the Clearinghouse.
6. Represent Texas in the Literacy Information and Communication System (LINCS) as well as other appropriate national initiatives.
7. Maintain a directory of Texas adult and family literacy providers.
8. Conduct research projects relevant to the adult and family literacy community in Texas with the assistance and approval of Texas Education Agency.
9. Investigate and develop methods of assessing the impact of Clearinghouse activities on the adult and family literacy community in Texas.

As the full report describes in detail, performance data on objectives one through eight shows a trend of continuous improvement in both quality and quantity of work performed. (See charts below.)

Objective Nine, a new goal for the Clearinghouse, reflects an effort to systematically assess not only the work done in meeting the other objectives, but the impact of that work on the state. That impact evaluation is currently in process.

Finally, another recent development at TCALL, while not part of fulfilling the Clearinghouse Project objectives, does reflect the evolution of services provided by the Clearinghouse Project since TCALL was created in 1988 by the Board of Regents at Texas A&M University. At that time, the stated purpose of TCALL was “helping to reduce the incidence of adult illiteracy in Texas”, and the center's acronym stood for "Texas Center for Adult Literacy and Learning". Since the Clearinghouse Project was first funded at TCALL in 1989, the center has focused on disseminating resources and information and conducting research in support of adult literacy education. That includes basic literacy, adult secondary education and GED, English language literacy, workforce literacy skills, citizenship preparation, and family literacy. Since 1989 – also the year Even Start Family Literacy programs were first funded – the relative importance of family literacy has grown, both in terms of national policy and funding emphases, and local program growth in Texas. To more comprehensively serve the needs of family literacy programs, TCALL is expanding its emphasis into all aspects of family literacy, including early childhood education. To better reflect the full lifespan of literacy learners in Texas, TCALL requested and was granted a name change. The Center is now Texas Center for the Advancement of Literacy and Learning.