TEXAS Adult & Family Literacy QUARTERLY

Professional Wisdom for Adult and Family Literacy

Letter from the TCALL Director

Spring is always a busy season for Texas adult education and family literacy educators. Particularly in these difficult economic times, local literacy programs are stretching their resources to meet increasing demand for adult basic education and English as a Second Language services.

TCALL is bustling with selection processes underway for two sets of doctoral research fellows. The Barbara Bush Fellows in Family Literacy for the 2009-2010 academic year will be announced at the Houston Celebration of Reading, a major annual fundraising event for The Barbara Bush Texas Fund, on April 23 at Houston’s Hobby Center. Applications for 2009-2010 TCALL Fellowships for doctoral research in adult literacy are due on June 15, 2009. Some potential areas of research for TCALL Fellows include transitioning English Language Learners into adult basic or secondary education or postsecondary or vocational training programs; the potential application in Texas of Washington State’s I-BEST model (Integrated Basic Education and Skills Training), which pairs adult education or English with workforce training; persistence strategies for adult literacy learners - both learner and program strategies; and the relationship between learner retention and successful transition. Fellowships at TCALL are available to doctoral students at Texas A&M University in College Station.

Moving to the national scene, President Obama used his first address to a joint session of Congress in late February to call for every adult in the United States to commit to at least one year of education or training beyond high school and to set as a national goal to have the highest proportion of college graduates in the world by 2020. President Obama said, “This can be community college or a four-year school; vocational training or an apprenticeship. But whatever the training may be, every American will need to get more than a high school diploma. And dropping out of high school is no longer an option. It’s not just quitting on yourself, it’s quitting on your country ─ and this country needs and values the talents of every American.”

The White House also recently released data that will assist states and localities as they prepare adult learners with the basic literacy or English skills training that adults will need for jobs being created or saved through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA). State-by-state estimates of employment impact by Congressional district estimate that Texas should gain or save approximately 269,000 jobs in industries ranging from clean energy to health care, with over 90% in the private sector.

Another prominent theme of the Obama administration is that government decisions should be based on the best-available, scientifically-valid evidence. This issue of Texas Adult & Family Literacy Quarterly is centered on the theme of Professional Wisdom, one of the “three legs of the stool” of evidence-based education, along with empirical evidence and educational theory. Ken Appelt of TCALL contributes an article that provides a thorough overview of the concepts entailed in evidence-based educational practice and professional development. In his article, Federico Salas-Isnardi of TCALL looks at professional wisdom from the teacher’s perspective and reviews a variety of electronic resources for sharing and accessing professional wisdom. Beth Thompson, Assistant State Director and State Even Start Coordinator at Texas LEARNS, contributes an article on strategies for program improvement that confirm current professional wisdom developed out of necessity, particularly in the turbulent context of Even Start family literacy programs. An article by Michelle Janysek, Mary Helen Martinez, and Emily Miller-Payne of the Texas Adult Education Credential Project demonstrates the potential impact on instructional and programmatic outcomes due to growth in professional wisdom through the Credentialing process.

Other articles in this issue describe the experiences of a teacher-researcher, tips for churches that aim to promote literacy in their communities, and examining the usefulness of GED test results as a predictor of college success. We hope this issue will support Texas literacy educators in their professional growth and successful program practice.

Harriet Vardiman Smith, TCALL Director