Professional Development: New Directions for Texas

Equipped for the Future -- An Update

Equipped for the Future (EFF) is the National Institute for Literacy's signature effort to improve the quality and results of the adult literacy, basic skills, and lifelong learning systems in the U.S. Like other education improvement initiatives focused on accountability issues, EFF is a standards-based reform initiative.

When NIFL began EFF in 1995, the General Accounting Office (GAO) had just published an indictment of the federal adult education program. The GAO report, Adult Education: Measuring Program Results has been Challenging, described the difficulties in evaluating the results of a program without clearly defined objectives, appropriate student assessments, and accurate data. The underlying problem GAO pointed to was the lack of a coherent vision of the skills and knowledge adults need to be considered literate.

NIFL introduced standards-based system reform to adult education as a way to address these persistent problems straight on. A set of standards that defined what adults needed to know and be able to do would provide clear objectives that programs could use to guide instruction and assessment, and that programs, states and the federal government could use to determine whether programs were effective, and in fact making a difference for adult learners.

In 1994-95, NIFL began by surveying adult learners and other customers of the adult literacy system to determine what skills and knowledge were critical. In 1996-97, NIFL established the foundation for adult literacy standards by building broad consensus, across the nation, on what adults needed to do to meet their responsibilities as workers, citizens, and parents. In 1998-99, NIFL defined sixteen Content Standards that comprised the core knowledge and skills that support effective action in these three adult roles. The standards include a strong foundation of reading, writing, and math within four key categories of skills and knowledge: those that support effective communication, working with others, problem solving and decision-making, and learning-to-learn. In 2000, NIFL published the EFF Content Standards: What Adults Need to Know and Be Able to Do in the 21st Century (available free from the Clearinghouse) and launched a training and technical assistance initiative to help states use the standards. Work also began on defining an assessment framework for the standards. NIFL continues to support these two strands of EFF work.

The EFF Center for Training and Technical Assistance is pursuing these efforts from its headquarters in the Center for Literacy Studies at University of Tennessee-Knoxville. The Center's goal is to develop and disseminate training, materials, and technical assistance that support integration of EFF Standards and standards-based practices into instruction, assessment and program management. The goal of the EFF Assessment Consortium is twofold: to design a research-based framework for assessment of EFF Standards that will support assessment of what adults know and can do for a variety of purposes: instruction, credentialing, and reporting; and to assure that this approach to assessment produces tools that practitioners and states can use for accountability purposes.

The number of states and programs using EFF continues to grow. From 2000-2002, 4,553 teachers and administrators from 34 states have received training and technical assistance in using the standards to improve the quality of instruction and assessment. In 2002, EFF shifted its training strategy from offering one-time orientations to EFF to working primarily through states, providing training, technical assistance, and tools to help them implement EFF in target systems.

Eighteen states have now begun to work with the EFF Center for Training and Technical Assistance to integrate EFF in at least one of their adult education and training systems: this list includes Texas, Alaska, California, Delaware, Hawaii, Maine, Missouri, New Jersey, New Mexico, Nevada, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Tennessee, Vermont, Virginia, and Washington. A number of these states have adopted EFF as statewide learning results.

EFF Trainer Certification system implemented. Fifty state and national trainers are moving through a certification process that provides an evidence-based approach to assuring that trainers have the knowledge and skills they need to help states effectively implement EFF.

The EFF Reading Project has developed a training package to integrate evidence-based research on the teaching of reading into EFF's purposeful and contextual approach to instruction and assessment. This is a joint project of EFF, the Partnership for Reading, and the National Center for Family Literacy. Four states (Pennsylvania, Delaware, Missouri, and Virginia) and the Bureau of Indian Affairs are partnering in this effort, supporting local sites as part of the first training cohort.

The EFF National Retail Foundation Texas Pilot Project. In 2002, the Texas Education Agency contracted with the EFF Center for Training and Technical Assistance to adapt the EFF/Sales and Service Voluntary Partnership (SSVP) Retail Sales Curriculum for use with ESL programs along the Texas-Mexico border. The curriculum was developed with customer service at the core through application in the retail sales and used EFF as the foundation upon which to build customer service and sales skills. Four programs participated in the piloting of this project: Southwest Texas Junior College, Laredo Community College, Community Action, Inc. and Region 1 ESC Adult Education. The Pilot Project Final Report as well as the curriculum itself will become available through the Clearinghouse in the near future - watch the newsletter or subscribe to one of TCALL's email discussion groups for an upcoming announcement about their availability.

EFF has created crosswalks between the EFF Framework and three major multimedia curricula: TV-411 (Adult Literacy Media Alliance) and Crossroads Café and On Common Ground (INTELECOM). New Readers Press and Steck-Vaughan have also recently approached us about integrating EFF into new publications.

EFF is being recognized as a model adult standards effort by international organizations as well as by individual countries that want to build on our success. The work of EFF was featured in the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development's initiative on defining and selecting competencies that define a successful life. Chile, Japan, and Singapore are three countries that have recently sought advice and assistance in defining and building competence for work. The United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) Institute for Education also is interested in replicating the EFF competency definition process in African nations concerned about improving their literacy rates.

Standards-based improvement in adult education. The U.S. Department of Education, Office of Vocational and Adult Education, has identified standards-based reform as their approach in reauthorization of Title II of the Workforce Investment Act to improving the quality and results of the federal adult education program. How does EFF implementation help prepare states for the transition to a standards-based system? The EFF Team has the following tools and training in the works that will be useful to states and programs trying to meet new federal requirements:

The EFF Reading Project is slated to revise the training design and materials based on feedback from the pilot. This training package will be available for broad use by 2004.

As part of the development of the EFF Assessment System, teachers in partner states have been trained in using standards to focus both instruction and assessment more sharply on the knowledge, strategies, and skills students need in order to learn and to carry out real world tasks. Several states are considering building a set of Assessment 101 workshops out of this training that would introduce practitioners to evidence-based assessment practices.

Prototypes of the EFF Assessment System based on the Standards "Read with Understanding and Use Math to Solve Problems and Communicate" have been constructed. These prototypes, together with specifications for other EFF Standards, will enable NIFL to build relations with test developers in order to assure that there will be a range of assessments aligned with EFF standards.

Preparing adults for the 21st Century workplace. NIFL has joined with the National Skill Standards Board and a small group of states (Texas, New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania) to develop a Work Readiness Credential that will define, measure, and certify mastery of the knowledge and skills required for success in the 21st Century Workplace. With this new credential:

Employers can be sure that a job applicant who comes to their door is ready to work and ready to learn job-specific technical skills.

New workers, returning workers, and transitioning workers of any age, from any background, can feel confident that they are prepared to meet the challenges ahead.

Workforce Investment Boards can define a clear set of results they expect from education and training vendors in the system.

Education and training programs and curriculum developers can design courses of instruction that are intended to prepare adult students to qualify for this credential, in the same way that courses of instruction are now designed to prepare adults to pass the GED.

One Stop Centers can accurately assess the readiness of jobseekers for employment.

The goal is to have the EFF Work Readiness Credential completed by early 2005. This Credential should provide an important tool for both employers and jobseekers, by providing a valid and reliable signal that jobseekers have mastered the knowledge and skills necessary to be work ready.