The Texas Adult Education Content Standards & Benchmarks

Living and Breathing Standards:
My Journey from the Texas Standardized Curriculum Framework
to Texas Content Standards and Benchmarks

In February 2004, I started working on the Texas Adult Education Standards Project (TAESP) at the Texas Center for the Advancement of Literacy and Learning (TCALL). My job was to assist in the collection of lesson plans from across the state, align them to the Texas Standardized Curriculum Framework (TSCF), and place them on the TCALL website, making them accessible for adult practitioners in Texas. Little did I know what the next three and a half years would have in store for me.

In March of 2004, the TAESP staff conducted a survey to figure out who in the state was using the TSCF, the advantages and disadvantages of using the TSCF, and how adult learners were responding. We quickly found out that one-third of those interviewed liked it, one-third interviewed hated it, and the last one-third looked at it then put it on a shelf and never looked at it again. Table 1 lists the advantages and disadvantages of using the TSCF mentioned by the survey respondents.

Realizing that the TSCF was not used as much as the TAESP staff had anticipated, and did not meet the needs of the learners, a task force met in July of 2004 with those interviewed to discuss the TSCF and standards-based education. Four nationally known experts in standards-based education helped to facilitate this meeting. These experts were Brenda Bell, Roberta McKnight, Heide Spruck Wrigley, and Peggy Suefert. Through discussing standards-based education, many participants started to question whether the TSCF standards were in fact content standards. After several group work sessions, the participants came to the consensus that the TSCF standards were not content standards, rather were a combination of performance standards and competency statements.

Recognizing that the TSCF did not truly provide standards, the TAESP staff asked for suggestions on how to develop adult education standards for Texas. One suggestion was to restructure, revise, and reorganize the TSCF to include content standards, performance standards and competency statements. Another suggestion was to include practitioners and adult learners in the process of standards development and align the standards with National Reporting System (NRS) levels.

Based on the suggestions from both participants and the national experts present at the taskforce meeting, the TAESP staff decided to no longer gather lesson plans and align them to the TSCF. Instead, we would conduct focus group interviews with adult education practitioners and learners to understand how adult education programs viewed standards and to identify learner needs. During the fall of 2004, Dr. Chia-Yin Chen and I drove over 5,000 miles and conducted 22 focus group interviews (13 with adult learners and nine with adult practitioners) in 12 cities in Texas. In total, 96 adult learners enrolled in adult education programs and 75 adult education practitioners were interviewed. Several of the interviews I conducted in Spanish.

After driving 5,000 miles and seeing how beautiful this state of ours really is, the TAESP staff found that the data we collected was similar to the data collected by Equipped for the Future (EFF) (http://eff.cls.utk.edu). In 2000, EFF published 16 content standards that help prepare adults in adult education programs to become proficient family members, workers, and citizens. They developed these content standards from a national survey conducted in 1994 with over 1,500 adult learners, including some in Texas. They wanted to find out what adults needed to know to become literate in all facets of their lives both publicly and privately. They found that adult learners want: 1) to learn foundation skills such as reading, writing, mathematics, speaking, science, and listening; 2) to learn interpersonal skills such as interacting with others; 3) to undergo personal development such as their attitude about themselves and towards others; and 4) to exercise academic and personal (experiential) knowledge. These findings were similar to the findings the TAESP staff collected from its statewide focus group interviews.

In April 2005, the TAESP staff presented our findings to those involved in the July 2004 taskforce meeting and the adult education practitioners that participated in focus group interviews. At the end of the meeting, it was decided by everyone in attendance that Texas would adopt five of the 16 EFF Content Standards (Read with Understanding, Convey Ideas in Writing, Use Math to Solve problems and Communicate, Speak So Others Can Understand, and Listen Actively) and have adult practitioners from the state write benchmarks for each of the standards.

Since the decision to adopt the EFF standards and write benchmarks for each of the standards, I have worked closely with the writing team members and have collected and analyzed the data from two statewide field tests of the standards. This project has evolved right in front of my eyes, similar to the way the standards and benchmarks have evolved. I never would have guessed that when I accepted this job over three years ago, I would have been so lucky to be a part of such an important initiative.