The Texas Adult Education Content Standards & Benchmarks

The Texas Content Standards and Work Readiness:
Are We There Yet?

While many heads are still spinning in the aftermath of the summer’s statewide effort to bring content standards and benchmarks to every nook and cranny in adult basic education, a few whose heads have stopped spinning have posed yet another critical question: Do the standards and benchmarks address what adult learners need to know and be able to do in the 21st century workplace? Excellent question! Now for some answers:

1. The five content standards Texas adopted from the Equipped for the Future (EFF) Content Standards are:

• Speak So Others Can Understand
• Listen Actively
• Read With Understanding
• Convey Ideas in Writing
• Use Math to Solve Problems and Communicate

2. EFF’s standards were developed to map out what adults need to know and be able to do to fulfill their roles as parents, community members, and workers. For the worker role, EFF did not replicate specific occupational skills standards already developed by many industry sectors, but instead focused on identifying the key underlying characteristics of a successful worker across many different work contexts, regardless of industry sector. It is easy to see how important the five standards listed in #1 can be in the workplace.

3. The complete set of EFF standards number sixteen and include four fundamental categories of skills adults need in order to carry out key activities central to their primary roles. These same categories are key to what we know is needed in the workplace:

Communication Skills

• Read With Understanding
• Convey Ideas in Writing
• Speak So Others Can Understand
• Listen Actively
• Observe Critically

Decision-Making Skills

• Solve Problems and Make Decisions
• Plan
• Use Math to Solve Problems and Communicate

Interpersonal Skills

• Cooperate With Others
• Guide Others
• Advocate and Influence
• Resolve Conflict and Negotiate

Lifelong Learning Skills

• Take Responsibility for Learning
• Learn Through Research
• Reflect and Evaluate
• Use Information and Communications Technology

4. The EFF Standards that serve as the springboard for the development of the Texas Content Standards for Adult Basic Education also serve as the foundation for the National Work Readiness Credential (www.workreadiness.com), which describes the knowledge, skills, and abilities critical to successful employment. So again, there is overlap.

5. Before members of the writing teams completed their work last February, they were asked to review the drafted standards and benchmarks with work readiness in mind. A grid was provided to assist team members in identifying matches between the drafted standards and benchmarks and the tasks individuals should be able to perform successfully in entry level employment. The teams drew several valuable conclusions:

• The five standards chosen as the foundation for the Texas content standards could be viewed collectively as an “umbrella” under which many of the desirable work readiness skills, knowledge, and abilities can be grouped. However, they also concluded that a number of the benchmarks and learning activities stopped short of adequately addressing some of the critical work readiness skills and tasks.
• The teams identified “gaps,” suggesting that there were not enough explicit work-related statements embedded in the benchmarks and learning activities, particularly in the following areas:
• Use information and communications technology (lifelong learning)
• Guide others, resolve conflict, negotiate, and cooperate with others (interpersonal skills)
• Solve problems and make decisions (decision-making skills)
• The teams suggested that additional learning examples related to work readiness be developed for both ESL and ABE/ASE, and that the feasibility of adding another standard or two to address any remaining gaps be considered.

So what happens next? Texas has several options:

1. A small writing team can be assembled to revisit the standards, benchmarks, and learning activities with work readiness in mind. This team would be made up of individuals familiar with the process of the past three years as well as individuals engaged in delivering workforce related instruction. This team would also include persons involved in the development of industry-related curricular responses to Rider 82.

2. The content standards and benchmarks remain the same, but this team, with TCALL’s support, solicits from field practitioners as well as participants in training sessions conducted by GREAT Centers, additional learning activities with a focus on work readiness.

3. A decision is made to add an additional standard and accompanying benchmarks and learning activities to fill any remaining “gaps.” The assembled writing team would work on this task, using the same already established format, with input and feedback from the field. The new standard(s), benchmarks, and learning activities would be added to those distributed in June 2007.

If instruction is learner-centered, addressing learners’ workforce readiness needs is really nothing more than responding to what learners tell us they need as well as what we know they need to succeed in the world of work. These include adequate language and basic reading, writing, and math skills, employability skills, and familiarity with technology and technical language. Contextual learning, with instruction that draws on a particular context found in the workplace, is a practical response. Professional development can help prepare instructors to incorporate work-related topics into their regular adult education classes, or prepare them to deliver workforce-related instruction sought by local employers for their employees. This can be arranged through your local GREAT Center.

Each adult education program of the fiscal agents funded by TEA has received a CD-ROM that includes two handbooks to assist program administrators and instructional staff in identifying learners’ work-related needs, planning and delivering instruction responsive to those needs, and measuring changes in learners’ work-related performance and behavior. Handbooks # 1 and 2 of Charting a Course are downloadable from the Workforce Partnerships Web page as well. That page can be accessed from both TCALL and Texas LEARNS home page. The modules contain activities and templates, sample learning activities, and inventories for both program staff and learners, and are designed to make work-related applications easy to incorporate into adult basic education. For additional information, you may contact Barbara Tondre at btondre@earthlink.net.

Barbara Tondre-El Zorkani serves as a contractor to Texas LEARNS. To date, she has devoted much of her time to research and development related to workforce-based adult literacy and basic skills program planning, with a focus on English language learners. This year her work will also support transition strategies, linkages to post-secondary education and training, and a work-related project-based learning initiative with three adult education programs. Barbara has worked in adult education and post secondary ESL programs on four continents. She and her family call Austin home.