Adult Learner Persistence

Program Directors Need Professional Development Too!

In the fall of 2004, the director of TCALL, Dr. Dominique Chlup, administered a needs assessment to adult literacy program directors from across the state of Texas. Designed to assess the areas of research needed in the state, the assessment identified learner persistence as one of the key areas.

The needs assessment also revealed that program directors desired professional development targeted at meeting their specific intellectual and professional needs. Program directors indicated that while professional development for teachers addressed how to increase retention, motivation, and engagement in the classroom, directors were not afforded the opportunities to participate in the same types of professional development. Instead, directors signified that their professional development training was often limited in scope and centered on how to fill out correctly administrative forms related to grant and state data procedures.

As a result of the needs assessment findings, the TCALL study formally titled Project Persist: Evaluating Learner Persistence, A Participatory Action Research Study with Texas Adult Education Program Directors was developed. Persistence was already an area of interest for Dr. Chlup as she had worked with Drs. Sondra Cuban and John Comings at the National Center for the Study of Adult Learning and Literacy (NCSALL). She was a research assistant on a portion of their study entitled “One Day I will Make It:” A Study of Adult Student Persistence in Library Literacy Programs.

Before beginning Project Persist, she contacted NCSALL Director John Comings who suggested she work with NCSALL researchers Beth Bingman and Cristine Smith to develop a project for Texas adult education program directors. The project was conceived as being both an opportunity for professional development for the directors and a chance for the directors to review their own data for research purposes to see how the Texas Educating Adults Management System (TEAMS) data could inform the ways they programmatically approached the issue of persistence.

Specifically, it was decided that participants in the study would first participate in a professional development component. This would consist of study circle meetings to discuss the research literature on persistence. Then participants, using this knowledge, would identify and implement at least one strategy designed to increase learners’ persistence in the adult education programs they directed. The difference in retention rates and intensity of student participation would be tracked over time.

Since research indicates that on average adults with low literacy skills need 100 to 150 hours of instruction to make a single grade level gain (Porter, Cuban, Comings, 2005), program directors were interested in documenting their programmatic strategies to see how and if they positively influenced student persistence rates. In general, the purpose of the research was to assess the various kinds of impact retention strategies have on learners’ persistence in Texas adult literacy programs.

The project is currently in the final phase of data collection and hopes to publish a full report of findings in the early part of 2007. Rather than report on findings, the rest of this article will focus on the development and implementation of the project, which was unique in the ways that it sought to work with program directors both from a professional development and a research perspective.

Since professional development was an integral part of the project plan, Dr. Chlup asked TCALL’s Professional Development Specialist Ken Appelt to work with her on the project. For several months, Chlup and Appelt worked with Bingman and Smith to begin implementation of the study. Bingman and Smith were invited to present a workshop on NCSALL research at the January 2005 Texas Association for Literacy and Adult Education (TALAE) meeting.

In December of 2004, Chlup and Appelt used the Texas Administrators listserv moderated by TCALL to invite program directors to participate in an on-going 6-8 month project in which they would have the opportunity to explore more deeply the issues of learner persistence and how they could use results of research on learner persistence to improve persistence in their programs.  We informed program directors that researchers at TCALL would work in conjunction with the researchers at NCSALL who wrote the Study Circle Guide: Learner Persistence in Adult Basic Education (2003). The invitation also explained that the process would involve continued communication via email discussions, plus a limited number of conference calls and/or face-to-face meetings.

Our listserv invitation asked program directors to send us an email reply if they wanted to participate in the project. Fifteen volunteered to participate. They were asked to attend Beth Bingman’s presentation at the January 2005 TALAE conference and to stay after the presentation for a more detailed discussion of the project and the study circle’s meeting schedule.

Bingman’s session, Using Research to Build Evidence-Based Programs, examined findings from four NCSALL research studies and clarified what is meant by “evidence-based practice.” After her initial presentation, participants discussed the research findings and the implications of the research studies for their programs.

When our participant group met following Beth Bingman’s session, the group decided that face-to-face meetings would allow better discussions. Twelve program directors agreed to participate in the study circle. We also found that most were planning to attend the 2005 TESOL annual conference scheduled to begin on March 30th in San Antonio, Texas. We decided that this would be a great opportunity to have our first of the three study circle meetings and informed the participants that two weeks before the meeting TCALL would send a pre-session packet of readings and logistical information about the meeting location.

The NCSALL study circles, developed by its Practitioner Dissemination and Research Network (PDRN), are intended as professional development for practitioners. TCALL worked with Cristine Smith and Beth Bingman to modify the Learner Persistence in Adult Basic Education (2003) study circle guide content to better address the needs of program directors. Some additional newly published readings were added for the program directors’ study circle, and we added activities that asked the directors to examine their program data in terms of retention patterns.

During our first study circle meeting we worked with the participants to set dates for the second and third meetings. The second session would meet on May 26th in San Antonio because that location involved the least amount of travel for our participants. The third session would be held the day before the annual Texas Directors of Adult Education business meeting on August 28th. Study circle meetings are normally scheduled closer together than this; however, we wanted to find meeting times that would allow the maximum number of program directors to participate in all three sessions.

One goal of the third study circle session is generating a list of practical ideas for addressing learner persistence, motivation, and retention to share with others. Because the participants were program directors, many of the suggestions concern program policy changes; there are classroom-oriented suggestions as well. The ideas generated by our program director participants, Suggestions for Improving Learner Persistence (2005), is available on the TCALL Website.

Conducting study circles with program directors is both challenging and rewarding. It was a challenge to find meeting times that would accommodate the extremely busy schedules of program directors; however, they were truly thankful to have the time to examine research findings and discuss the implications for practice with colleagues. Professional development time for administrators almost always focuses on data collection, funding, accountability, state or federal regulations, statewide initiatives, or staff professional development and management. Our participants found the opportunity to discuss research and its implications for their programs energizing.

Study Circles, by design, bring research findings in contact with the knowledge and classroom experiences of the practitioners allowing them to discover practical ways to improve instruction and help students succeed. The vibrant discussions in the TCALL/NCSALL Study Circle for Program Directors drew on many years of experience, not only as program directors, but as classroom teachers as well.

All education programs today are asked to use “evidenced-based” practice. In 2002, Grover Whitehurst, then Assistant Secretary of Educational Research and Improvement at the United States Department of Education, defined evidence-based practice as “the integration of professional wisdom with the best available empirical evidence in making decisions about how to deliver instruction.” Study circles provide a process for this integration to occur.

In our additional resources that follow, you will find a link to an online 30-minute streaming video “Persistence Among Adult Education Students Panel.” This is a good introduction to the research on adult student persistence. Also, the NCSALL Study Circle Guides are a great resource for local program professional development. NCSALL and its PDRN have produced nine different Study Circle Guides covering major areas of NCSALL’s research. There are eight other training guides available including Training Guide: Study Circle Facilitators (2006, July). All can be downloaded from their Web page http://www.ncsall.net/index.php?id=769 If you need more information or assistance in obtaining any of these publications, contact TCALL.

Chlup, D. & Appelt K. (2005, September). Suggestions for improving learner persistence: A list generated by Texas adult education program directors, coordinators, & supervisors who participated in the NCSALL/TCALL study circle meetings on learner persistence. Available from TCALL Web site http://www-tcall.tamu.edu/docs/lrnrpersist05.htm

Porter, K. E., Cuban, S. & Comings, J. P. (2005, January). “One day I will make it:” A study of adult student persistence in library literacy programs. New York, NY: Manpower Demonstration Research Corporation. http://www.mdrc.org/publications/401/full.pdf [Download the Adobe® Acrobat® Reader® to view PDF.]

Smith, C. (2003, December). NCSALL study circle guide: Learner persistence in adult basic education. Boston, MA: National Center for the Study of Adult Learning and Literacy. [Note: This is the earlier version of the Study Circle Guide which we adapted for the NCSALL/TCALL Study Circle Meetings on Learner Persistence for Adult Education Program Directors].

Smith, C. (2006, May). NCSALL study circle guide: Adult Student Persistence. Boston, MA: National Center for the Study of Adult Learning and Literacy. http://www.ncsall.net/?id=896

Bishop, M., & Gibson, G. (1999). Learning circles: do-it-yourself. A guide to preparing your own learning circle material. Retrieved October 17, 2005, from the ERIC database. http://www.eric.ed.gov/ERICDocs/data/ericdocs2/content_
storage_01/0000000b/80/23/81/af.pdf

Comings, J., Parrella, A. & Soricone, L. (2000, March). Helping adults persist: Four supports. Focus on Basics, 4 (A), 1, 3-6. http://www.ncsall.net/?id=332

Comings, J., Parrella, A. & Soricone, L. (1999, December) Persistence Among Adult Basic Education Students in Pre-GED Classes. Boston, MA: National Center for the Study of Adult Learning and Literacy. http://www.ncsall.net/?id=29#12

Kerka, S. (1996). Book groups: Communities of learners. In S. Imel (Ed.), Learning in groups: Exploring fundamental principles, new uses, and emerging opportunities. New Directions for Adult and Continuing Education, 71, 81-90. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass, Inc.

Oliver, L. P. (1992). Study circles: Individual growth through collaborative learning. New Directions for Adult and Continuing Education, 53, 85-97. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass, Inc.

Persistence Among Adult Education Students Panel Video (2006). The National Institute for Literacy (NIFL) and the National Center for the Study of Adult Learning and Literacy (NCSALL) announce the “Persistence Among Adult Education Students Panel,” a 30-minute video that features the NCSALL research on Adult Student Persistence.

Dr. John Comings, principal investigator, presents a working definition of persistence, examines existing research, and describes NCSALL’s three-phase study of the factors that support and inhibit persistence. Other panelists include two practitioners, Kathleen Endaya and Ernest Best. http://www.nifl.gov/nifl/webcasts/persistence/persistence_cast.html

Training Guide: Study Circle Facilitators (2006, July) This training guide was developed to train facilitators to conduct NCSALL study circles. The training uses the topic of reading and focuses on the NCSALL study circle on research-based adult reading instruction. However the training can be adapted to prepare facilitators for NCSALL study circles in general or on another topic. http://www.ncsall.net/?id=1141