Adult Learner Persistence

Adult Learner Persistence, Motivation, and Retention

Retaining adult learners has many components. It begins at registration and orientation sessions. It continues with the creation of a comfortable learning environment with a flexible individual study plan, and facilitators who impart the skills students seek. It is administering progress assessments early on and continuously. It is incorporating higher education as a goal. It is monitoring student attendance. It is helping with transportation, childcare, mental health, legal and family problems and a myriad of other barriers to persistence. But mostly, it is establishing and maintaining a personal relationship with students.

At Austin Learning Academy, our ABE, GED, and ESL classes have achieved 60% retention in the Adult Education Performance Targets for 2005-06. Overall, participants achieved 93% of all targets and objectives. In our ABE/GED program, we had the highest percentage of students finishing their GED ever and we had more than 50% of GED graduates go on to post secondary education and training. In our EL Civics program, approximately 20% of our ESL students will be moving up to ABE classes in the coming year.

We have found it best to have open enrollment with monthly registrations. This keeps classes full by allowing new students to quickly take the places of those who move on to the next level or finish their GED tests. Registrants must sign a contract in order to participate in our program and one of the tenets is that attendance the first week of class is mandatory. Anyone who misses that first week is dropped automatically. We emphasize that dropped students are welcome to register again the next month. It’s difficult, but we see many of those students who are dropped come back the next month and these are often the ones who have the best attendance.

At registration and orientation sessions, we take the time to speak to students personally, asking about their goals, their past education, their interests, their families. Students are given an overview of what they will be covering in class and they set their goals. GED testing information is relayed. The early childhood teacher explains the children’s program. Reduced price bus tickets are made available for sale and car pools are organized. Calendars are set. And we get phone numbers on our student data form- home, work, cell, emergency contact- increasing the possibility of getting in touch with them. Through our collaboration with Austin Community College (ACC), we promote a personal relationship with higher education right from the very beginning by having a special GED to ACC transition counselor at registration to give an overview of transitioning to community college, including applying for financial aid. We set them up for success from our first contact.

When a student misses class, the teacher calls all contact numbers that week and encourages returning to class, even if only through a message. Sometimes the teacher asks another student to call. If a student has a problem, we try to help them through referrals to appropriate agencies. We are also fortunate to have social workers available through various collaborations who can assist students with any situation. Usually, the barriers to participation can be solved through referrals and, in fact, often just knowing someone cares enough to call gets them back in class. All of these calls are noted on each student’s data sheet for tracking purposes.

Even Start programming at Austin Learning Academy helps overcome most of the family-related barriers to persistence. We have early childhood classes on-site while parents are in class. Parenting sessions are held once a week as are Interactive Learning Activities with parent and child. Having classes in public schools gives our families access to free and reduced lunch programs. We also have a monthly family literacy activity combining all learning sites fostering a sense of unity and forging new relationships with other families. Home visits are vital to establishing and maintaining personal relationships with participants. Coming into a student’s home and introducing parent/child literacy activities is an opportunity to form a strong bond between the program and participant.

TABE and BEST assessment is emphasized as a method to help student and instructor see what a student needs to work on and to show progress. Baseline assessments are used to determine individual educational plans. Instructors go through plans with students, reminding them that they are in charge of their education and know best what they need. Progress assessment gives students a sense of what they have accomplished and what they still need to work on. Students are always aware of where they stand in their studies.

Students who are searching for a job come to ALA’s technology lab to search and apply for jobs online, create resumes. Our technology instructor teaches the use of software programs such as Microsoft® WORD, EXCEL, PUBLISHER, and POWER POINT. Through their participation in technology lab, students get the basic computer skills needed for employment.

TEAMS has contributed as well. We use our tables to see what our participants look like, where they come from, identify barriers, determine what kind of progress they are making and what they need to work on. We have designed our program to reflect all of these factors.

Follow up on former students is made easier through the personal relationships with students. We stay in contact with our students and often they call us for advice and help with their own and their families’ education. We share our graduates’ contact information with our ACC counselor to continue to encourage them to access higher education opportunities. At ALA, we know our students, they know us, and we all work together to achieve our goals.

Connie Seibert is the Adult Education Coordinator for Austin Learning Academy and has been a teacher of ESL and GED for fifteen years. She is a graduate of UT and is certified in secondary education. She has two children, an old man, and a bunch of cats to keep her busy at home.