Sucess Stories

GREAT Centers on the Road to Success

Professional development (PD) for adult and family literacy providers in the state of Texas has made a giant leap forward with the establishment of the eight Project GREAT Centers. The GREAT Centers are off to a running start in their mission to plan, coordinate, and deliver high-quality training to all adult and family literacy practitioners within the eight new service regions of Texas. Each GREAT Center is charged to plan collaboratively with adult education administrators in its region and customize training to meet that region's needs. The centers have formed advisory boards which include community and Texas Workforce Commission members and have held their first meetings and begun needs assessments for their regions. To increase practitioners' access to training, GREAT Centers are scheduling trainings near the teachers and administrators requesting the training. (For a detailed description of the GREAT Centers' service objectives see "Project GREAT to Provide PD for Texas" by Federico Salas in Literacy Links, Vol. 8, No.1, December 2003.)

Seven of the eight grant recipients were announced at the Texas Association for Literacy and Adult Education (TALAE) conference the last week of January 2004; the West region recipient was announced in March. On March 25, 2004, all eight centers attended the first quarterly meeting with the state office of Adult Education (Texas LEARNS) to coordinate statewide planning and to discuss statewide initiatives and the GREAT Centers' role in training and supporting practitioners during implementation of the initiatives.

One statewide initiative that the GREAT Centers will support is the Texas Adult Education Credential Project. The goal of the project is to establish a standardized sequence of adult education professional development activities that would lead to a credential for Texas adult educators. The GREAT Centers will support the credential project by delivering the required trainings and entering data on the successfully mastered courses into the new CredITS online database designed to track the progress of practitioners as they complete training in the core content areas.(See "Texas Credential Model Update" in Literacy Links, Vol. 8, No.1, December 2003, for an overview of the Credential Model)

To support the GREAT Centers' communication needs, TCALL is hosting websites for each of the GREAT centers. Each regional page has contact information for that center's staff, a calendar of regional trainings and meetings, a service region map, and information about the GREAT Center. You can access your GREAT Center's web page by going to the TCALL home page and clicking on the "GREAT Centers" tab on the left side of the page. Checking your GREAT Center's calendar is the quickest way to find out about upcoming PD opportunities near you.

Project GREAT Centers are also making changes in how courses are delivered. Some of the new course offerings are being designed as multi-session courses spread out over time. Between sessions, participants will have access to mentoring and online discussions as they try to implement their new knowledge and teaching strategies in the classroom. Research has shown that this ongoing support is important and increases the teachers' ability to change their teaching practices. (See "Research-Based Professional Development for Adult Educators" in Literacy Links, Vol. 8, No.3, June 2004 for a report on the recent NCSALL research study on how teachers change).

Project GREAT staff members have attended trainings on the Credential Model, CredITS, BEST Plus, and Texas Curriculum Framework to prepare for upcoming professional development needs. Celebrate the GREAT Centers' early successes (over 200 training sessions have already been held) and plans for the future, with a quick "highlights" tour of the eight regional GREAT Centers:

North began providing training at the end of April, with events in sites such as Van Alstyne, Cleburne, Plano, and Dallas. Using a collaborative approach, the North Center has already served over 70% of the adult education and family literacy programs in the region.

Having already served 717 workshop participants in the east region, the East Center has scheduled more local training events for this fall with each of their adult education cooperatives; a regional conference is also planned for September. East is also making plans to include online courses and distance learning activities to better serve remote programs.

Coastal's Teacher Tool Kits Summer Institute which focuses on student retention was attended by 124 teachers. Three ESL instructors received CELTA scholarships. The Coastal Center provided the ESL and ABE/GED professional development strands at the Houston Literacy Consortium Conference in August. Coastal also launched a multi- session Teacher Action Research Workshop and have planned a Project-Based Learning Institute for late September. "Our dynamic trainers are our most important resource. In a very short time, they have developed excellent Professional Development materials and presented trainings across the Coastal Region," reports Tina Washco, Program Manager.

The Central GREAT Center is beginning to use the virtual meeting software WebMeeting with Central Region adult education programs. WebMeeting participants can view documents, transfer files, demonstrate other software and audio and/or video conference with other participants. Two adult education programs have received Web Meeting training and have received webcams and headset/microphones to participate in videoconferencing. WebMeeting allows team members to participate in meetings from their own computer instead of traveling to meetings.

The widest variety of courses has been offered by this San Antonio based center; 115 sessions have been offered since April in all areas of adult education including Computer Technology and Supervisor and Teacher Aid training. Some courses have been designed for different levels of teaching experience allowing all teachers a challenging experience. Some courses are scheduled from 5:30 p.m. until 8:30 p.m. to provide opportunities for volunteers and tutors as well as others who might not attend daytime classes.

The South region's Advisory Committee members met to identify urgent training needs in their region; program directors then prioritized those needs. Two mini-conferences were planned for August and September in Laredo and Uvalde; the Saturday conferences allow participants to choose one of four courses in the morning and one in the afternoon. South has also made a Training Request Form available on their web page.Three long term PD projects will begin in the fall for Even Start, ESL/EL Civics, and ABE/ GED.

The West Center scheduled several trainings on working with students with disabilities during August even with their delayed start-up. Detailed needs assessments and site visits are planned for early fall. Check their web site calendar for newly scheduled courses through the fall.

Four separate year-long PD projects are being offered starting this fall: New Teacher training, Master Teacher Academy, Project-Based Learning Institute, and the GED Academy. Participants will receive feedback from consultants and peers on an ongoing basis during the courses; they will have the opportunity to share their experiences working with new ideas in the classroom and get suggestions on how to improve on areas of difficulty. Also, three teachers in the Far West region took advantage of their tuition reimbursement program for college courses in adult education; three more have enrolled for the fall semester.

Be sure to check your GREAT Center's regional calendar often to stay informed of the GREAT learning opportunities.