Special Populations

Your State Adult Education Office:
Accomplishments for the State
in Adult Education for FY 2001-2002

The Adult Education Annual Performance Report the State Office submits to the US Department of Education each year summarizes accomplishments of the State of Texas in Adult Education for the past year. These are accomplishment of objectives listed in the Texas State Plan for federal Adult Education funding and the Workforce Investment Act. Below are some of our accomplishments for the fiscal year 2001-2002. We are proud of what we have accomplished this year. More challenges for the year to come!

Sheila Rosenberg, Ph.D.
Senior Director, Adult and Community Education

*    The publisher for the TABE test conducted regional training for the state in October, 2001 to improve testing procedures and interpretation of TABE results.

*    GED 2002 regional training was conducted to develop a team of 26 trainers for each region. Twenty-five trainings have been conducted throughout the state with 476 teachers trained. These are annual trainings.

*    Health literacy is being promoted across the state and teachers are receiving curriculum support in three areas (preventative, clinical, and navigating the medical system) to incorporate health literacy into existing curricula.

*   Planning in 2001 has taken place for statewide training for learning disabilities in the state developing regional training teams with the assistance of NIFL on learning disabilities strategies, understanding the law, and disabilities awareness.

*    An improved Website has been setup to provide local programs and all adult educators in Texas with links to many national sites for online training, resources, teacher chat rooms, administrator chat rooms, state office information. In 2002 the Website will be synchronized with the developing Texas professional credentialing project for online accreditation.

*    The State Office is piloting for NIFL and ESL/EFF National Retailers Association, industry-specific curriculum for the sales and customer service industry. The curriculum provides a student certificate after completion of 180 hours and an internship with local retailers. Two pilots are occurring in Brownsville and Edinburgh. These pilots will be expanded in the next year to other areas of South Texas and the rest of the state.

*    First annual Adult Education New Directors Institute was held in August for three days. An Even Start Coordinators Institute will join the Adult Education Directors Institute in 2002.

*    State Office staff have been honored by asking to serve for both Even Start and Adult Education programs on various state and national committees and provide presentations to other states on Texas program practices.

*    Piloting a standardized curriculum framework in 16 areas of the state with core competencies and certificates of completion for students for ABE and ESL. It is aligned with TABE for levels for ABE. The curriculum framework will be implemented statewide in the Spring of 2002.

*   Training programs on the use of data inputted into ACES for local program improvement and performance.

*    Improved the navigation and interactivity of ACES for continued user friendliness for the front end user.

*    RFAs are online at the TEA Website for easier access to local programs.

*    Business meetings are held twice a year with Even Start coordinators and Adult Education directors for information sharing and updates from federal or state regulations. The meetings are also for question and answer sessions with the state staff.

*    In 2001, for the first time, Texas funded 19 EL/Civics projects.

*    The State Office continues to build coalitions and infrastructures within the TEA divisions for closer coordination with Even Start legislative mandates and improved local programming and with other state agencies for improved programming in adult learning disabilities at the local level.

Through Families First: Texas Even Start Statewide Family Literacy Initiative/Consortium, the following were accomplished:

* The Families First Consortium was reactivated.
* The Early Childhood Education/Parenting Subcommittee was established.
* Established the Staff Development Subcommittee for Even Start.
* Families First Consortium Planning Subcommittee was formed.
* The State Office piloted the Early Childhood Performance Indicators April 2001. It was approved by the Department of Education on June 30, 2001 and implemented on September 1, 2001.
* Developing the Even Start Program Information Reporting System.
* Provided a TETN for training on Early Childhood Education Indicators of Performance Quality.
* A State Evaluator for the Even Start Program was hired.
* Orientation Training for Independent Evaluators of local Even Start Programs was provided.
* Coordinated on-site visit to Harlandale ISD/AVANCE, Inc. with Federal Even Start Consultants.
* Taylor ISD/Lin Wrinkle co-presented with the Federal Even Start Consultants at the Regional Title I Conference.
* Charlotte Morris and Diboll ISD Superintendent presented at the Texas Association of Superintendent Summer Conference.
* Dr. Ianthia Fisher and Superintendent Jackson presented at the National Chapter I and Title I Conference.
* Invited by RMC to meet with other states on the Even Start Reporting System.
* Conducted a Statewide Survey at the annual Even Start director's meeting to provide feedback on how well the State Office was doing and to identify areas for improvement.
* The Early Childhood Indicators of Performance Quality Guide to assist with the implementation of Indicators was developed.
* Sponsored an Intra-agency meeting with other Title Programs to begin dialog for Intra-agency Consortium.