Texas Adult Education Standards Project (TAESP)
Focus Group Interview Findings

by
Lesley Tomaszewski, Don Seaman, Chia-Yin Chen, and Elaine Demps

3. Program needs

While discussing what the adult education practitioners perceived were adult learners needs, they also described their own programs’ needs. These needs were grouped into 3 categories: (1) more classroom space, (2) quality teachers, and (3) counselors.

More classroom space: The adult education practitioners discussed how the lack of classroom space was a major problem for programs. Programs usually did not have enough permanent classrooms for the classes, so adult learners were often times shuffled around the campus. Another problem relating to lack of classroom space was that some programs had to create waiting lists for potential adult learners because they did not have the space.

We have that same issue also. Our classrooms are small, so we can only accommodate so many students. As more students come to register, sometimes they have to be on a waiting list, or they might prefer to come in the daytime, but they have to come at night, or they might prefer to come at night, but we only have space in the day, and so they have to wait, or attend sporadically.

• Quality teachers: Not having enough space was not the only problem facing adult education programs. The lack of quality teachers to teach the students was also a concern. Adult education programs needed individuals who were concerned with the education of the students and dedicated to teaching.

It seems like it’s getting harder and harder to find quality teachers.

• Counselors: Some of the programs discussed how they had recently hired counselors to help with non-academic needs of the students, such as social services. For programs that did not have counselors, they mentioned that at times it would be nice to have someone trained to handle non-academic issues.

Counseling, I mean there’s no funds for that, I know that, but that is a real need. They just need someone to refer them to the places for help. And we do this. We can we have community resource sheets and we have scholarship sheets and where to go for to the medical mission and to the dental clinic and those kinds of things but it’d just be nice to have a person whose job it was to meet all those things.

4. Standards

When the adult education practitioners were asked how they saw standards affecting adult education programs, the practitioners mainly discussed standards in respect to two areas: (1) what standards should contain and (2) what standards should be.

• Standards should contain: When discussing the Texas Curriculum Standardized Framework (TSCF) and comparing it to what they knew of content standards, adult education practitioners discussed that standards should: (1) have transition pieces, (2) be aligned with the National Reporting System (NRS) levels and the Secretary's Commission on Achieving Necessary Skills (SCANS) report, and (3) have teacher and student input.

Have transition pieces: When discussing problems with the present TSCF, adult education practitioners stated how there was no transition from ESL to ABE, ABE to ASE/GED, or GED to post-secondary education. This was problematic when moving students from one content area to another since each content area in the TSCF was formatted differently.

We’re talking transition from GED to college but also transition from ESL to ABE and GED is needed.

Be aligned with NRS and SCANS: Another problem with the TSCF was that it was not aligned with the NRS levels or SCANS. This makes it difficult for the teachers to correlate how their students are performing on the TSCF checklist to the NRS level they need to report on.

I am a firm believer in alignment, just making sure that the standards are aligned with what it is the student’s need, what it is that you are teaching, what it is you are testing. Everything has to fall into a line. I think alignment is important.

Have teacher and student input: One thing that was missing from the TSCF, was the voices from the field of adult education, the adult education practitioners as well as the adult learners.

You need to design something that has some leeway. The teachers need to have some freedom in what they present. The students need to have input of what they’re taught.

• Standards should be: When discussing how the adult education practitioners saw standards being useful to them, they discussed that standards should: (1) be a guide/teacher resource and (2) include assessments and materials.

A guide/teacher resource: Standards should be something that adult education practitioners could use when teaching classes to help guide their teaching. It could act as a resource to help supplement what they were already teaching in their classes.

That is my major concern that I believe it should be a guide, not a checklist. All the things said, I think basically, for our teachers who work 6 hours, and I just can’t imagine putting this on them because 6 hours involves 4 hours of teaching, 1 hour when students are actually there, so how realistic is it? Even for a full time teacher, they are not going to last for 3 hours straight. So my concern is it should be a guide.

Include assessments and materials: Standards should include assessments, which could test the adult learners’ knowledge of the standards and be used throughout the state. The should also include supplemental material, such as lesson plans and activities, to help adult educators teach the standards.

And then I wonder if you have a simpler framework, it can be something where you could actually have lesson plans that teacher can, to go along with it. So it will be great if I had this standard I could just go to the website and here is the whatever, here is the lesson plan that teachers have used to address this particular standard. You know, something that will be very user friendly that I could just pull out and with little amount of time, and actually be able to use to help myself generate ideas and to use it with my students.

DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION

The initial intent of conducting the focus group interviews was to determine the needs of the adult learners in Texas. These needs were to be incorporated into the content standards developed for the Texas. After reviewing the interviews and the data analysis, the TAESP staff realized that: (1) there was a disconnect between how adult learners and adult education practitioners defined ‘needs’, (2) the adult learner and adult education practitioners identified similar adult learners’ needs, (3) there was an overlap between the focus group findings with Equipped for the Future (EFF) codes and SCANS report skills and (4) the responses regarding standards were similar to those received during a survey conducted by the TAESP in Spring 2004 survey.

1. The disconnect between how adult learners and adult education practitioners defined ‘needs’

After analysis of the interviews, there seemed to be a disconnect between how the adult learners and the adult education practitioners defined needs. During the interviews when the adult learners discussed what was needed to be successful community members, parents/family members, and workers, they described how they were successful in these roles. They described the characteristics they used to be successful community members, parents/family members, and workers. They did not discuss what they lacked to be successful. This contrasted with many of the adult education practitioners’ responses, because when discussing adult learner needs, the adult education practitioners discussed what adult learners lacked. They focused on the needs of the adult learners, rather than on what the adult learners had already met.

2. Identified similar adult learners’ needs:

Even though there was a disconnect with how adult learners and adult education practitioners defined and described needs, the knowledge, attitude, and skills for successful life, and the needs of adult learners were similar. Both groups discussed academic knowledge, attitude towards self and academic skills, interpersonal skills, and workforce skills. They also discussed the adult learner needs for support networks, a GED, and jobs. The adult learners discussed more about needing a comfortable learning environment, while the practitioners discussed having basic needs met including transportation and childcare. A reason adult learners might not have discussed this was that they had already had them met and were able to participate in an adult education program. The adult education practitioners might have been discussing those adult learners that they knew had dropped out due to not having their basic needs met.

3. Overlap with Equipped For the Future (EFF) and the SCANS report:

After coding and categorizing the focus group interviews, the TAESP staff reviewed literature related to adult learner needs and standards development. They found some overlap in the focus group findings and the Equipped For the Future (EFF) initial codes and categories and the SCANS reported skills.

Several of the initial codes identified by EFF (Merrifield, 2000) were similar to codes identified by the TAESP staff in the focus group interviews. These similar codes were:

(1) EFF Foundation skills and TAESP Academic skills - both sets of codes included reading, writing, mathematics, speaking, science, and listening.

(2) EFF Interpersonal skills and TAESP Interpersonal skills – both sets of codes included interacting with others.

(3) EFF Personal development and TAESP Attitude - both sets of codes included attitudes, both towards self and towards others.

(4) EFF Knowledge and TAESP Knowledge – both sets of codes included academic and experiential (life) knowledge.

Several of skills discussed in the SCANS report were to codes identified by the TAESP staff in the focus group interviews. These similar codes were:

(1) SCANS Basic skills and TAESP Academic skills - both sets of codes included were reading, writing, mathematics, listening and speaking.

(2) SCANS Personal Qualities and TAESP Attitude - both sets of codes included self-esteem.

(3) SCANS Thinking skills and TEASP Critical thinking – both sets of codes included skills needed for creative thinking, analyzing policies, reading and listening critically, and reasoning.

Finding overlaps between the focus group interviews and the EFF initial codes and the SCANS report helped to establish a link between the adult learner population in Texas and adult learners throughout the nation. This link was critical for the possible transference of the focus group interviews to a larger population. Finding overlaps made a strong case for applying what had already been accomplished by EFF and the SCANS report to the development of content standards in Texas.

4. Similar responses to standards questions:

Only the adult practitioners were asked questions dealing with standards. There were three similarities found between the focus group interviews and a survey conducted by the TAESP staff in Spring 2004. One similarity between what the focus group interview participants said and what was previously reported was that the standards needed to be aligned with some sort of assessment. Last year, many of the survey participants discussed aligning the standards with the BEST or TABE tests, while the interviewed practitioners discussed aligning the standards with NRS levels or the SCANS report. Two other similarities were that the standards should serve as a guideline for teachers to follow and that it should include assessments and materials.

NEXT STEPS

The focus group findings helped to support the previous decision made by the TAESP staff and TX LEARNS that the TSCF would be replaced by new content standards and renamed the Texas Adult Education Standards (TAES). As a result of the findings the content standards will be written by three writing teams, each specializing in a certain content area, English as a Second Language (ESL), Adult Basic Education (ABE) and Adult Secondary Education (ASE/GED). Each team would be made up of adult practitioners from various agencies around the state. The teams would meet in College Station, Texas during Fall 2005 to write the standards with the assistance of three facilitators from other states with pervious experience in standards writing.

Adult education practitioners that participated in the focus group interviews and/or in the July 2004 taskforce workshop were invited to a workshop during April 2005. At this workshop, the findings from the focus group interviews were presented, as well as in depth discussion of what content standards were, and what went into a writing team. The writing team application was also presented at the end of the workshop. The adult education practitioners at the workshop were encouraged to apply, as well as nominate other practitioners they knew of to apply.

After the writing team members have written the standards, they will be piloted at approximately 16 sites throughout Texas during the Spring of 2006. After collecting feedback from the sites, the writing teams will reconvene to review the standards and make changes as needed. It is the hope of the TAESP staff to have the Texas Adult Education Standards available for the adult education field by the fall of 2006.

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