Taming the Tiger:
Developing Standards for Texas’ Adult Education Programs

History and Rationale: Since 2001, a number of adult education practitioners in Texas have been hard at work to develop standards that accurately describe what adult learners should know and be able to do as a result of instructional content and delivery, as well as statements of how well learners need to be able to demonstrate levels of proficiency.

Utilizing Florida’s Department of Education Adult Basic Education Curriculum Standards as an example of a framework already in use, those engaged in the Texas initiative have taken their task seriously. With minimal training and little or no guidance during the three years that followed, practitioners were left to their own devices to pilot and then adapt Florida’s standards, and to identify instructional materials responsive to these standards. Consequently, no uniform criteria for measuring the impact and effectiveness of the framework exist.

The culmination of this three year long journey is what is currently referred to as the Texas Standardized Curriculum Framework, or TSCF. Now, with new state leadership in place since the Texas Education Agency closed its state office of adult education a year ago and outsourced these services to Texas LEARNS, practitioners are asking for guidance and direction regarding TSCF:

1. Will TSCF be mandated for use statewide? Will training in the appropriate use of TSCF be provided?
2. How will varying interpretations of TSCF’s use be aligned?
3. Can it be made to be less labor intensive? Does it need to be utilized to guide every program component?
4. What modifications need to be made?
5. Is TSCF sufficiently and effectively responsive to adult education’s mission and goals as well as expectations regarding standards and accountability at both state and federal levels?

Texas LEARNS, now responsible for the administrative oversight of Texas’ adult education programs, has charged the Texas Center for the Advancement of Literacy and Learning (TCALL) at Texas A&M University to conduct a review of efforts across the state to adapt, adopt, and/or implement TSCF. The data gathered in this review is to be presented to a taskforce of adult education practitioners from across the state in July 2004. The task force, consisting of both instructors and program administrators with a working knowledge of TSCF, will be assisted by other key personnel – both in state and out of state - with experience and expertise in standards development as well as the interpretation of policy and procedure at both state and federal levels. TCALL will assist in facilitating the review process.

Issues of standards and accountability are currently of great importance in all educational contexts and at all levels. Joanie Rethlake, state director of Texas LEARNS, is concerned that adult educators in Texas undertake a thorough review of TSCF as well as the anticipated trends in federally funded programs before any decisions regarding further implementation are considered. In determining whether TSCF is an appropriate “fit” with the direction adult education is expected to take in the coming years, some fundamental questions must be answered:

• What has been accomplished to date by adult education programs that piloted the Florida standards and/or the adaptation referred to as TSCF?What evidence is there that adult learners are developing the targeted competencies?
• Is there collective evidence that the use of TSCF has improved instruction and/or increased learner gains?
• Is TSCF responsive to the needs of Texas’s diverse adult learner population?
• Does TSCF take into consideration the gaps in practitioners’ knowledge of sound adult learning theory, second language learning, and workforce-related issues?
• Is there a less cumbersome, more appropriate alternative available to Texas’ adult educators and learners?
• If TSCF or some other standards framework is implemented statewide, how will professional development and the need for continuous improvement be addressed?
• How can instructional resources and technical support be made more readily accessible?
• Does TSCF address the issues documented in A First Look at Critical Issues Surrounding Adult Education and Literacy in Texas (Texas Workforce Investment Council, December 2003)?
• Does TSCF adequately respond to article 5 of Texas Senate Bill 280 requiring the Texas Education Agency (TEA) to collaborate with the Texas Workforce Commission (TWC) in the development of employment-focused curricula?

In April 2004, TCALL initiated the TSCF review by conducting a survey of frontline practitioners (instructors) with a working knowledge of TSCF. In addition, a number of program coordinators/directors instrumental in preparing their staff for the utilization of TSCF, asked to be included or were invited to participate in task force activities. These administrators were provided courtesy copies of the survey.

The survey was designed to gather both qualitative and quantitative data, whenever feasible, from practitioners regarding the following:

1. advantages / disadvantages of TSCF
2. users’ perceptions of how TSCF should be used (to drive, guide, supplement instruction and/or document instruction and learning)
3. its impact on instructional planning and delivery
4. users’ concerns about time and effort
5. availability and/or development of instructional materials responsive to the standards and benchmarks of TSCF.

Practitioners completing the survey were also requested to provide evidence of learner gains, if possible, as well as samples of learning activities used or developed in response to TSCF. Survey results will be aggregated and presented to the taskforce for review.

During the process of identifying and contacting practitioners to participate in the survey and the taskforce, TCALL staff witnessed the emergence of additional concerns from the field. The title itself, for example, Texas Standardized Curriculum Framework, had added confusion to the mix. Ideally, effective curricula are dynamic and structurally designed to respond to the changing needs of learners while still providing solid standards for measuring learner outcomes. But “standardized curriculum” was being interpreted - and just as often resisted - as an inflexible list similar in nature and rigidity to K-12 models.

Standards, when aligned with the descriptors used by the National Reporting System (NRS), can provide a foundation for developing needed curriculum, learning activities, and individualized instruction without being prescriptive. Collectively, these standards can:

• ensure consistency
• assist in meeting state performance measures
• link assessment to curriculum and instruction
• orient new adult education practitioners
• serve as a reference for experienced instructors

The benchmarks in turn can amplify the questions: What do we want the learner to know? Additionally – and perhaps most importantly - what evidence is there that learners are developing the targeted competencies and skills?

Other practitioners seemed to welcome the parameters TSCF offered, convinced that the standards and benchmarks gave their program much needed direction. Still others used only the benchmarks as checklists – not to guide instruction, but to document – after the fact - what had been taught and (hopefully) learned.

Another reality soon became evident during TCALL’s initial communications with adult education practitioners. Left to their own devices, each program participating in the piloting of the Florida standards or the implementation of the Texas adaptation, also created its own format for developing learning activities responsive to the standards and benchmarks. A number of practitioners replicated the Florida lesson plan template. The major concern for some, however, was the weakness of the template’s evaluation section, which often lacked specificity in terms of how evidence of learning could be documented.

In response to this concern, TCALL staff drafted a learning activity template. Practitioners completing the survey were then asked to apply the template to learning activities they had developed or were using, and to provide TCALL staff with feedback on its user-friendly qualities. The feedback will hopefully illustrate that the template accomplishes three things:

• it solicits evidence that a learning activity meets the needs of learners and responds to standards;
• it identifies formal and informal assessments that can be used to document evidence of a learning activity’s effectiveness in promoting student learning; and
• it informs subsequent instructional planning.

A longer range objective of TCALL’s efforts is to develop an online resource guide of resources and materials easily accessible to practitioners across the state. A well-designed, adaptable, and user-friendly learning activities template would ensure uniformity and consistency in responding to whatever set of standards Texas adopts for program use.

Taskforce participants will be asked to focus their attention on questions originally posed by those who developed the Equipped for the Future content standards. Designed to create a working consensus on what the goals of teaching and learning should be, these same questions can guide Texas adult educators’ efforts to deliver educational services that are customer-driven:

• Is TSCF reasonable, useful, and an appropriate tool for guiding teaching and learning in adult literacy and basic skills education?
• Is TSCF appropriate for framing assessment and evidence of learning and reporting learner success and program results?
• What other tools and resources are necessary for teachers and administrators to effectively use TSCF or an alternative to guide teaching and learning?
• Does TSCF help practitioners move toward their goals of more effectively addressing the learning needs of adults coming to their programs? What are the barriers to using TSCF in the classroom? Program wide? Statewide?
• Does TSCF accurately reflect what adult learners need to know and be able to do?
• Is TSCF reflective of a broad consensus?
• Are the standards and benchmarks specific enough to guide both instruction and assessment?
• Are they measurable? Do they define multiple levels of performance for learners to strive toward?
• Are they clearly written for all stakeholders to understand?
• How can such standards be elevated from long lists to useful and usable tools that truly inform instruction on a regular basis?
• Do the standards adequately address the skills and competencies learners need to advance toward educational, vocational, and personal goals?
• What other components of quality adult education programs should be addressed by TSCF (program structure, administration, and planning; curriculum; instruction; recruitment, intake, and orientation; retention and transition; assessment, evaluation, and learner gains; staffing, professional development, and staff evaluation; support services; technology)?

Expectations regarding the taskforce meeting are straightforward if not simple: Texas needs a blueprint to guide its programs, “to assure quality instruction and measurable learner gains, to demonstrate its accountability, and to strengthen investment in the enterprise of adult education” (Stein 2001).

Indeed, there are many excellent programs already accomplishing these objectives. The challenge is to assist all programs in the quest for continuous improvement and appropriate response to the ever-changing demands upon adult education.