Return-Path: <nifl-assessment@literacy.nifl.gov> Received: from literacy (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by literacy.nifl.gov (8.10.2/8.10.2) with SMTP id i2QFvNm09966; Fri, 26 Mar 2004 10:57:23 -0500 (EST) Date: Fri, 26 Mar 2004 10:57:23 -0500 (EST) Message-Id: <200403261556.i2QFuCU09814@literacy.nifl.gov> Errors-To: listowner@literacy.nifl.gov Reply-To: nifl-assessment@literacy.nifl.gov Originator: nifl-assessment@literacy.nifl.gov Sender: nifl-assessment@literacy.nifl.gov Precedence: bulk From: jaleh.behroozi@nifl.gov To: Multiple recipients of list <nifl-assessment@literacy.nifl.gov> Subject: [NIFL-ASSESSMENT:437] Leaving NIFL- a message from Sondra Stein X-Listprocessor-Version: 6.0c -- ListProcessor by Anastasios Kotsikonas Status: O Content-Length: 5516 Lines: 130 Dear Friends and Colleagues: I am writing this letter to let you know that March 31st will be my last day at the National Institute for Literacy. It has been an extraordinary 12 years. I was a strong advocate for the creation of NIFL. When I was invited to join the staff early in 1992 as a special advisor to the first interim director, I felt greatly honored to have the opportunity to help shape the direction of an institution that represented so many hopes and dreams for the literacy field. During the startup period I worked closely with our first Presidentially-appointed Advisory Board (made up of national leaders from across the adult literacy field, including Sharon Darling, Benita Somerfield, Jinx Crouch, and Jon Deveaux), with a wonderful group of colleagues from labor, education, and health and human services representing our Interagency Management Group, and with my dear friend Susan Green, who joined the staff in early 1993. Together we shaped the institute's first initiatives: the center for learning disabilities, and two interagency initiatives, one focused on professional development, the other on accountability and continuous improvement. Soon Jaleh Behroozi joined the staff, to coordinate the design and development of what has become NIFL's LINCS system. We all took seriously the mandate from Congress to be an interagency institution, and to work closely with partners in and out of government to improve the quality and reach of adult and family literacy programs all across the country. This vision of the Institute.s mission was shared by Andy Hartman, our first Director, and the other new program staff who joined the Institute in 1994 -- Carolyn Staley and Alice Johnson. All of us worked to build an institution that could serve as a powerful voice for the literacy field, inspiring and leading a national effort to assure that adults in every part of the country had the opportunity to improve their literacy skills and thus enhance their lives. As part of our effort to strengthen the quality and accountability of the adult literacy system NIFL launched Equipped for the Future - a collaborative, standards-based system reform initiative. And - for me - the rest is history. Working on EFF these past 10 years has been an extraordinary gift and (as my family will tell you) a magnificent obsession. I have had the opportunity to work with a group of dedicated, reflective, and creative educators, researchers, and policymakers - a true community of learners, in whose company I have learned much and grown enormously as an educator and leader. Working together we have accomplished so much. We have developed a set of adult learning standards that define the full range of skills and knowledge that adults need to be successful in their roles as workers, citizens, parents and family members. We have developed and refined a standards-based approach to instruction and assessment that helps teachers focus more sharply on student goals and the skills and knowledge students need to achieve them. We have developed a training certification system that helps states integrate these new tools into their own professional development and program improvement systems. And we have created an assessment framework for the standards that promises to lead to a new generation of assessments that really help us measure what students know and can do. In December, we produced a work readiness profile that will be the basis for our new work readiness assessment tool. And just last month we hosted a meeting of EFF states and assessment publishers to encourage the development of assessments aligned with EFF standards. In 1996 when we began the standards development process we estimated that by 2004 the development work would be completed, and we would be ready to turn our attention to implementation of system reform. Thanks to the commitment and investment of time and resources of all our partners we have actually achieved that ambitious goal. We really do have a set of field-developed, standards-based tools that programs and states can use to improve the quality and results of our adult learning system. I am amazed and exhilarated at what we have accomplished together, and the ways in which these accomplishments have already helped us move forward. I can.t wait to see what's next! While I am leaving NIFL, I'm not quite ready to leave EFF. Next month the states that are partners with NIFL in the creation of an EFF Work Readiness Credential will take over management of the project from NIFL, and they have asked me to continue to work with them until the credential is completed in 2005. I also expect to stay involved in an advisory capacity with the EFF Center for Training and Technical Assistance, which now has a very strong independent base at the Center for Literacy Studies, University of Tennessee. Most of all, I hope to have a little more time to tend to my garden and my husband, to travel for pleasure instead of work, and to take on new projects. I look forward to continuing to work with you. Starting April 1, 2004 you can reach me at my home email sondragay@aol.com <mailto:sondragay@aol.com> or at 202-271-7163. Sincerely, Sondra Sondra Stein, PhD. National Director, Equipped for the Future Senior Research Associate, National Institute for Literacy 1775 I St NW, Suite 730 Washington, DC 20006 Ph: 202-233-2041 Fax: 202-233-2050 www.nifl.gov/lincs/collections/eff/eff.html
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