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 iAMFJiQ23395; Mon, 22 Nov 2004 10:19:45 -0500 (EST) Date: Mon, 22 Nov 2004 10:19:45 -0500 (EST) Message-Id: <s1a19240.049@fg-pdx01.pt-home.us.future-gate.com> 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: "Katrina Hinson" <khinson@future-gate.com> To: Multiple recipients of list <nifl-assessment@literacy.nifl.gov> Subject: [NIFL-ASSESSMENT:742] Re: The problem situation (reading X-Listprocessor-Version: 6.0c -- ListProcessor by Anastasios Kotsikonas Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII X-Mailer: Novell GroupWise Internet Agent 6.5.1 Status: O Content-Length: 3182 Lines: 77 I've kind of been just observing this list, listening to the conversation and getting a feel for it before jumping in. I have been looking up the all the information people have provided in various emails over the past few weeks. I found it to be enlightening, and interesting. I have to admit, I was intrigued by the National Standards and Core Curriculum information put forth by Karen. I'm curious now though - are there are such similar standards in the US at all or is it left to each individual state/county/program to define their own standards? IF so, are there any examples anyone can point me to? I've been asking about standards as they relate to Adult Education, both ABE, GED and ESL as well as AHS. The response I keep getting back is that there are absolutely no state/national standards for ABE and ESL; vague ones for GED and state guidelines for AHS. That surprised me. It left me asking alot of questions such as how do you know a program is working if there are no state standards? I got told that they look at retention rates, goal completions from LEIS forms etc...and to me that just doesn't seem to be a complete picture. Am I missing something? Regards Katrina Hinson >>> george.demetrion@lvgh.org 11/22/04 6:57 AM >>> Hi Karen, We have the same thing in the US in a wide divide between policy formation and what our adult literacy scholars and critically-informed practitioners are saying. There's some effort afoot to mediate the breach by linking empirically-based researchers (essentially the neo-positivists) with the insights drawn from "practitioner wisdom." I agree that that's a healthy step (and from a policy perspective, perhaps the best that can be accomplished at this time). Still, the concern remains that critically-informed "practitioner knowledge" and a wide stream of research and theory produced by practically-informed adult literacy scholars over the past 35 years is being marginalized in the process. There are no easy resolutions to this dilemma of which I am aware. At the least this requires of such practitioners and scholars a continued grappling with the issues, seeking out creative spaces of operation, and continued publication of work, however much it parallels or goes against the grain of normative-policy based assumptions. I would qualify your last statement where you say. "it is therefore not accurate to say that any of their ideas has influenced adult literacy work." In the trenches and struggling George Demetrion Literacy practitioner & scholar -----Original Message----- From: nifl-assessment@nifl.gov [mailto:nifl-assessment@nifl.gov] On Behalf Of HthKar@aol.com Sent: Saturday, November 20, 2004 5:41 PM To: Multiple recipients of list Subject: [NIFL-ASSESSMENT:733] Re: The problem situation (reading vs literacy) Re the New Literacy Studies Living as you do in the US, you may not appreciate that few people involved in teaching adults to read and write have ever heard of the writers you mention. A piece of research by the BSA demonstrates this quantitatively. it is therefore not accurate to say that any of their ideas has influenced adult literacy work. Cheers Karen.
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