Hi there Aaron
First of all, for those who don't know me, I've taught adult
education/ESL, GED since 1970: in prisons, in lab settings, in lecture
settings, in multi-level settings, in mixed credit and non-credit
settings, in a comprehensive family literacy setting and less
comprehensive family literacy settings, in workplace settings, in
natural resource settings and in tribal settings. Based upon my
experience and in my opinion, the most important factor in family
literacy programming was/is time for parents and children to work, play,
plan and review together. 

I've had conversations over the years with many of those families and
the children in those families and what they remember was a high
standard for attendance and involvement and playing/working together in
learning.  They carried that dual involvement in learning on through the
high school years.  I see those families in the newspaper now as
volunteers and community leaders. Parents know their children's
interests and advocate for their learning throughout elementary and high
school.  

Quality improvement plans that are well-implemented work well for all
programs, including family literacy.  Processes that link assessment to
instruction are important.
Professional development is important also, and where my early childhood
partner and I formed our bond and began our growth process. 

I think of all the lessons that have transferred to my personal and
professional life the most:  elimination of turf has been the most
useful.  Once ABE can focus on the student/ within that context of that
student's life and goals, turf has no home because it isn't about us, it
is about them. They are adults and they really do know what they need
and where they want to go.  We just have to figure out how to listen.
I've found that in order for collaboration to work one has to eliminate
turf and think of win-win solutions.  That means putting money on the
table and allocating resource from multiple agencies in order to
accomplish the task at hand. It often means someone else gets the
"credit" and more time is spent on planning than most folks include in
schedules.

Best of luck and thanks for asking
Va

-----Original Message-----
From: contentstandards-bounces at nifl.gov
[mailto:contentstandards-bounces at nifl.gov] On Behalf Of Aaron Kohring
Sent: Wednesday, May 17, 2006 12:02 PM
To: The Adult Education Content Standards Discussion List
Subject: [ContentStandards 150] Re: Adult Education and Mobility

Virginia,

Could you share with us your insights into what has made these family 
literacy programs so successful?  Does it have to do with quality 
improvement?  Professional development for instructors & staff?
Standards 
for teaching and assessing?  Other factors?  An integration of these?

Thanks,
Aaron

  At 12:07 PM 5/16/2006 -0700, you wrote:

>Well I think Tom is on the right track here.  I never saw better

learner

>gains than the ones in strongly implemented family literacy programs.

As

>I have tracked those families 16 years later, some of the children have

>had children and guess what: literacy is integrated into the lives of

>all the generations, from computers to internet to involvement in

>schools, playing with children and volunteerism.  We (educators) seem

to

>have a difficult time giving up turf issues and thinking big and whole

>and complete systems.

>

>Our families in adult education are some of the most mobile in the

>nation.  They move often and rarely address all the issues involved in

>this process: stress, school changes, resource allocation, planning,

>budget, etc.

>

>Horay! For life cycle education policy!

>Va

>

>-----Original Message-----

>From: contentstandards-bounces at nifl.gov

>[mailto:contentstandards-bounces at nifl.gov] On Behalf Of Aaron Kohring

>Sent: Tuesday, May 16, 2006 12:08 PM

>To: AE Content Standards

>Subject: [ContentStandards 148] Adult Education and Mobility

>

>Posted on behalf of Tom Sticht.

>

>

>**************************************************************

>May 15, 2006

>

>Adult Literacy Education, Geographical Mobility, and Children's School

>Achievement: Toward A Life Cycles Education Policy

>

>Tom Sticht

>International Consultant in Adult Education

>

>Four decades ago a colleague and I published a paper discussing

>relationships of geographical mobility, dogmatism, anxiety, and age

(The

>Journal of Social Psychology,1966). In surveys with undergraduates in a

>college psychology class, we found that students who reported only 1-3

>changes in residence (average 1.88) scored lower on measures of

>dogmatism

>and anxiety, and were older at the time of their first move (average

7.3

>years) than a high mobility group (7-20, average 10.48 moves) with

first

>time moves at age 2.9 years.

>

>Additional analyses indicated that early age of first move (before age

>5)

>was more related to anxiety while numbers of moves were more associated

>with the cognitive/personality variable of dogmatism, i.e., a

resistance

>to

>change in a belief system. Additional research in the 1960s and earlier

>also

>pointed to the idea that more mobile populations have higher rates of

>psychoses, neuroses, psychopathological personalities, and other types

>of

>personality disorders among children and adults.

>

>Forty Years Later

>

>Moving forward forty years, there is a growing body of research showing

>that

>geographical mobility as well as mobility in changing schools is

related

>to

>numerous problems that children have with schools, including lowered

>achievement in learning and higher dropout rates (Hanna Skandera and

>Richard Sousa ,http://www.hooverdigest.org/023/skandera.html, 2002

No.3;

>Virginia Rhodes, Kids on the Move: The Effects of Student Mobility on

>NCLB

>School Accountability Ratings 2005

>http://www.urganedjournal.org/articles/article0020.html)

>

>Recent studies even suggest a significant, positive correlation between

>the

>mobility of students and the schools that are failing to make the grade

>with the No Child Left Behind objectives. One factor that seems likely

>to

>moderate the effects of mobility is the socioeconomic status of the

>children's parents, including the education level of the parents.

Better

>educated parents provide more stabile environments -mentally,

>emotionally,

>and geographically- for children and hence are more likely to reduce

>anxiety levels of children, and promote cognitive/personality traits of

>less dogmatic thinking that welcomes new ideas encountered at school.

>

>Toward a Life Cycles Education Policy

>

>In 1990, International Literacy Year, Barbara McDonald and I wrote a

>UNESCO

>report showing that increasing the education levels of girls and women

>in

>various nations produced positive outcomes of lower fertility rates,

>better

>childbearing, healthier childbirth, better child rearing, and better

>educational achievement.

>

>Given the important influences that an adult's education level plays on

>both

>cognitive and non-cognitive aspects of children's development and

>educational achievement, we need to move from thinking about education

>in

>terms of how it affects just one life cycle, to thinking about how it

>affects multiple life cycles. Attempting to intervene on the lives of

>children alone, even starting at birth, to improve their development

and

>educational achievements is too late. We need to start by thinking

about

>the intergenerational effects that the education of parents can have

not

>only on the ability of the parents to support themselves and their

>children

>better in an economic sense, but also how the parent's increased

>education

>can affect the cognitive and emotional development of their children.

>

>This shift from focusing on how education affects one life cycle to a

>focus

>on how it affects more than one life cycle is what I mean by "life

>cycles"

>education policy. It requires that we recognize that adult literacy

>education is not merely a second chance at education for millions of

>adults. It may well be the first chance for education for millions of

>these

>adult's children.

>

>Thomas G. Sticht

>International Consultant in Adult Education

>2062 Valley View Blvd.

>El Cajon, CA 92019

>Tel/fax: (619) 444-9133

>Email: tsticht at aznet.net

>

>

>

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