> The following message is posted on behalf of Tom Sticht




>

> Colleagues: The following article appears in Reading TODAY, the  

> official

> newspaper of the International Reading Association with a  

> readership of

> some 160,000 worldwide. I hope all of you NIFL list members are  

> planning

> celebrations for the 40th anniversary of the AELS on November 3rd.

> Tom Sticht

>

> Reading TODAY October/November 2006 Vol. 24, No. 2 page

>

> U. S. Adult Education and Literacy System marks milestone

>

> This year marks the 40th anniversary of the Adult Education and  

> Literacy

> System (AELS) in the United States, which continues today as Title  

> 2: The

> Adult Education and Family Literacy Act of the Workforce Investment  

> Act of

> 1998. Over the past four decades, adults have produced some 100  

> million

> enrollments in AELS. Yet establishing the system took years of effort.

>

> A merger of interests.

>

> By the beginning of the 1960s, the adult education community had  

> become

> fragmented into several factions: those seeking recognition for adult

> education as a broad, liberal educational component of the national

> education system; those seeking education for the least educated,  

> least

> literate adults; and those seeking to enhance America’s security and

> increase the industrial productivity of the nation by giving  

> education and

> job training to adults stuck in poverty.

>

> None of these groups, however, was having much success getting adult

> education or adult literacy education implemented in federal  

> legislation.

> Finally, leverage to break the log jam came from the nation’s  

> military. In

> the summer of 1963, a task force on manpower conservation was  

> established

> by the Department of Labor. The task force, led by Daniel Patrick  

> Moynihan,

> set out to understand why so many young men were failing the  

> military’s

> standardized entrance screening exam, the Armed Forces  

> Qualification Test

> (AFQT), and to recommend what might be done to alleviate this problem.

>

> The task force’s report was delivered on January 1, 1964, to President

> Lyndon B. Johnson, who had taken office in November following the

> assassination of John F. Kennedy. The report revealed that one  

> third of the

> young men called for military service did not meet the standards of  

> health

> and education. It went on to recommend methods for using the AFQT to

> identify young adults with remediable problems and to provide them

> services, and it also recommended the enactment of new legislation  

> that

> would provide additional education and training.

>

> In launching his  "Great Society" programs  in May 1964, Johnson  

> argued that

> "The  Great Society rests on abundance and liberty for all. It  

> demands an

> end to poverty and racial injustice, to which we are totally  

> committed in

> our time"

>

> By appealing to "abundance and liberty," Johnson captured the  

> interest of

> those in Congress concerned with employment, productivity, and  

> poverty as

> well as those concerned with national security. In August 1964,  

> Johnson

> signed the Economic Opportunity Act into law. It contained within  

> it Title

> IIB: the Adult Basic Education program.

>

> In 1966, adult educators lobbied to move the Adult Basic Education  

> program

> to the U. S. Office of Education and to change the name to the Adult

> Education Act, broadening its applicability beyond basic education.

> Congress agreed, and, on November 3, 1966, Johnson signed an  

> amendment to

> the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 that  included  

> Title

> III: The Adult Education Act of 1966.

>

> With the passing of the Adult Education Act, the seed from which  

> the AELS

> would grow was finally planted. For 40 years, adults have used the  

> AELS to

> help them find abundance and liberty from the bonds of poverty and

> underemployment for themselves and their families. For tens of  

> millions of

> adults this hope has been fulfilled.

>

> [Note: Most of the foregoing is adapted from " The rise of the Adult

> Education and Literacy System in the United States: 1600-2000" by  

> Thomas

> Sticht, in John Comings,  Barbara Garner, and Cristine Smith  

> (Eds.), The

> annual review of adult learning and literacy (volume 3, pages  

> 10-43). San

> Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 2001.

>

> Thomas G. Sticht

> International Consultant in Adult Education

> El Cajon, California, USA

>

>

>

>


Gail J. Price
Multimedia Specialist
National Center for Family Literacy
325 West Main Street, Suite 300
Louisville, KY 40205

Phone: 502 584-1133, ext. 112
Fax: 502 584-0172


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