A couple of weeks ago, I caught the end of a short interview CNN had with
the president of ETS. He gave a brief overview of the study's findings and
even spoke about the fact that there are currently millions of adults who
lack basic literacy skills, including numeracy and computer skills, and that
the number will continue to increase if something is not done quickly to
stop it. The reporter was shocked at the number of adults he quoted who have
low literacy skills and asked him his opinion about how to quickly solve
this issue. His answer: put more funding in K-12 education.
I'll admit that I only caught the last bit of this interview, but it seemed
to me that the stats that were quoted laid a pretty solid foundation for
increased funding for adult education, but nothing was ever mentioned about
providing financial support for increasing the literacy skills of the adults
he was talking about. I wasn't so much shocked or surprised that adult ed.
was left out in his solution as I was irritated. And then I thought of
several questions...
I know very little about funding for adult basic education, except that
there is often very little provided for it, and I'm wondering if this guy's
solution for increasing literacy skills in adults by providing more funding
for K-12 ed. (instead of adult ed.) is an example of how adult ed. gets
overlooked, or if I just misunderstood something.
Is adult basic education an often overlooked area when it comes to "
boost[ing] the literacy levels of the population as a whole?" Is getting
funding for adult basic education really difficult? If so, why? What are the
reasons given? 
And, if it is the case (that the field is often overlooked as a solution and
it is hard to get funding), I am sure there are some people in this field
are doing things and/or talking about how to change this. What sort of
things have been done, are being done, or should be done to change this?
If any of you could provide answers to any of these questions or provide
resources where I could find the answers, that would be great.
Thanks, 
Ryan


On 2/18/07 9:53 PM, "Daphne Greenberg" <alcdgg at langate.gsu.edu> wrote:


> A cross post from AAACE-NLA list by David Rosen:


A new report from ETS's

> Policy Information Center, _America's Perfect  

Storm: Three Forces Changing

> Our Nation's Future_ by Irwin Kirsch,  

Henry Braun, and
Kentaro Yamamoto of

> ETS, and Andrew Sum of Northeastern University,  

"looks at the convergence of

> three powerful sociological and  

economical forces that are changing our

> nation's future:

    * substantial disparities in skill levels (reading and

> math)

    * seismic economic changes (widening wage gaps)
    * sweeping

> demographic shifts (less education, lower skills)"





>From the Report:


"If we

> continue on our current course, however, it is

likely that our nation will

> gradually lose ground in

relation to other countries, becoming more

> divided

both socially and economically in the process....
If we are unable to

> substantially close the existing

skill gaps among racial/ethnic groups and

> substantially

boost the literacy levels of the population as a

> whole,

demographic forces will result in a U.S. population in
2030 with tens

> of millions of adults unable to meet the

requirements of the new economy.

> Moreover, a sub-

stantial proportion of those adults will be members

> of

disadvantaged minority groups who will likelycon-
sider themselves outside

> the economic mainstream.

Clearly, this is not the preferable direction for

> the

nation to be moving."

"...there is a growing need for all individuals

> to

become better educated and more skilled..Individuals
must have a broad set

> of literacy andnumeracy skills

to successfully manage the various aspects of

> their

lives:from planning their careers, to nurturing and
guiding their

> children, to navigating the.health-care

system, to taking more personal

> responsibility for their

financial future.

Why is the current distribution of

> educational attainment

and academic achievement so problematic. ‹quite

> apart

from the large and persistent racial/ethnic gaps? Early
dropouts, as

> well as many holders of high school diplomas

or GEDs, typically lack strong

> foundational skills and the

key noncognitive skills that would enable them to

> benefit

from learning and training experiences later on in life.
In fact, the

> lack of both cognitive and the so-called ³soft.skills²

(e.g., persistence,

> teamwork skills, and communication skills)

makes it more difficult for them to

> obtain and retain

employment, especially for those jobs offering the
potential

> for advancement."


(America's Perfect Storm, Three Forces Changing

> Our

Nation's Economic Future Page 26, ETS http://tinyurl.com/2lyodb )

David

> J. Rosen

djrosen at comcast.net


David J.

> Rosen

djrosen at comcast.net
----------------------------------------------------

> 

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