In response to Allene Grognet's comments and questions:

 

Allene and I just finished talking about the post she made to the
discussion on standards, and I appreciate her input about Florida's
adult ESOL programs very much.  I hope that other participants in
Florida's standards workshops will send in their comments too.  

 

Allene wrote: "I am a Florida resident, and participated in the
standards setting workshops offered buy Susan Pimentel that Phil
Anderson described. It was an interesting and challenging exercise, but
one which new and part-time teachers would have benefited little from. I
say this because professional development is out next step, and more
than 4 hours of training on standards, no matter how good the training,
with leave teachers angry and bored. I know that it is not enough, but
state implementers have to realize that anything coming from the state
is sacrosanct and will be viewed with suspicion, if not hostility. If
new teachers stick with the program, they will be back for more. If they
quit, we haven't lost that much."

 

Phil's response:  The workshops themselves were set up for a team of 30
adult education experts, not for new and part-time teachers.  The
participants completed an application form that was reviewed by
committee, looking for people who had experience and formal training in
curriculum design for adult education.  The intent of the workshops was
to provide extra training to these experts on specific steps on writing
and implementing standards, with a focus on how to improve Florida's
standards in particular.  The three groups, ABE, ESOL and GED
Preparatory, each had their own report on what they felt should be done
with the standards in their program area.  These experts proved to be a
"dream group" that worked very well together, and had many hundreds of
years of experience (and anecdotes to tell)!  The state's purpose is to
develop a way for these experts to become mentors, coaches, and trainers
for other practitioners in all the regions of the state on what the
standards are for, and how to use them in their local programs.  This
next year, the ad hoc committee on standards will convene to develop the
training modules with these experts.  As Allene says, a four hour or
more training may not the ideal amount of time for new teachers, and it
is not a good idea to expect them to write standards.  While the tasks
for the ad hoc committee on standards have not yet been approved, it is
likely that its members will be asked for input on the design of these
types of training.

 

As for Allene's view on the state's products and initiatives being
"sacrosanct and viewed with suspicion, if not hostility," this is
something that we at Florida's state office are certainly aware of and,
I believe I can honestly say, are giving it our level best to work on
and to mitigate as much as possible.  It does seem that the DOE state
office certainly has a status of its own that individual state staff
members often have little control over from year to year.  And each
state government administration/legislature has unique circumstances
(budget for one) whose decisions make for either positive or negative
impacts on teachers and students, over which state office staff members
sometimes have no control at all.  The greatest positive impact for
adult education programs comes about when local programs and teachers
invite their legislator and his or her staff to visit their programs and
speak to their students.  When students write letters to their
legislator and to the governor about the good things their teacher is
doing for them, this really does make a difference.  We who are employed
by an executive office of the governor cannot lobby except as private
citizens during our non-work hours.  We have seen that Florida
legislators who have introduced bills benefiting adult education
teachers and students were also the same legislators who responded to
invitations by teachers and administrators to visit adult education
classes.  The impact of these visits is hard to measure - they give real
time civics practice to students, they invariably provide a positive
image about the program to the legislators, which can ripple onward to
benefit adult education programs state wide.  

 

Phil

 

CONTACT INFORMATION

Philip Anderson

Adult ESOL Program Specialist

Division of Workforce Education

Florida Department of Education

325 W. Gaines Street, Room 644

Tallahassee, FL  32399

Tel (850) 245-9450

Fax (850) 245-0995
 

Please take a few minutes to provide feedback on the quality of service you received from our staff. The Department of Education values your feedback as a customer. Commissioner of Education Dr. Eric J. Smith is committed to continuously assessing and improving the level and quality of services provided to you.Simply use the link below.  Thank you in advance for completing the survey.
 

http://data.fldoe.org/cs/default.cfm?staff=Philip.Anderson@fldoe.org|15:01:56%20Thu%2019%20Jun%202008
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