Professional Development

How Washington state is centering equity and justice in adult education

Adult educators have long looked to Washington State for inspiration. The Washington Integrated Basic Education and Skill Training (I-BEST) remains the Cadillac of Integrated Education & Training (IET) models, replicated in the Accelerated Opportunity initiative and continuing in states across the country. As of July 1, there is yet another reason to admire Washington’s Basic … Continue reading How Washington state is centering equity and justice in adult education

World Education and Seaport Hotel and World Trade Center Partner to Offer English Classes

Thanks to an exciting partnership between World Education and Boston’s Seaport Hotel and World Trade Center, 22 Seaport team members have begun taking ESOL classes through a new workplace education program called English for Seaport Team Members. The classes are the result of the collaborative workplace planning process between World Education and the Seaport Hotel and World … Continue reading World Education and Seaport Hotel and World Trade Center Partner to Offer English Classes

Navigating the Shifting Terrain of Technology in the Classroom

“The button was there and I pushed it. That was an action that will change my professional life.” — Cindy Holden, Vermont Adult Learning This is the comment of one brave participant in the New England Literacy Resource Center’s (NELRC) Technology Integration Project (TIP), a six-month professional development initiative designed to prepare adult educators to … Continue reading Navigating the Shifting Terrain of Technology in the Classroom

You Can Get There From Here: College and Career Navigators

Concerns about the costs of college, financial burdens and the value of postsecondary education surround the discourse about President Obama’s college completion agenda. Additionally, many students, especially adult learners, first generation college goers and other nontraditional college students, arrive at college without adequate academic and personal preparation and, consequently, low persistence rates. The ambitious college … Continue reading You Can Get There From Here: College and Career Navigators

Going Online with Professional Development!

The U.S. Division of World Education is seeing increased use of online courses, webinars, virtual professional learning communities (PLC), and other virtual resources for professional development. How might these resources be used in ways that enhance their effectiveness and assure changes in practice by adult educators? We’d like to share some models and best practices … Continue reading Going Online with Professional Development!

Career Readiness: In Theory and In Practice

Most ABE practitioners would agree that conceptually college and career readiness is critically important for adult learners. In addition to the academic rigor laid out by the newest College and Career Readiness Standards for Adult Education, students will need comportment skills to secure and hold jobs. As we think about how to translate such concepts … Continue reading Career Readiness: In Theory and In Practice

Promising Practices for Adult Student Persistence

Nationwide, almost half of the adults enrolled in adult education classes leave before completing at least one educational level or achieving their goals. Many stop attending due to changing work schedules, lack of reliable child care or transportation, poor health, need to take care of other family members, or just simple exhaustion. Others falter because … Continue reading Promising Practices for Adult Student Persistence

What Good Teachers Already Knew about the CCRS

Several months back, many of us who labor to design professional development in Massachusetts were assuming that the new College and Career Readiness Standards for Adult Education (Pimental 2013) were going to hit our adult basic education (ABE) teachers like a tsunami. Whenever we intoned the new terminology–“instructional shifts,” “the new rigor”– we usually did … Continue reading What Good Teachers Already Knew about the CCRS

Math Professional Development, or Why Invert and Multiply Doesn’t Have Any Staying Power

Invert and multiply. Does this ring a bell? It probably does for most adult education math teachers because this is how we were taught to divide fractions, and this is how many of us still teach this algorithm. Does this approach to teaching fraction division work? For the most part, no, or we wouldn’t be … Continue reading Math Professional Development, or Why Invert and Multiply Doesn’t Have Any Staying Power

Musings on Collaborative Leadership

Effective adult education administrators realize the importance of forging partnerships with other organizations to better meet students’ needs. For example, characteristics of a strong adult education-college partnership include relationships with appropriate people in the college who can advocate for and deliver services to adult students. These partnerships take time to develop and are characterized by … Continue reading Musings on Collaborative Leadership