Accountability in New York Adult Education Programs
January 14, 2003
The buzzword in education today is “accountability.” Like the other states, New York is responding to the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 (NCLB). According to the U.S. Department of Education (DOE), “This new law contains sweeping changes to the federal government’s role in kindergarten-through-grade-12 education by asking America’s schools to describe their success in terms of what each student accomplishes.”
In the area of adult education, the 1998 Workforce Investment Act defined a similar set of accountability standards. This act established the National Reporting System (NRS) for adult literacy education. Similar to NCLB for K-12 education, NRS requires that New York’s adult literacy programs describe their results in terms of what adult learners accomplish. By requiring states to report on the success of adult literacy programs to the U.S. DOE, NRS effectively established a national accountability system for adult education. Adult literacy education includes programs in reading, writing, and math for undereducated adults and high school dropouts, as well as programs in English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL).
Mark Haskins of the New York State Education Department (NYSED) says that the state is investing $1.5 million in ALIES, a software system developed by the Literacy Assistance Center (LAC), to collect data for NRS reporting. “We chose ALIES because it was the most sophisticated data system available,” says Haskins. “It’s been working for New York City for years. It reports student and program data according to NRS policy and the state’s interpretation of that policy, and it comes with training and technical support.”
One hundred and sixty nine adult literacy programs in New York State are using ALIES for the 2002-2003 fiscal year. These programs range in size from a Literacy Volunteers of America office in Seneca County that serves 20 learners to the New York City Department of Education, which serves over 28,000 adult students.
“We don’t just provide these programs with software,” says Megan Swiderski, associate director of data analysis at the LAC. “We teach people how to use it. Right now adult literacy programs are most interested in meeting state and federal requirements. But once they’ve passed that first hurdle, we’ll show them how to use the data ALIES collects to improve the their educational programs.”
The LAC staff prepared a team of 12 trainers who provided over 25 ALIES training sessions in ALIES throughout New York in September and October. Literacy program staff learned not only how to use the system but also why data and accountability are important to NYSED. Venu Thelakkat, director of data analysis at LAC, points out, “Having one reporting system statewide will help NYSED ensure that adult literacy programs are really accomplishing their goal of helping adults learn to read, write, and speak English.”