Narrative Report | National Reporting System

State Leadership Funds (Adult education and family literacy act Section 223 (AEFLA))

Describe how the State has used funds made available under section 223 (State Leadership activities) for each the following:

AEFLA Section 223(1)(a)

Alignment of adult education and literacy activities with other one-stop required partners to implement the strategies in the Unified or Combined State Plan as described in section 223(1)(a)

During the 2021 program year the Adult Education Leadership Team at the Minnesota Department of Education made progress toward alignment with other one-stop partners to implement the strategies in the Minnesota WIOA Combined plan.

Currently, Adult Education is not a voting member of the Governor’s Workforce Development Board (GWDB). State legislation does not list Adult Education as a voting member, but lists the Minnesota Department of Education (MDE). Sometimes this arrangement works well, such as when the individual voting for MDE is connected to the work of adult education. This arrangement does not work as well when the MDE representative prioritizes K12 education and/or is not deeply involved in Adult Education work or strategies. This past year the Adult Education Leadership Team worked with the GWDB staff to propose changes to align state legislation with federal legislation, but the proposals did not pass.

Minnesota Adult Education was represented on the National Governors Association (NGA) Work Based Learning (WBL) team. The work of this team focused on creating recommendations for policy, practice, or cross agency engagement to support increasing equity in WBL experiences. One of the deliverables of this work was the creation of work based resources for employers and educators, found here: www.minnstate.edu/workforce/partnerships/wbl/index.html.

Minnesota is one of few states that has Adult Education data in the Statewide Longitudinal Education Data System (SLEDS) (https://sleds.mn.gov/), which matches student data from pre-kindergarten through completion of postsecondary education and entry into the workforce. Improvements in adding the Adult Education data were worked on this past program year. The purpose of this work is described below:

By bridging existing data with other incoming data a range of education programmatic and delivery questions can be answered to gauge the effectiveness of current programs and design targeted improvement strategies to help students.

SLEDS brings together data from education and workforce to:

Identify the most viable pathways for individuals in achieving successful outcomes in education and work;

Inform decisions to support and improve education and workforce policy and practice, and

Assist in creating a more seamless education and workforce system for all Minnesotans.

The Minnesota P-20 Education Partnership governs the SLEDS system. The project is managed jointly by the Minnesota Office of Higher Education (OHE), Minnesota Department of Education (MDE), and Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development (DEED).

Three workforce briefs were created to help inform partners and employers of Adult Career Pathways, Integrated Education and Training, and Workplace Literacy models. Work with these briefs and the promotion of the models will continue into the following year.

This past program year also included promotion of the conditional work referral between one-stop partners and Adult Education. Many of these referrals focus on offering digital literacy. Several Adult Education programs are offering digital literacy classes at one-stop partner locations.

Minnesota funds 10 transitions regions across the state. The purpose of funding these regions is to build capacity within the Minnesota Adult Education system to transition adult learners to training, postsecondary, or employment. Each region, one of which is the Department of Corrections, has a transitions coordinator who facilitates the development of a transitions regional plan. This plan includes activities that, preferably, are regional in scope so that all adult education providers in the region can benefit from the activities. The funding supports the creation of new curriculum for career focused classes, development of new career pathways, and efforts to connect with employers.

AEFLA Section 223(1)(b)

Establishment or operation of a high-quality professional development programs as described in section 223(1)(b)

State leadership funds were used during 2021–2022 to support one Minnesota Adult Education Leadership Team position (the professional development specialist) to coordinate statewide professional development (PD) activities and assist local adult education program staff in designing and implementing effective PD. In addition, a statewide adult education PD advisory committee convened quarterly to identify key present and future PD needs, develop PD plans and resources, identify and implement best practices in PD, and coordinate and align PD activities for an efficient and effective PD system. This advisory committee has approximately 25 members, including state staff, PD providers, and local adult education instructors and administrators. Statewide professional development activities were also informed by adult education practitioner advisory groups in a number of different areas: Language and Literacy, Numeracy, Adult Career Pathways, Disabilities, Support Services, Distance Learning, Program Administration, Racial Equity, and Volunteer Engagement.

All PD activities were held virtually in 2021–2022 due to the ongoing pandemic. Key events and attendance totals for these are listed below:

Professional Development Event	Number of Events	Attendance Totals
Statewide ABE Summer Institute	1 2-day event	454
ABE Foundations for New Adult Ed Staff Webinar Series	3	72
Statewide Fall Conference	1	196
Statewide Spring Conference	1	192
Adult Language and Literacy Institute (ESL and ABE)	1 2-day event	214
ABE Math Institute	1	62
Integrated Education & Training (IET) Institute	1	57
Support Staff Conference	1	183
Assessment Trainings	18	325
Trainings for volunteers working in ABE programs	113	1344
ABE Volunteer Management Conference	1	74

In addition to these events, PD was provided through several job-embedded virtual activities, including an Evidence-Based Reading Instruction (EBRI) Webinar Series, a Pronunciation Webinar Series, and a new Writing Study Circle.

Most Minnesota adult education programs continued to offer remote and distance education options, and much of the PD offered this year was designed to support high-quality distance learning. Some examples include:

A new statewide Community of Practice focused on HyFlex instruction was launched. Participants met monthly and resources were shared via Google Classroom. Group members also shared lessons learned and HyFlex best practices at training events.
Computer-based and remote NRS testing was supported through virtual trainings, technical assistance, and the bulk purchase and distribution of computer-based test administrations to local providers.
Approximately 100 teachers completed the required training and certification to deliver asynchronous lessons via the Teacher Verification Model.

Minnesota adult education professional development providers and the statewide PD committee continued to share and build their expertise and procedures around virtual PD delivery this year. Feedback on PD activities was consistently positive, and participants found the PD to be engaging, useful, relevant, and well-run. To ensure they were accessible to those who could not attend the live events, most virtual PD events were recorded and archived on the MN ABE PD YouTube Channel (www.youtube.com/channel/UClUrz7VTkCnXb_7wPfh2U1w) for practitioners to view individually or with colleagues.

AEFLA Section 223(1)(c)

Provision of technical assistance to funded eligible providers as described in section 223(1)(c)

Federal state leadership funds are used to support state-level technical assistance and to provide administrative and professional development services necessary to operate the adult education system in Minnesota. These resources helped to provide essential areas of technical assistance, such as: maintaining the Minnesota Adult Education website (www.mnabe.org); providing frequent communication with local program staff through quarterly webinars, fall meetings with adult education managers, spring grant application meetings, and trainings at the annual ABE Summer Institute; providing direct guidance through thousands of individual emails and calls from local program staff; and disseminating a weekly electronic PD newsletter with information about training opportunities, instructional resources, and promising practices.

This year a new administrator professional development advisory team was created to help plan and deliver training and support around program administration. Support included an administrator webinar series that focused on issues such as choosing appropriate learning models, programming and budgeting in a time of uncertainty, and networking around adult education hiring practices. Presenters were local program directors and state adult education staff helped to facilitate discussion and answer questions.

Technical assistance also supports funded eligible providers in the following specific ways:

(1) Developing and disseminating instructional and programmatic practices based on the most rigorous or scientifically valid research available in reading, writing, speaking, mathematics, English language acquisition programs, distance education, and staff training. The Adult Education Leadership Team is focusing on increasing the capacity of instructors and programs to provide quality instruction in the areas of reading, writing, speaking, mathematics, English language acquisition, and distance education via implementation of PD activities and associated technical assistance such as: support to programs using the Student Achievement in Reading (STAR) model; Evidence-Based Reading Instruction webinars and online courses; annual Language and Literacy Institute; Adult English as a Second Language (ESL) Study Circles; participation in the Minnesota Teachers of Mathematics Conference; Minnesota distance learning website (www.literacymn.org/distancelearning); Distance and Blended Learning Basics online course; and online resource libraries in the areas of Academic, Career, and Employability Skills (ACES), adult career pathways, adult diploma/high school equivalency, adult education staff orientation, College and Career Readiness standards, cultural competency, ESL, numeracy, project-based learning, reading, science, social studies and civics, and writing. These online resource libraries can be found at https://atlasabe.org/resources/.

(2) Fulfilling their role to provide access to employment, education, and training services as required one-stop partners. Eligible providers work closely with their one-stop partners and understand the roles each partner plays in supporting the client. Referrals and co-enrollment are encouraged. Co-enrollment is highest between adult education and the WIOA youth program. Several eligible providers have been in the process of trying to shift the delivery of Integrated Education and Training (IET) to online coursework. This would make the IET approach more accessible for many individuals. Technical assistance and PD focusing on IET is a growing priority; two IET trainings shared practices and discussed the possibility of moving to a regional model. In addition, four meetings were held with the state team and the Adult Education field to discuss the logistics of offering online statewide training courses. The Minnesota Adult Education Leadership Team decided to pilot statewide online training courses in 2021–2022. Best practices were shared via webinars with the field on building pathways to employment and how to work with some of the employers. Initially, these have been entry level jobs for newcomers, and the engagement with employers is a practice we will continue to highlight.

(3) Using technology to improve program effectiveness through training and technical assistance focused on preparing instructors and program administrators to identify and utilize technology to enhance instruction, programming, and distance education. The Minnesota Department of Education Adult Education Leadership Team contracted with Literacy Minnesota to provide professional development and technical assistance in the areas of educational technology, digital literacy, and distance learning. In 2021–2022, the Minnesota Adult Education Technology & Distance Learning Team led 43 training webinars with 1,343 participants attending. Trainings focused on a wide variety of topics, including distance learning best practices, educational technology tools, the use of distance learning platforms, and the Teacher Verification Model. In addition, two webinar series focused on technology and distance learning were offered in 2021–2022:

Google Workspace Webinar Series. Training on using Google Slides, Sites, and Classroom to support adult education instruction and programming
Teaching Online: Support and Idea Swap Sessions. Coaching and support for instructors around distance learning instructional challenges

Two self-paced online courses were also offered to support effective distance education: Distance and Blended Learning Basics for Minnesota Adult Education and Using an LMS to Build Teacher-Created Distance Learning Courses.

More information about Minnesota Adult Education distance learning current training and resources can be found at: www.literacymn.org/distancelearning.

Finally, other training and technical assistance focused on the effective use of the statewide data system to maintain accurate student data and continuously improve programming. This support was offered through online synchronous and asynchronous training.

AEFLA Section 223(1)(d)

Monitoring and evaluation of the quality and improvement of adult education activities as described in section 223(1)(d)

The state Adult Education Leadership Team monitored the quality of adult education activities through the following: ongoing data system development and training to equip local and state staff to record and monitor adult education data; review of NRS data; expenditure verification via submission of audit-certified expenditure reports; site visits to local adult education programs (in-person and virtual); annual submission of assurances by grantees; and compilation and distribution of the annual “report card,” which ranks programs on several accountability measures including Measurable Skill Gains (MSGs) and post-testing rates. In addition, accountability training was provided at the following events: support services conference, ABE summer institute, fall and spring “regional” events, statewide local administrator meetings, quarterly webinars, and other events. Additional details can be found online at: www.mnabe.org/accountability-reporting.

AEFLA Section 223(a)(2)

As applicable, describe how the State has used funds for additional permissible activities described in section 223(a)(2)

Volunteer Training and Support. The Minnesota Department of Education Adult Education Leadership Team continues to collaborate with and provide state leadership resources to Literacy Minnesota (www.literacymn.org) to provide literacy volunteer training and referral for Minnesota adult education programs. That collaboration and support yields a substantial capacity to deliver volunteer tutor training statewide. Literacy Minnesota also supports volunteer tutors through their “Tutor Tip” emails and a wide range of educator resources on their website. Most tutors work in settings where their work supports that of a licensed adult education teacher. Literacy Minnesota provided support and training to adult education teachers, managers, and coordinators on the effective use of volunteers at the annual Volunteer Management Conference and other events throughout the year.

This year Literacy Minnesota expanded access to volunteer training by developing and offering training modules in a live webinar format and as recorded webinars with study guides. Limited in-person training options will also be offered again in 2022–2023.

Distance Learning and Digital Literacy: Building Adults’ Technology Skills. Leadership resources helped Literacy Minnesota ensure that technical assistance and training was available for programs so they can help adult education students access numerous distance learning options through their local adult education providers. Literacy Minnesota also conducted trainings with adult education staff and offered an online course to support the integration of digital literacy skill instruction and assessment of students using the Northstar Digital Literacy Standards and Assessments.

Serving Students with Disabilities. Leadership resources supported the delivery of professional development and technical assistance in the arena of serving adults with disabilities and maintenance of a disabilities support website: https://pandamn.org/. The disabilities service provider also provided training on using Universal Design for Learning principles and strategies to address the varied needs of adult learners.

Performance Data Analysis

Describe how the adult education program performed in the overall assessment of core programs based on the core indicators of performance. Discuss how the assessment was used to improve quality and effectiveness of the funded eligible providers and any plans to further increase performance in future reporting years.

Minnesota Adult Education Performance Results.

WIOA Indicator	FY 2019–2020	FY 2020–2021	FY 2021–2022
Measurable skill gain (MSG)	36.89%	23.01%	30.58%
Employment at second quarter after exit	37.74%	34.25%	36.16%
Employment at fourth quarter after exit	36.46%	35.26%	34.06%
Median quarterly earnings at second quarter after exit	$6,070	$6,188	$6,889
Credential Attainment	13.41%	19.03%	17.13%

Key data points for the Minnesota Adult Education system include:

Adult Education met 2 of 5 WIOA indicator targets: Employment at fourth quarter after exit and median quarterly earnings at second quarter after exit.
Outcomes increased from 2020–2021 to 2021–2022 in WIOA indicators for measurable skill gains, employment at second quarter after exit, and median earnings from 2020–2021 to 2021–2022.
Outcomes declined from 2020–2021 to 2021–2022 in WIOA indicators for employment for fourth quarter after exit and credential attainment. This is likely due to COVID-related disruptions since these indicators most recently reported are measured for calendar year 2020 exited participants.

COVID Impact. COVID has had an ongoing impact on adult education in Minnesota. For the calendar year 2020 exited participants, we see these changes significantly in the currently reported employment at fourth quarter and in the credential attainment WIOA outcomes. Even beyond 2020, adult education programs are shifting their services to provide more Hyflex, hybrid, and virtual options due to adult enrollee expectations and needs. Adult education programs are still experiencing lower enrollees and contact hours compared to pre-COVID. Many programs are struggling to enroll new adult students. Programs are reporting that many potential adult students have barriers to attending in-person classes regularly and want more focused programming that has defined terms and explicitly connects to diploma and career pathways. In addition, adult enrollees are not participating in the same amount of instruction as before COVID. Because of this, enrollee numbers for 2021–2022 are down 26% and contact hours are down nearly 39%, compared to 2019–2020. In response, the Adult Education Leadership Team has been working with Literacy Action Network and Literacy Minnesota to increase marketing resources for adult education programs and supporting program innovations with coaching and technical assistance for local staff, including with distance learning and adult career pathway/IET programming.

Analysis and Action. Both statewide and consortium-level performance data were reviewed and analyzed by the Adult Education Leadership Team in meetings and with providers at the Fall Adult Education Manager Meeting, SPARC (Support Professional Advisory Committee) meetings, and during quarterly meetings with state database staff.

The results are also shared with providers in the state adult education report card and help define program quality expectations in the state grant application and review process. The MSG results and targets are utilized to create benchmarks in the Minnesota Adult Education Statewide Report Card. The state report card and targets can be found online on the Minnesota Adult Education Accountability page (www.mnabe.org/accountability-reporting/performance-targets-results).

The majority of adult education programs have still been proctoring NRS tests using paper forms. The Adult Education Leadership Team continued to focus on building local programs’ use of computer-based tests over the last year. There were more than 13,000 computer-based CASAS and TABE tests from the prior year that were distributed to adult education programs. An additional 9,930 computer-based CASAS and TABE tests were purchased using state adult education funding in June 2022 to distribute to adult education programs. Our state assessment trainers continue to promote and offer training on computer-based testing and remote testing. Many programs are trying computer-based testing, but the providers are facing challenges with remote testing and in using the TABE Online test vouchers before they expire.

The Adult Education Leadership Team utilizes state and local performance data to create and adapt professional development offered, especially with WebChats (quarterly webinars for providers), Adult Education Manager Meetings, database trainings, the SPARC Conference, and other trainings.

Integration with One-stop Partners

Describe how the State eligible agency, as the entity responsible for meeting one-stop requirements under 34 CFR part 463, subpart J, carries out or delegates its required one-stop roles to eligible providers. Describe the applicable career services that are provided in the one-stop system. Describe how infrastructure costs are supported through State and local options.

The MDE Adult Education Leadership Team delegates its one-stop responsibilities to 39 consortia of eligible providers. There are 330 sites across the state that are funded to provide access to adult education and literacy programs and services. Access to career services takes different forms across the state. Several adult education consortia have at least one eligible provider who has placed staff at a CareerForce Center, whereas other consortia choose to train partner staff who are on site at the CareerForce Center. A few centers use technology to provide a direct link to program staff who can provide services. We had tried working on a referral system through the CareerForce website but that was not successful. We are working on more locally driven referrals.

With the exception of the Department of Corrections, all adult education providers offer outreach. All providers offer intake, orientation, and can provide the career service function of initial assessment of skill levels in areas including literacy, numeracy, and English language proficiency. All adult education consortia have had training on workforce preparation and how to build those skills into every class. In addition, Northstar Digital Literacy modules are taught at some CareerForce Centers. The promotion of Bridge to Benefits (http://bridgetobenefits.org/Home2) by adult education programs connects learners to supportive services.

Minnesota is a locally driven state and as such each one-stop operator negotiates infrastructure costs between CareerForce partners. Some adult education programs rent space at a CareerForce Center as their contribution, others provide additional trainings and services as their contribution, and still others cover all assessment costs as their contribution. Infrastructure costs have remained an area of confusion in Minnesota. Members of the Adult Education Leadership Team worked with counterparts at the Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development (DEED) along with the Director of the Minnesota Association of Workforce Boards (MAWB) to review feedback from the federal Department of Labor Employment and Training Administration (DOL-ETA). This work focused on aligning our efforts with DOL-ETA regulations pertaining to Memorandums of Understanding (MOUs) and, in particular, Infrastructure Agreements (IFAs).

Memoranda of Understanding (MOUs) were signed by July 1, 2020, for the 16 local workforce development areas (https://mn.gov/deed/assets/workforce-development-areas_tcm1045-264931.pdf). New MOUs are due December 30, 2022.

Each local board has an adult education representative. This individual represents all the eligible adult education providers within the workforce development area. There are also adult education representatives on committees of some workforce development boards, such as the career pathways and youth committees.

Integrated English Literacy and Civics Education

Describe how the state is using funds under Section 243 to support the following activities under the IELCE program:

IELCE Funds and grants

Describe when your State held a competition [the latest competition] for IELCE program funds and the number of grants awarded by your State to support IELCE programs.

2021–2022 was the last year of the three-year IELCE grant cycle; 14 IELCE grantees were funded for the grant period (nine Local Education Agencies (LEAs) and five Community-Based Organizations (CBOs)). MDE held a competition for the IELCE program funds during the Spring of 2022. The application announcement was made in January with applications due in March; grantees were announced in June. These grantees will be funded for three years. There are 12 grantees with grant amounts ranging from $35,000 to $150,000. Eight of the grantees are LEAs and four are CBOs.

Training activity

Describe your State efforts in meeting the requirement to provide IELCE services in combination with integrated education and training activities;

The Minnesota Adult Education system has traditionally provided strong instruction in English Language Acquisition (ELA), and civics. The addition of the Integration Education and Training (IET) approach to ELA and civics has had varied results in Minnesota. Many Adult Education programs have seen success in offering IET in combination with the other components. However, there has been difficulty in offering the IET model with learners who are at beginning and intermediate levels of ELA. The majority of IELCE grantees do not co-enroll learners in training that is funded from sources other than section 243. This is mostly due to the fact that the other training offered cannot usually be offered concurrently with the adult education and workforce preparation components.

IELCE Section 243(c)(1)

Describe how the State is progressing towards program goals of preparing and placing IELCE program participants in unsubsidized employment in in-demand industries and occupations that lead to economic self-sufficiency as described in section 243(c)(1) and discuss any performance results, challenges, and lessons learned from implementing those program goals; and

Progress toward placing IELCE program participants in occupations that lead to economic self-sufficiency has had mixed results. Only one IELCE grantee met their targets written in the grant application. Several grantees mentioned that the numbers written in the grant were written before the pandemic and due to the challenges faced by the pandemic, many were unable to meet those targets. Programs specifically mentioned the following challenges:

Moving back to in-person meetings after almost two years of being online
Many students are already employed and it is difficult to work around so many work schedules (note: Minnesota has had a very low unemployment rate for several years)
Family issues
Extended holidays, including Ramadan
Teacher fatigue
Updating and developing new curriculum
Focusing on long term program development

IELCE Section 243(c)(2)

Describe how the State is progressing towards program goals of ensuring that IELCE program activities are integrated with the local workforce development system and its functions as described in section 243(c)(2) and discuss any performance results, challenges, and lessons learned from implementing those program goals.

All IELCE applications are reviewed by their Local Workforce Development Board and the feedback from the board is taken into consideration. Applicants are expected to align the training to a career or industry that is in-demand in their local area. We ask that providers work with their local one-stop partners to help place and support participants. In addition, a member of the state Adult Education Leadership Team attends a monthly meeting with workforce partners and provides updates on the IELCE grant activities, among other updates.

Adult Education Standards

If your State has adopted new challenging K-12 standards under title I of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965, as amended, describe how your Adult Education content standards are aligned with those K-12 standards.

Minnesota has adopted three sets of content standards for Adult Education: 1) the College and Career Readiness Standards for Adult Education (CCRS) for English Language Arts/Literacy and Mathematics; 2) the Minnesota ACES Transitions Integration Framework (TIF) (available at https://atlasabe.org/key-activities/aces/) for professional or “soft skills”; and 3) the Northstar Digital Literacy Standards (available at www.digitalliteracyassessment.org) for digital literacy skills.

Minnesota has adopted the English Language Arts Common Core State Standards for K-12. While the Minnesota K-12 Mathematics standards were developed prior to the Common Core and were being revised during 2021–2022, it was determined that they have a strong alignment with the Common Core. The College and Career Readiness Standards for Adult Education being used in Minnesota Adult Education instruction are drawn from the Common Core State Standards, and therefore have strong alignment with the Minnesota K-12 standards.

Optional – Describe implementation efforts, challenges, and any lessons learned

When Minnesota adult education consortia submit documentation for the state funding reauthorization process, they must provide an instructional program description which indicates how each of their courses is aligned to Minnesota Adult Education content standards. In addition, they must submit a content standards implementation plan and provide evidence of standards integration to date.

Extensive professional development opportunities support the implementation of content standards in Minnesota Adult Education programming. The CCRS Foundations online course provides an introduction to the CCR standards for English Language Arts/Literacy and Mathematics in a self-paced format. Participants can complete the entire course for ELA and/or Mathematics, or access specific topics for a refresher or further practice. This course is a prerequisite requirement for several Minnesota Adult Education professional development activities, including the CCRS Implementation Cohort.

The year-long CCRS Implementation Cohort Training, designed to support implementation of the standards at the local program level, is being delivered on a biennial basis. Program teams participating in the cohort learn to evaluate and improve the CCRS-alignment of lessons, resources, assignments, and instruction. In addition, they develop a multi-year CCRS implementation plan for their program, and provide leadership and training for standards implementation to their colleagues.

Ongoing PD opportunities such as CCRS support webinars, conference sessions, and articles in the weekly PD newsletter provided guidance on and examples of standards-based instruction and resources in virtual instruction. Resources to support individual and program-based PD around the standards were also disseminated via the CCR Standards Resource Library (https://atlasabe.org/resources/ccr-standards/), including a CCRS professional learning community guide, CCRS classroom videos and viewing guides, and CCRS Teacher Workouts (short, focused PD activities).

In June 2021, a team of Minnesota instructional leaders and professional developers participated in the national Standards-in-Action (SIA) 2.0 Training, aimed at equipping educators to support English Language Learners (ELLs) with both English Language Arts and math content. In 2021–2022, this team offered a number of sessions at training events that incorporated SIA 2.0 tools and strategies focused on standards-based instruction for ELLs.

Programs for Corrections Education (AEFLA Section 225)

What was the relative rate of recidivism for criminal offenders served? Please describe the methods and factors used in calculating the rate for this reporting period.

According to the Minnesota Department of Corrections (MN DOC), the state’s adult prison population was 7,833 incarcerated individuals as of July 1, 2022. 96.89% were held in state prisons, and the remaining 3.11% resided either in county jails, a state juvenile facility, or other facilities. Of the new admissions during the year (July 2021–June 2022), 31% were release returns. In 2020, MN DOC calculated that 63% of incarcerated individuals did not return to prison (MN DOC 2020 Performance Report).

MN DOC utilizes the federal recidivism rate calculation, based on a three-year follow up period after release from prison. Minnesota’s rate of recidivism in 2020 was 37%, which is the latest data available. In a 2013 study (“The Effects of Minnesota Prison-Based Educational Programming on Recidivism and Employment,” Duwe and Clark), obtaining secondary credentials helped incarcerated individuals enter postsecondary education and gain employment, but diplomas alone were not the primary factor to reduce recidivism. The study found that “obtaining a [diploma] in prison significantly increased the odds of securing post-release employment by 59%” (3). Post-release employment data show that 60% of incarcerated individuals who earned diplomas in prison found employment within the first two years versus 50% in the comparison group. Earning a diploma is also critical as a prerequisite to postsecondary education. Obtaining postsecondary credentials in corrections resulted in reduced recidivism, higher numbers of hours worked, and increased wages (3). Obtaining a postsecondary credential reduced rearrest by 14%, reconviction by 16%, and new offense reincarceration by 24%. The employment rate for incarcerated individuals who earned post-secondary degrees (71%) was slightly higher than that of the prisoners in the comparison group (68%) (3). The study was completed with incarcerated individuals released in 2007 and 2008, which gives enough time to determine meaningful outcomes post-release. For learners served in corrections systems during this program year, it is difficult to determine recidivism rates as many are still incarcerated and others have been released only recently.

Approximately 20% of people in corrections in Minnesota do not have a secondary credential. Between July 1, 2021 and June 30, 2022 enrollees in corrections adult education programs generated 395,246.5 contact hours, and 23% of correctional students achieved a measurable skill gain. While adult education contact hours had dropped significantly (40%) between 2019–2020 and 2020–2021, with the decline attributed to the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, MN DOC realized a slight (7%) increase in adult education contact hours between 2020–2021 and 2021–2022. However, contact hours were still down 35% when compared to 2019–2020.

MN DOC has an education-first policy, which means individuals who do not have a secondary credential (a high school diploma or high school equivalency diploma) are required to enroll in adult education and achieve a secondary credential through one of three options: High School Equivalency (i.e. GED) diploma, credit-based high school diploma, or Standard Adult High School diploma. Once learners complete a secondary credential, they are eligible for work assignments within the facility and/or to enroll into a post-secondary (career technical or credit-based) program. MN DOC is currently working to increase concurrent enrollment options for its population.

Sixty-two (62) Standard Adult High School Diplomas and thirteen (13) credit-based high school diplomas were earned by adult education students in Minnesota correctional facilities from July 2021–June 2022. Adult education students in Minnesota’s correctional facilities also performed well on the GED exam test battery, with 164 test-based high school equivalency diplomas issued in 2021–2022. From July 1, 2021–June 30, 2022, the GED pass rate for Minnesota testers in corrections was 81%. Adult education programming and assessment continued to be impacted by COVID-19 related restrictions throughout the program year.

Education within the Minnesota Department of Corrections is based on a vision of inclusive excellence. MN DOC’s intensive educational and training programs provide the opportunity for individuals to bridge into postsecondary career pathways options. MN DOC also offers mental health services and other support services to facilitate stability. These policies and strategies promote a robust system of adult education within Minnesota prisons. MN DOC funds their adult education program with state and federal adult education funding and supplemental corrections funding.

Narrative Report for Minnesota 2021