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)

Minnesota has a Combined WIOA State Plan. The strategies listed in the 2022–23 modification of the plan was an adaptation of the six common elements of career pathways design. Adult education and literacy activities align with this work through several on-going practices.

There are sixteen Local Workforce Development Boards in Minnesota and each one has an Adult Education representative to the board. In addition, there are different adult education representatives that participate in several of the subcommittees of the boards. This past year adult education published three one-page briefs to inform board members of the role Adult Career Pathways, Integrated Education and Training, and Workplace Literacy play in workforce development.

Adult Education does have a representative on the Governor’s Workforce Development Board, the Adult Education Director, who is not a voting member. The voting member is from the Minnesota Department of Education. The Adult Education Director is invited to quarterly WIOA core partner meetings.

Adult Education has traditionally worked closely with our Title I (Adult, Dislocated Worker, and Youth) partners around assessment. Adult Education often provides the academic assessment for Title I clients. Adult Education provides flexibility to meet the needs of both the client and Title 1 partner which means sometimes offering the assessments at a one-stop center, place of business, or adult education center. This also encourages co-enrollment in Title I and II.

The Adult Education Transitions Specialist participates in the Minnesota Association of Workforce Boards (MAWB) Job Seeker Services monthly meetings. During this meeting an adult education update is given along with updates from dislocated worker, youth, adult, Trade Adjustment Assistance (TAA), and employment services. Best practices and resources are shared at the beginning of each meeting. Adult Education encourages and provides support for adult education representatives on the Local Workforce Development Boards to attend two joint meetings with the Governor’s Workforce Development Board and the Local Workforce Development Boards in the summer and winter.

Minnesota has ten transitions regions across the state. The purpose of 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.

In addition to the ongoing practices listed above, there were two other initiatives that happened this past year. One initiative is the Credentials of Value workgroup. This was a multi-agency workgroup whose goals included adopting a single statewide definition of a high-quality credential across education agencies (from early childhood to postsecondary, also known as P-20) and workforce and to better align and connect education with industry needs. There has also been a continuation of an interagency group that focuses on credit for prior learning and dual credit.

The other initiative is implementing Minnesota’s ability-to-benefit state plan. This plan holds promise in helping adult education learners enroll in career and technical education pathways while simultaneously working on a high school diploma or equivalent. There have also been many changes to Developmental Education at Minnesota State that impact adult education learners and their access to college pathways. Much of this work has centered on Multiple Measures, Guided Self-Placement, and the corequisite model.

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 2022–2023 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.

In 2022–2023, professional development was delivered through a combination of in-person and virtual activities. Key events and attendance totals for these are listed below:

Professional Development Event	Number of Events	Attendance Totals	Delivery Format
Statewide ABE Summer Institute	1 2-day event	470	virtual
ABE Foundations for New Adult Ed Staff Webinar Series	3	33	virtual
Fall Regional Trainings	2	97	in-person
Statewide Spring Conference	1	232	virtual
Adult Language and Literacy Institute (ESL and ABE)	1 2-day event	162	in-person
ABE Math Institute	1	115	virtual
Symposium on Partnerships between Developmental Education and ABE	1	126	virtual
Support Staff Conference	1	93	virtual
Assessment Trainings	11	216	virtual
Trainings for volunteers working in ABE programs	119	1740	virtual and in-person
ABE Volunteer Management Conference	1	87	virtual

In addition to these events, PD was provided through several job-embedded virtual activities, including an Evidence-Based Reading Instruction (EBRI) Webinar Series, a CCRS Implementation Cohort, study circles on writing and antiracist praxis, and the pilot of a new Teaching Numeracy to Adults Course.

Several PD activities focused on Integrated Education and Training (IET) were also offered this year. The IET Academy Cohort, which incorporated components of the IET Design Toolkit and coaching, was offered for the first time in fall 2022. In addition, a series of IET Networking webinars enabled practitioners from around the state to exchange ideas and discuss successes and challenges around IET programming, specific to particular career clusters.

Feedback from Minnesota adult education practitioners indicated that there was a demand for both virtual and in-person PD, so Minnesota adult education PD providers worked to offer a variety of delivery models. To ensure that 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, summer and fall monitoring meetings with select adult education providers, 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.

An advisory team of administrators from adult education programs worked with professional developers and state staff to help plan and deliver training and support around program administration. Support included an administrator webinar series that focused on issues such as planning programming and budgeting for the coming year, creative programming solutions, and promising practices around math programming. 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 English Learner Education Conference; participation in the Minnesota Council of 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. This past year two webinars were hosted by MAWB and Adult Education that focused on Memorandums of Understanding and Infrastructure Agreements. There have been some changes to the guidance provided and the webinars were intended to assist in answering many of the questions our office received from local adult education providers. Technical assistance and PD focusing on Integrated Education and Training (IET) is a growing priority. An intensive IET Academy professional development opportunity was offered last year with ongoing technical assistance provided throughout the year.

(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 2022–2023, the Minnesota Adult Education Technology & Distance Learning Team led 29 trainings with 486 participants attending. Trainings focused on a wide variety of topics, including distance learning best practices, educational technology tools, digital literacy instruction, and the use of distance learning platforms. In addition, several job-embedded professional development opportunities focused on technology and distance learning were offered in 2022–2023:

IDEAL 103: Building an EdTech Strategy Toolkit Course Cohort. Training and support for instructors around designing and implementing edtech-based routines with learners.
Teaching Online: Support and Idea Swap Sessions. Coaching and support for instructors around distance learning instructional challenges.
HyFlex Community of Practice. Monthly meetings to support practitioners around instructional and technology considerations in a HyFlex classroom.

Four self-paced online courses were also offered to support effective distance education and digital literacy instruction: Distance and Blended Learning Basics for Minnesota Adult Education, Northstar Digital Literacy Foundations, Using an LMS to Build Teacher-Created Distance Learning Courses, and Get to Know Google Classroom.

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.

Literacy Minnesota continued to offer volunteer training modules in a live webinar format and as recorded webinars with study guides, and in-person training options resumed as well.

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 2020–2021	FY 2021–2022	FY 2022–2023
Measurable skill gain (MSG)	23.01%	30.58%	36.62%
Employment at second quarter after exit	34.25%	36.16%	36.68%
Employment at fourth quarter after exit	35.26%	34.06%	38.98%
Median quarterly earnings at second quarter after exit	$6,188	$6,889	$7,750.50
Credential Attainment	19.03%	17.13%	17.79%

Key data points for the Minnesota Adult Education system include:

Adult Education met 4 of 5 WIOA indicator targets: Measurable skill gain, employment at second quarter after exit, employment at fourth quarter after exit, and median quarterly earnings at second quarter after exit.
Outcomes increased from 2021–2022 to 2022–2023 in all WIOA indicators.

Trends. We are experiencing our second consecutive year of growth in our statewide programming (FY22 increase of 24%; FY23 increase of 17%) with participant outcomes continuing to improve.

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 our Fall WebChat, the Support Services Conference, 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 almost 10,000 computer-based CASAS and TABE tests from the prior year that were distributed to adult education programs. An additional 8,636 computer-based CASAS e-tests were purchased using state adult education funding in June 2023 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. The number of requirements from the WIOA programs made it too long of a form. 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 (one-stop) partners. The focus of the cost is on rent for a classroom or cubicle at a CareerForce Center. 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 were due December 30, 2022; however, there were not any local workforce development boards who met this deadline. DEED, along with MAWB and MDE, is providing technical assistance to help local boards complete their updated MOUs.

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.

The last competition for IELCE program funds was held in Spring 2022. The grants are on a three-year grant cycle so the grants awarded through the latest competition will receive funds for the 2022–2023, 2023–2024, and 2024–2025 program years. 12 IELCE applications were selected to receive funding for the grant period (8 Local Education Agencies (LEAs) and 4 Community-Based Organizations (CBOs)). For more information on each grant please review the grant summaries one-page document (http://mnabe.org/abe-funding-grants/IELcivicsgrants).

Entity	IELCE Grant Amount (SFY24)
Anoka-Hennepin (Metro North ABE)	$150,000.00
Bloomington Public School District (Metro South ABE)	$47,840.22
Hmong Cultural Center	$35,000.00
Hopkins (Adult Options in Education -AOIE)	$121,500.00
International Institute	$150,000.00
Literacy Minnesota	$108,400.00
Mankato	$148,566.00
Minneapolis	$103,340.00
Neighborhood House	$100,000.00
Owatonna	$59,560.00
Saint Paul Public Schools	$85,117.00
South Washington County Schools	$68,039.00

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

Enrollment in the IET portion of IELCE programming has declined. Many providers believe that this is due to Minnesota’s low unemployment rate and that many of the learners who used to attend class are now working. Some programs have been able to transition to workplace literacy programming and are serving learners in the workplace. A challenge has been finding entry level positions in some industries that scaffold into other positions that pay higher wages. Healthcare is one industry that seems to have multiple entry-level pathways, however, other industries either do not have entry level jobs or there is a large gap between entry-level and the next level (IT). This has been challenging. Two additional challenges that have disrupted performance results are teachers leaving their positions and programs struggling to find a replacement. This has been particularly hard on the community based organizations that hold IELCE grants.

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’s K-12 English Language Arts standards have recently been revised and will be implemented in the 2024–25 school year. The Minnesota K-12 Mathematics standards are in the process of being revised and will be implemented in the 2027–28 school year. We have not yet analyzed the alignment of the revised standards to the CCRS for Adult Education. As the K-12 standards are implemented in the upcoming years, we intend to meet with state standards specialists to help us analyze the standards and their alignment to CCRS.

The Minnesota ACES-TIF (Transitions Integration Framework) was first rolled out to MN adult educators in 2013, nearly 10 years ago. Given the changes that have taken place over the past decade, the ACES TIF 2.0 project was undertaken in 2022–2023 to better align ACES-TIF activities and resources with current teaching contexts, technological realities, diversity/equity/inclusion goals, social-emotional learning, and priorities in the field such as IET. These updated resources were shared with adult education practitioners through a series of workshops and webinars, and via the ACES online resource library.

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).

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 8,274 incarcerated individuals as of July 1, 2023. Of the new admissions during the year (July 2022–June 2023), 31.4% were release returns. In 2022, MN DOC calculated that 81% of incarcerated individuals did not return to prison (MN DOC 2022 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 2021 was 34%, which is the latest data available, and the lowest rate during the past five years.

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 13% of people in corrections in Minnesota do not have a secondary credential, as reported on July 1, 2023. Between July 1, 2022, and June 30, 2023, enrollees in corrections adult education programs generated 481,971.5 contact hours, and 32.2% 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 large (17.8%) increase in adult education contact hours between 2021–2022 and 2022–2023. However, contact hours were still down 9% 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.

Eighty-five (85) Standard Adult High School Diplomas and eighteen (18) credit-based high school diplomas were earned by adult education students in Minnesota correctional facilities from July 2022–June 2023. Adult education students in Minnesota’s correctional facilities also performed well on the GED exam test battery, with 230 test-based high school equivalency diplomas issued in 2022–2023.

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 2022