State Leadership Funds (Adult education and family literacy act Section 223 (AEFLA))
AEFLA Section 223(1)(a)
The Workforce Development System Liaison Project, funded under Section 223, provides support to local programs in aligning their services with one-stop and other partners. Areas of focus included reentry support; building strategic partnerships with local workforce board staff, partner staff, and EARN program staff; one-stop referrals and co-enrollment; sector-focused initiatives, including industry partnerships; ESL career pathway progression; and sector strategies. Some examples from 2021-22 are that project staff met with the Director of Outreach and Education for the Pennsylvania Society for Biomedical Research to plan a webinar for adult education program staff around helping adult learners explore biomedical career pathways. Project staff met with a community college administrator and staff to plan a webinar about manufacturing career pathways, including pathways that involve apprenticeships; and project staff met with a community-based organization to assist with career pathway mapping in the allied health sector for their immigrant program.
The Workforce Project also provides support to adult education coalitions to assist in local and regional planning and align programming among workforce development partners in their respective areas. Examples include attendance at the career pathways team meeting with a community college and partners to discuss 2021-22 priorities and goals and digital literacy training opportunities for the region; and the facilitation of a meeting with a county coalition that focused on their memorandum of understanding and edits regarding services.
Goal 5.3 in Pennsylvania’s Combined State Plan is to increase training to front-line staff on available program offerings to allow for informed referrals to services and facilitate serving the holistic needs of the customer. In 2019-20, the Workforce and Technology Projects led an interagency work group that developed an online, on-demand module now being used by one-stop system partners and local boards to cross-train workforce development system staff. A slight increase in student supports and co-enrollment may indicate that these cross-training efforts are helping programs connect adult learners with more supportive services. Development of a second module, which will focus on shared case management among the partners began in 2021-22. As with the first module, this module was developed with input from state staff from PDE’s Division of Adult Education and the Pennsylvania Department of Labor & Industry (L&I) as well as state and local subject matter experts from WIOA core programs. Workforce Project staff facilitated Reentry Resources and Best Practice for Working with Offenders to 55 individuals, including Title II, Title I, county correctional, and other community partner staff. Participants will receive continued follow-up and support for their regional action plan. The project also developed and delivered an Introduction to Working with English Language Learners for IET training partners. Division-required assessment trainings are open to one-stop partner program staff with a dedicated facilitator. In 2021-22, 24 Title I staff were trained. This work supports co-enrollment and helps to ensure accurate assessment data for reporting.
The Workforce Project lead is a member of the Pennsylvania Workforce Development Board’s Career Pathways Committee, advocating for the inclusion of adult education services in career pathways. The state director of adult education participates in several interagency workgroups with WIOA and other program partners. The ongoing participation in these activities has helped adult education be included in state-level planning activities and competitive grant opportunities. The Professional Development System coordinator, who is a PDE employee, participated on an interagency workgroup led by the Governor’s policy office under a grant for the National Governor’s Association Workforce Innovation Network to look at current and future digital skills needs across the commonwealth and take initial steps towards addressing digital literacy transformation. The state plan and recommendations released by the workgroup in August 2022 include increasing foundational digital literacy as an urgent and immediate goal. The document also includes the draft Pennsylvania Digital Literacy Standards for Adult Learners, developed by the Digital Literacy and Distance Education project.
AEFLA Section 223(1)(b)
Pennsylvania’s professional development system (PDS) worked with content experts, online course instructors, and other professional development facilitators to update and develop online and in-person formal professional development activities, focusing on on-demand courses and the use of research-based external and facilitated resources. The system offers a robust selection of professional development options, including the areas specified in section 223(a)(1)(B). All courses had follow-up support built into the instructional design plan and an assigned course coach to provide targeted, specialized assistance to course participants that supported the implementation of new knowledge and skills and change in teaching practice. Course enrollment increased by 24% and course completion remained high at 81% in 2021-22. The use of online, on‐demand staff induction modules and tutor training modules increased sharply at the start of the pandemic, and that increased use has continued into 2021-22.
The core of the PDS is the Professional Learning Opportunities Project (ProLO), which is a team of six consultants. Consultants met with staff at assigned programs for multiple extended virtual visits plus frequent contact via phone, email, and webinar. Consultants helped programs support continuous program improvement through professional learning and provided support for the implementation of standards-aligned lessons and integration of instructional advances into adult education classrooms. All programs had professional learning communities focused on standards implementation. Consultants attended professional learning community meetings at each program to provide feedback and support on the implementation of this model. Consultants also worked with program leadership teams to articulate evidence of teacher and student change and discuss the outcomes of their Program Improvement-Professional Development plans and to talk about evidence to support the outcomes. In 2021-22, the consultants focused more attention on helping in-house professional development specialists to become stronger instructional leaders and assisted them in creating program professional learning communities that had an increased focus on lesson planning and lesson revision.
In addition to individual program professional learning communities, the consultants supported several statewide virtual professional learning communities that focused on College and Career Readiness Standards for Adult Education (CCRS) protocols and digital literacy. They facilitated statewide professional learning communities focused on STAR, ANI, IELCE, ELPs, and family literacy that supported instructors in including digital literacy skills in their lesson plans. Facilitators modeled the teaching of lessons using virtual resources and strategies to help build digital literacy skills. Participants then created their own resources, used them in their classrooms, and shared and reflected on them with peers.
One area of struggle in 2021-22 was professional development for reading instruction. Pennsylvania continued to have a virtual professional learning community for prior STAR participants, but no new programs requested STAR training this year. The PDS reviewed evaluations and found that programs were struggling to implement STAR because their classrooms are different now than they were prior to the pandemic. Classes are not as leveled, and student retention has dropped. To ensure that Pennsylvania continues to offer professional development focused on the essential components of reading, the PDS, with help from subject-matter experts and Pennsylvania’s STAR trainers, revised a course on evidence-based reading strategies and incorporated STAR elements.
In response to the pandemic, the leadership projects worked together to assist programs in improving the quality of services in a remote or hybrid environment. They devised a series of Friday lunchtime webinars that focused on topics such as digital literacy, distance learning, teacher support, and managing data. Although each project took the lead in their areas of expertise, many of the webinars were combined efforts of the system. Topics in 2021-22 focused on best practices and lessons learned during the first year of the pandemic.
The Communications Project is the vehicle for disseminating information to the field. The project maintains the Pennsylvania Adult Education Resources webpage, which features resources developed by the division and PDS or submitted by local programs. Programs access the on-demand CCRS modules via the website. The website saw an 8% increase in visits in 2021-22. The website had two major improvements in 2021-22: the addition of a searchable lesson bank and a searchable database of approved distance learning curricula. Both improvements made it easier for instructors to access high quality CCRS-aligned lessons and curricula. The project also sends out monthly newsletters that provide links to research articles about models and promising practices in adult education and other resources that are relevant to adult educators.
AEFLA Section 223(1)(c)
As discussed in the prior section, the PDS disseminates research-based instructional and programmatic practices through a selection of activities, including facilitated professional learning communities and webinars.
The Workforce Project helps local program staff understand their role as partners in the workforce development system and one-stop centers; connect services to local, regional, and statewide workforce needs; and develop relationships and partnerships with one-stop center staff, local boards, training providers, employers, and other workforce partners to build a system that addresses both worker and employer needs. In 2021-22, this project provided customized technical assistance on themes such as career planning, orientation, and intake services. Examples include supporting English learners with career planning and credentialing, transportation-related career services, and using partner data resources for career exploration and planning. The project also convened a meeting of the Title II local board representatives so they could share promising practices and discuss common challenges. Representatives from 18 of Pennsylvania’s 22 workforce development areas attended. Meetings will continue in 2022-23. The Workforce Project is the PDS content expert in the development of professional learning opportunities related to WIOA, employer engagement, corrections, and postsecondary transitions.
The Digital Literacy and Distance Education Project provides technical assistance to programs in the use of technology and digital skills. The project completed two needs assessments, one for instructors and one for program administrators. The administrators cited the need for structured digital literacy support within the program but indicated that there was a challenge in funding that work. Reinforcing that feedback, the PDS identified local program staff who were assisting colleagues and students in their use of technology and found that they were struggling to provide sufficient assistance. The Digital Literacy and Distance Education project developed a list of the skills necessary for the Digital Literacy Specialist role, which the division required effective in 2022-23. The project will develop support and technical assistance around these skills to improve program capacity to address digital skills needs locally.
AEFLA Section 223(1)(d)
Division advisors monitor program data for issues in real time to assist programs to improve the quality and accuracy of the data that they report and to identify both positive and negative trends. They have frequent conversations with program staff to discuss progress towards meeting contracted enrollment and program performance targets and identify areas for improvement. During these conversations, advisors also gather information about promising practices. In the May 2022 monthly webinar, four local programs shared their practices for using volunteer classroom aides to support instruction and student learning.
In response to the pandemic, state staff developed tools and procedures to conduct fully remote in-depth monitoring reviews in place of onsite monitoring visits. Division advisors use a risk rubric at the beginning of each year to determine which programs will receive a monitoring review. They had used the same rubric for many years and decided to revise it in summer 2021. They updated the rubric to remove items deemed too subjective so that the rubric is based on objective criteria and uses data for decision making. During 2021-22, advisors completed all seven planned monitoring reviews. Based on lessons learned during the reviews, advisors examined every tool used during monitoring and updated and streamlined them. The division will use these redesigned tools in 2022-23. A common theme from monitoring reviews is that programs are struggling to meet the requirements of data collection policies, so advisors will focus on this topic during 2022-23.
Using data for decision-making and for continuous program improvement is an ongoing focus of state leadership activities. The PDS provided technical assistance, training, and support to local programs in the collection, entry, reporting, use, and analysis of program data with the goals of ensuring accurate data and improving program services and student outcomes. To assist both the division and programs with monitoring progress and using data for decision making and program improvement, the MIS Project created and annually updates an Access database template, which is linked to the web-based data collection system. Program staff can produce reports for individual teachers and classes to evaluate the impact of program improvement and professional development activities. The MIS Project produced monthly agency data check reports for program staff and division advisors.
In 2021-22, the MIS Project continued to improve the template to provide relevant data queries for division staff and programs to use. For example, to assist programs in investigating enrollment and retention issues, the project developed a report showing age, ethnicity, entry level, and areas for adults in distance learning activities for the past three program years and a query showing the median number of instructional hours by agency. Another example focused on family literacy programs who were required to reach certain benchmarks in 2021-22. The MIS Project created a summary query that displayed all the required benchmarks and the program’s progress towards meeting those targets. In this way, the division and programs could easily monitor progress and identify which areas were still a challenge.
AEFLA Section 223(a)(2)
- Developed and facilitated a new course: Strategies for Working with Students with Learning Differences
- Contracted with Washington State to offer a new course: Advancing Equity in Adult Education
- Developed Pennsylvania Digital Literacy Standards for Adult Learners
- Developed and delivered two iterations of an IET Design series modeled on OCTAE’s IET Design Camp
Performance Data Analysis
Division advisors reviewed data regularly throughout the year via desk monitoring activities using the Access template described in the prior section. They discussed identified anomalies, errors, and data entry issues from monthly data check reports with program administrators for explanations and resolutions. In addition, advisors studied data trends to detect topics for technical assistance and webinars. For 2021-22, they focused on two areas: enrollment and assessment. Advisors reviewed agencies’ progress toward contracted enrollment, and discussed enrollment strategies and retention methods with program administrators. Examination of participants’ responses to how they learned about programs indicated that programs need to expand their recruitment strategies. Regarding assessment, advisors addressed the use of appropriate assessments for ESL participants and appropriate posttesting timeframes. These results, along with program administrators’ feedback, informed the content of the division’s monthly webinars. The webinars also afforded the opportunity to disseminate programmatic updates to program administrators and other staff.
Overall, Pennsylvania performed better in 2021-22 on enrollment and core outcomes except credential attainment. Pennsylvania enrolled 12,930 participants in adult education and family literacy activities, compared with 10,534 in 2020-21: an increase of 2,396 (22.7%). Corrections education participation more than doubled from 125 in 2020-21 to 323 participants in 2021-22, an increase of 158.4%, rebounding to just over half of the pre-pandemic numbers.
In 2021-22, Pennsylvania’s MSG outcomes improved slightly to 33.76% from 32.85% in 2020-21, but it was well below the target of 45.4%. Among ABE participants, MSG ranged from 26.72-36.44%, with no clear pattern. ESL participants in levels 1-3 at entry had MSG of 40.97-43.2%. MSG declined from 37.48% for ESL level 4 participants to 25.51% for ESL level 6 participants. Overall, ESL students had an MSG outcome of 36.04% compared with 32.0% for ABE students. While ESL students in Pennsylvania have historically had slightly higher MSG outcomes than ABE students, this year’s 4% difference is smaller than the 7% difference in 2020-21. EFL gains via pre- and posttesting make up the great majority of MSG. Table 4a shows that only 7.59% of ABE participants and 3.84% of ESL participants achieved an EFL by entry into postsecondary education after exiting adult education services.
In 2021-22, almost half of ABE participants and 61.1% of ESL participants had both a pre- and posttest. The percentage of pre- and posttested participants who showed an EFL gain increased slightly to 56.99%, higher than in 2020-21 and 2019-20. A slightly larger percentage of ABE students achieved an MSG in 2021-22 (53.61%) than in 2020-21 (51.66%). This performance level was closer to the 55.32% obtained prior to the pandemic. While there was no real difference in the overall percentage of ESL students achieving an MSG in 2021-22 (60.23%) versus 2020-21 (60.51%), it is apparent that more ESL students are achieving an MSG each year. This continued improvement is noteworthy because the proportion of ESL students continues to increase.
In 2021-22, 64.65% of participants had 12 or more hours of distance learning services. More distance learners were ESL participants (69.26%) than ABE (61.1%). Overall, 36.29% of these students had an MSG; 31.54% of ABE participants and 41.75% of ESL participants. These numbers suggest that ESL students’ greater participation in distance learning likely had a positive impact on their outcomes.
2021-22 performance levels on exit-based outcome measures mirrored the lessening impact of COVID into 2021. Pennsylvania was close to meeting its negotiated performance levels of 50.00% for employment outcomes for the second and fourth quarters after exit as actual performance was 48.24% for the second quarter after exit and 46.34% for the fourth quarter after exit. For employment in the second quarter after exit, the actual performance rate was higher than it was in 2020-21 (45.83%), closer to employment percent pre-pandemic (52.36%), and only 1.76% less than the targeted performance level for employment outcomes. The percentage of adults employed in the fourth quarter after exit remained relatively unchanged from last year (46.73%); median wages increased by $910.07 and exceeded the target.
Also noteworthy, the labor force distribution for participants in 2021-22 upon entry barely changed from the previous year. The percent employed increased slightly to 46.3% from 45.3% last year, while the percent unemployed declined from 43.16% to 41.25%. The percent not in the labor force barely increased to 12.37% from 11.45% in 2021-22. Given the upheaval in employment and the workforce resulting from the pandemic, these differences were negligible.
The credential attainment outcome decreased from 36.30% (2020-21) to 16.52% and fell short of the target of 39%. This decline is not surprising. The cohort for the credential attainment outcome reporting in October 2022 was participants who exited in calendar year 2020. Several integrated education and training activities that led to credentials were suspended as a result of the pandemic. Testing centers for both the GED® test and HiSET® exam shut down and were slow to reopen. Finally, enrollment in postsecondary education dropped across the board during the pandemic, and this likely included adult education students who had planned to enroll. There was support for this hypothesis, given that of 89 unique participants who attained a credential, 82 earned a secondary school equivalent and were employed within one year of exit while 14 earned a secondary school equivalent and enrolled in postsecondary education.
Integration with One-stop Partners
PDE delegates the required one-stop roles and responsibilities to local providers. All programs that receive federal Title II funds through an Adult Basic Education Direct Service grant or an Integrated English Literacy and Civics Education Program grant must be one-stop partners and signatories to the MOU and contribute to infrastructure and other costs. The rationale for this decision is that the division requires all funded programs to be full-service providers whose participants can benefit from the one-stop system. The delegation of roles and responsibilities is established in Division Policy G.100 Adult Education and the Workforce Development System, and the roles and responsibilities are summarized in Appendix A of the Adult Education and Family Literacy Guidelines. Both documents are posted on the PDE website. The delegation is also included in the Request for Grant Application documents. The grant application includes a narrative question in which applicants describe how they will meet the roles and responsibilities of a one-stop partner, and the grant award notification letter to successful applicants includes related wording. In local areas with only one adult basic education provider, that provider is the sole Title II partner and must meet all the roles and responsibilities itself. In local areas with more than one adult basic education provider, providers, including subgrantees, must work together to agree on how each agency will be involved and to what extent. Involvement and contributions vary depending on the size of the program and its proximity to a one-stop center.
Division staff review the required roles and responsibilities and provide guidance as needed during monthly webinars with program administrators. All webinars are recorded and posted to the Pennsylvania Adult Education Resources webpage. As described in the state leadership section, the Workforce Project provides technical assistance to local providers in meeting the roles and responsibilities of one-stop partners. The division requires grantees to report infrastructure cost contributions and expenditures on career services in the final expenditure reports. Both grantees and subgrantees report on their activities as one-stop partners through an annual survey. The division also reviews grantees’ success in fulfilling the roles and responsibilities during monitoring reviews; the monitoring tool includes a section on collaboration in which grantees must provide evidence of their activities and services as one-stop system partners, including the MOU, provision of career services, and infrastructure cost contributions.
PDE works with L&I to ensure that each of the 22 local boards has at least one representative from an entity receiving Title II funds. In 2021-22, eleven of the Title II representatives were staff members directly affiliated with an adult education program. Eleven representatives were senior management at entities that receive Title II funds.
In 2021-22, 19 grantees and 8 subgrantees reported providing access to services by having adult education program staff physically located at the one-stop center. At most locations, adult education staff were onsite only part time, and the providers relied on trained partner program staff or direct linkage to ensure access at other times. Three agencies used a combination of training partner program staff and direct linkage. Two reported only training partner program staff. Nine reported only using direct linkage. Agencies reported that staffing issues and funding limitations make providing access during all one-stop hours challenging.
Agencies that depend on trained partners provide annual training plus updates on services at one-stop staff meetings. Several providers reported that all one-stop partner program staff located onsite are cross-trained and able to provide meaningful information on all programs. Other Title II provider agencies also administer Title I or Perkins programs, so those agency staff provide information about Title II services. In one local workforce area, all one-stop centers have Workforce Navigators who are trained to provide information on all partner programs. For direct linkage, the most common method is via designated phone lines for one-stop customers, which connect the customers to staff at the adult education provider during one-stop hours. Several providers also report using Zoom, Live Chat, Google Voice, and texting. L&I built a referral process into its Commonwealth Workforce Development System by which Title I and III staff at the one-stop centers can refer clients to partner programs, including Title II.
As full-service programs, all adult education programs provided all five career services applicable for Title II to participants. Twenty-six providers reported having some instructional services co-located at a one-stop center. In addition, many programs participated in career services in support of the activities of the one-stop partners and the center as a whole. Eight providers reported providing initial assessment services for one-stop customers. Many providers have staff members participate in one-stop center information sessions, orientations, and job fairs to provide information about Title II services. Some programs reported participating on rapid response teams addressing local company closures, providing initial assessment of basic skills to impacted workers. In many local areas, one-stop partner program staff also present at the local Title II provider site to let students know about the other services available to them through the one-stop system.
In Philadelphia, the city government has worked with the local workforce board to create systems to better connect adult education providers throughout the city, both Title II-funded and others, with each other and with the workforce development system. They created a hotline for adult education services in the city. The hotline is answered by staff in the one-stop centers, called navigators, who provide information to the callers. They adopted CASAS assessments for use system-wide to ensure that clients would not have to be assessed with multiple assessments. Furthermore, the city created a centralized system by which adult education providers throughout the city regardless of funding can refer students and share intake and assessment data. That system uses an intake form that aligns with PDE’s adult intake form.
All infrastructure costs contributions were agreed to at the local level. For one-stop centers at which Title II staff are co-located or have dedicated classroom space, the most common methods used to determine proportionate use and relative benefit were full-time equivalents (FTE), square footage, and a combination of FTE and square footage. Two agencies reported contributing on a rent-only basis. Agencies that conducted classes or career services at the one-step center but did not have dedicated space generally paid rent on an actual usage basis. At one-stop centers that did not have any Title II staff or classes onsite, programs agreed to nominal contributions ranging from $300-$2,400.
Title II program involvement in determining contributions varied greatly among local workforce areas. In some local areas, Title II programs report that they participated fully in the process of determining operating costs, allocation methods, and partner contributions. In many local areas, local board staff or the one-stop operators presented the one-stop budgets and infrastructure funding agreements to the one-stop partners for review and discussion; six agencies reported that they were able to negotiate lower contributions than originally presented to them. Agencies reported no challenges related to infrastructure costs. Several indicated that their contributions remained the same as prior years. Local boards submit the MOUs with operating budgets to PA Department of Labor & Industry for review and approval. PDE staff are not involved in either the local negotiations or in the MOU review and approval processes.
Integrated English Literacy and Civics Education
IELCE Funds and grants
2021-22 was the second year of a three-year grant cycle. PDE held its second competition for section 243 funds in 2020 for grants awarded effective July 1, 2020. Section 243 funds were competed separately from basic grant funds. Six eligible providers were awarded grants, and all were renewed for 2021-22 for amounts totaling $1,778,974. Grants ranged from $159,639.00 to $485,305. The division held a kickoff webinar for the grantees in August 2021 to review WIOA and division requirements for section 243 program providers and updates to the program from the prior year. Agencies had written their grants prior to the pandemic and adjusted their proposed activities to be implemented differently during the initial year of the pandemic. During the kickoff, agencies shared the progress of their program improvement and their plans to address common issues such as remote assessment, remote instruction, and low enrollment.
Training activity
The division requires each section 243 grantee to use a portion of the grant funds to establish and conduct at least one IET program for participants in the IELCE program who are interested and can benefit from the activity; they may provide more than one. IELCE participants may also enroll in other IET programs at the same agency or a different agency. Programs must provide a continuum of leveled, managed enrollment IELCE activities that support participants to prepare for and transition successfully to the associated IET program. In 2021-22, section 243 programs conducted 10 IET activities. Seven were in the allied health sector: home health aide, direct care provider, pharmacy technician, and social service assistant. One grantee conducted two sessions of a Microsoft Word IET program, and one grantee provided a foundational culinary arts IET. Of the 68 participants who started an IET programs, 60 completed. Two of the programs led to industry recognized credentials; 34 participants earned one or more. No IELCE participants enrolled in IET programs offered under other funding sources or by other agencies. As grantees consider adding IET activities, they are challenged to identify trainings that that align with local workforce needs, align with student interest, lead to jobs with good pay and a career pathway, and are appropriate for the level of students.
In May and June 2022, advisors conducted in-person and virtual technical assistance visits with all six section 243 grantees. The visits focused on the IET activities and included class observations, conversations with staff and students, and time for feedback. All six programs had been monitored in 2019-20, so advisors were able to identify areas in which programs had improved as well as ongoing challenges. Three programs showed improvement in assessing participants’ language skills prior to enrolling them in the IET. They had incorporated a series of formal and informal assessments and identified benchmarks that indicated that students had the language skills to succeed in the IET. In these programs, advisors observed that students were able to follow along in the training and actively participate. An ongoing challenge related to ensuring that students have the language skills to succeed in the IET is finding trainers who are able to work with English learners and adjust their instruction to meet the students where they are. Two programs have had success in addressing this challenge, which was evident in class observations and conversations with instructors. To support the other programs and potential new IELCE providers, the IET state leadership project created an on-demand video for occupational trainers on how to work with English learners.
State leadership projects provided technical assistance and professional development to support section 243 grantees. ProLO led a virtual professional learning community for IELCE activities. Participants created or adapted CCRS-aligned lessons to include enhancement activities for English learners, completed peer observations with those lessons, and provided feedback to each other after the observations. The IET state leadership project developed and delivered a new professional learning opportunity, the IET Design Series. The four-month course was developed using tools from the OCTAE IET Design Camp series and provided programs with tools to initiate and design IETs to ensure that all required elements are included. Of the six agencies receiving section 243 funds, three completed the design series.
IELCE Section 243(c)(1)
All section 243 grantees have student support specialists, who help students plan and prepare to transition out of the program and into employment or postsecondary education or training. Grantees reported that 13 of the participants who completed an IET obtained jobs within six months that required them to use the skills and knowledge acquired in the IET. One grantee provided student support from previous IET graduates to help current IET students prepare for interviews, review their hiring process experience, and provide tips to successfully transition into a new work environment. One program has an attendance policy for its IET participants that mimics leave policies common at many employers; students have a certain number of classes that they can miss before they must leave the IET activity. It is their responsibility to determine when the issue they are facing warrants using one of those days.
IELCE Section 243(c)(2)
All section 243 grantees reported that they consulted with the local workforce board to identify trainings that aligned with local workforce needs. One agency worked with local board staff to identify high priority occupations that align with the training offered by the program. One grantee worked directly with local health care providers to ensure that the skills needed for frontline workers were included in its IET. Four worked closely with the local one-stop center to help students find employment with additional services such as workshops in resume writing, interviewing techniques, negotiating pay, and workplace culture.
Adult Education Standards
The Pennsylvania Core Standards went into effect March 1, 2014. PDE’s Division of Adult Education has used the College and Career Readiness Standards for Adult Education (CCRS) since 2014-15. Prior to implementing the CCRS, division staff completed a crosswalk of the CCRS to the Pennsylvania Core Standards. All items included in the CCRS are also in the Pennsylvania Core Standards.
PDE requires local programs to use the CCRS to guide lesson planning and instruction; lesson plans must have CCRS-aligned learning objectives. The program monitoring tool used to conduct monitoring reviews includes CCRS-related items in several sections, and the monitoring review team examines lesson plans to ensure they are CCRS-aligned.
All resources in support of instruction that are developed by the division and the state leadership projects reference the CCRS; professional development activities in support of instruction are CCRS-aligned. Pennsylvania has also incorporated the English Language Proficiency Standards. In 2021-22, PDE offered several year-long instruction institutes. A team of Pennsylvania subject-matter experts reviewed these institutes and the work done with Teaching Skills that Matter for alignment with the CCRS, and inclusion of standards was strengthened where needed.
Pennsylvania has used the College and Career Readiness-Standards-in-Action (CCR-SIA) process to support implementation of CCRS-based education. Programs work in professional learning communities to increase CCRS implementation at their programs by creating standards-based lessons, using the lessons in the classroom, and then returning to the professional learning communities to revise the lessons. To sustain implementation of the CCRS despite a predominantly part-time workforce with high staff turnover, the CCRS trainings are available online as on-demand professional development modules on the Pennsylvania Adult Education Resources website. The modules cover key CCRS content that helps instructors write CCRS-aligned lessons. In addition to the online modules, the division uses technology to offer training at a distance with additional support from the CCRS coaches.
In 2019-20, a team from Pennsylvania participated in the SIA 2.0 State-Based Curriculum Review Pilot for Mathematics. The team ultimately decided to use Illustrative Mathematics as the base curriculum. Illustrative Mathematics is a large K-12 curriculum, so, after bringing on and training additional members, the team pared it down to ensure it is relevant and usable in the adult education context. In 2021-22, the team created a web-based structure that instructors can use to search for lessons that address the CCRS skills they are teaching. The Technology Project will make the clickable curriculum available in 2022-23.
A separate team used the tools from the State-Based Curriculum Review Pilot for English Language Arts (ELA) to create a process for developing lines of inquiry for ELA. In 2021-22, two subject-matter experts designed four CCRS-aligned lesson plans that are part of a line of inquiry. Each lesson contained supports for English learners using strategies learned in Implementing Standards-based Education for English Learners. The lessons have been taught, run through the CCRS Student Work Protocol, and revised. The team will train additional subject-matter experts and several lines of inquiry will be available for the field in 2022-23.
Programs for Corrections Education (AEFLA Section 225)
Pennsylvania uses both federal and state funds to provide adult education services in correctional facilities. In 2021-22, 13 grantees and four subgrantees provided adult education and literacy activities, an increase from 11 agencies that provided these services in 2020-21. The number of facilities where services were provided also increased, from 14 county jails and one state prison in 2020-21 to 19 county jails and one state prison in 2021-22. While most agencies partnered with a single correctional facility, one agency worked with three jails and one agency partnered with two.
The increases in the number of providers and facilities from 2020-21 to 2020-22 indicate that the pandemic’s impact on local providers’ ability to provide corrections education lessened in 2021-22. All but two agencies provided in-person instruction, using remote instruction or paper-based distance learning when the facility was quarantined. Similarly, programs did intake and assessments with corrections education students in person. Unfortunately, four agencies that had provided corrections education prior to the pandemic were not able to return to the facilities.
Corrections education programs delivered adult education and literacy activities, predominantly ABE Levels 1-4, to 345 participants. Twelve providers offered services to help corrections education students prepare for and connect with post-release educational services. Six provided information about career-related organizations to facilitate employment post release.
Pennsylvania does not have a single definition of recidivism that is used across the commonwealth. Recidivism is defined in the Judicial System General Provisions 204 Pa. Code § 305.1 (12) as “a re-offense for any crime, defined as a re-arrest for a felony or misdemeanor in Pennsylvania within three years of the imposition of a sentence to the community or within three years of release from confinement resulting in a conviction. Re-offense does not include out-of-state, federal or foreign charges or technical violations.” In its 2022 Recidivism Report, the Pennsylvania Department of Corrections (PA DOC) defines recidivism as the first instance of either re-arrest or re-incarceration to a PA DOC facility after previously being released from PA DOC custody and reports 64.7% of all offenders released from state prisons in 2016 were re-arrested or re-incarcerated within three years of release.
While PA DOC calculates an overall recidivism rate for its system, it does not break out the rates for the individual state prisons. PDE is unable to calculate the relative rate of recidivism for criminal offenders served in corrections education. Pennsylvania does not have a centralized collection of corrections system data. As a result, even when individual facilities report recidivism rates, rates cannot be compared because reported rates vary as a function of how recidivism is defined, measured, and assessed/calculated. Of the eight facilities that provided a definition for recidivism, there was not a consensus in how the term was defined. General recidivism rates for those county jails that defined, and tracked recidivism ranged from almost 30% to almost 70%. None of the facilities provided relative rates of recidivism for corrections education participants. Most staff did not know if the correctional institutions were planning to collect/calculate recidivism data in the near future. Only one facility expressed interested in collecting this data in the future.