Professional Development

This report is designed to inform federal, state, and local corrections and correctional education administrators as they explore ways to securely and cost-effectively provide advanced technologies in corrections facilities to help strengthen and expand educational and reentry services. It describes the current status of these technologies in corrections, existing and emerging approaches to providing such services in facilities, and the successes and challenges of early implementers. The report concludes with a set of recommendations that align with the U.S. Department of Education’s National Education Technology Plan.

This paper presents evidence from a large‐scale field experiment designed to improve attendance rates by texting motivational messages and organizational reminders to students, with messages drawing on insights from behavioral economics. The intervention has a large effect on attendance rates, and this effect persists for the remainder of our sample period (three consecutive weeks of messaging). To implement this experiment, we partnered with two further education colleges in England, consisting of 1179 adult learners. Both schools offer fully subsidized numeracy and literacy courses for adult learners. The hypothesis, based on the theory that psychological barriers contribute to low attendence and course persistence by school dropouts in basic literacy and numeracy classes, was that text messages sent to a random stratified sample of participants in a treatment group would positively affect attendance and course completion. The intervention text messages were also based on behavioral economics theory: 1) They were sent at a time when the student was likely to be home (Sunday evening), shifting their attention to their upcoming class; 2) They encouraged students to engage with their classmates on facebook, to increase a sense of belonging, and 3) They provided encouraging messages such as "Keep up the hard work." The initial results show that these simple text messages reduce the proportion of students that stop attending by 36% and lead to a 7% increase in average attendance relative to the control group. The effects on attendance rates persist through the three weeks of available data following the initial intervention.  

This case study examines the experiences of incarcerated adult males enrolled in a component of a re-entry program, Digital Literacy Acquisition, and is a segment of a larger focus on the reentry process for successful reintegration of prisoners into society and life.  This study takes place in the Orleans Parrish Prison (OPP), located in New Orleans, Louisiana and provides insightful information on the role of digital learning relative to rehabilitative efforts of re-entry programs within a correctional facility. The model examined in this case study is one that is self-paced, reinforced, tutor facilitated and offers online support for goal directed, learner specific content that is customizable and shareable across varying programs for use by different facilitators. The intent is for participants to learn the relevance of digital literacy to their lives, confront and overcome their fear of technology, and acquire a strong sense of self-confidence. This study explores a range of relevant topics that are specific to the adult re-entry population such as: The learner experience; Relevance; Moving from fear to confidence; Developing self-efficacy and self-confidence; Empowerment; Changing self-identity and imagining possible futures, as well as, the benefits of mentoring and implications

The UDL self-check helps expand teachers expand their teaching strategies to reach all learners. Choose a unit or a lesson that is ineffective for some students and use the UDL Self-Check to help overcome barriers the curriculum (goals, methods, materials, and assessment) may pose for them. Evaluate each curriculum element, think about them, and write self-reflections.

The Revised Career Pathways Toolkit: A Guide for System Development features Six Key Elements of Career Pathways that help to guide local and state teams through the essential components necessary for developing a comprehensive career pathways system. The components under each element are not sequential and may occur in any order. Likewise, multiple partners can engage in the components simultaneously to carry out the mission of the career pathways system. The six elements are:

1. Build cross-agency partnerships and clarify roles
2. Identify industry sectors and engage employers
3. Design education and training programs
4. Identify funding needs and sources
5. Align policies and programs
6. Measure system change and performance

The Joyce Foundation extended Shifting Gears funding from 2012 – 2014 (referred to as SG 3.0) in Illinois, Minnesota, and Wisconsin. These states had committed to expanding adult education bridge programs to increase the number of students transitioning into postsecondary education. Such bridge programs are designed to link and integrate basic academic skills with postsecondary occupational credit-based learning in key industry sectors. These bridge programs typically involve contextualized curriculum and instruction, career development, and enhanced student services and supports. Often they are directly connected with additional postsecondary courses as part of a career pathway that leads to postsecondary credentials and degrees. The Foundation also committed to evaluate the progress of these three states in order to document the expansion of adult education bridge programs and the increased number of participants served. A key aspect of this evaluation was to learn how state systems scale adult education bridges, and to identify key factors that enabled or hindered progress toward scale. This report examines the progress made in each state from 2012 – 2014, and also briefly reviews how the Shifting Gears work influenced the national discourse on increasing skills and credentials for adult learners. The evaluation reached five primary findings: • Illinois, Minnesota, and Wisconsin doubled the total number of their bridge programs from 79 to 196 between SG 2.0 to SG 3.0. This growth includes expanding adult basic education bridge programs to more adult education providers and more community and technical college campuses. • Each state effectively institutionalized its adult education bridge program as an ongoing option to address the educational and skill needs of low-skilled adult learners. Altogether, the number of participants served more than doubled, from 4,000 during SG 2.0 to 10,345 during SG 3.0. • In two of the three states (Minnesota and Wisconsin), important policy changes expanded financial resources available for adult education bridges, and created the foundation for further advancing adult education bridges. These changes included reallocating current resources as well as new state funding dedicated to sustaining the expansion of bridge programs. Minnesota now has an $11.2 million allocated fund for career pathway and bridge programs in the biennium budget and Wisconsin has a $4 million annual fund to support these same program approaches. • Scale was not achieved during this period in terms of serving many or most of the low-skilled adults who might benefit from bridge programs. Altogether during SG 3.0 the three states served less than five percent of the adult learners in need. States grew their programs opportunistically rather than setting intentional goals and strategies around scaling. • The work of Shifting Gears positively influenced the national discourse on workforce development. The goal of helping adult learners increase their skills and earn credentials is now widely embraced in the workforce field and can be found as a core principle in the recently reauthorized federal workforce development legislation, the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA). Overall, after eight years of investment, the evaluation concludes that the Shifting Gears initiative made demonstrable progress in three Midwestern states in terms of expanding adult education bridges and serving low-skilled adults effectively. In addition, research conducted by Minnesota and Wisconsin suggests that Bridge program students transitioned to college and earned postsecondary credentials at a higher rate than students in traditional adult basic education programs. Furthermore, the focus on career pathways and aligning state adult basic education, workforce, and community and technical college systems influenced national and local thinking on workforce development across the country. In doing so, Shifting Gears contributed to a better understanding of the importance of addressing the educational and skill needs of low-skilled adults, the strategies and actions necessary to do so, and the challenges in sustaining and scaling efforts to achieve significant impact.

This guide to blended learning is intended for teachers and administrators of adult basic education (including ESL/ESOL/ELL, adult basic education, adult secondary education, and transition to higher education). It is designed to help teachers and administrators understand how blended learning can enhance learning in their classes, programs, or schools. For those professionals with the desire to implement, or further develop their implementation of blended learning, this guide will serve as a step-by-step road map for choosing and efficiently implementing a blended learning model design that meets their needs and budget. The guide has information and resources for readers who are new to blended learning, have experimented with blended learning and want to further develop or improve their practice, or are blended learning experts. The Appendix includes links to resources for adult basic education teachers, tutors and program administrators who want to try out or expand their use of blended learning.

Beginning Alphabetics Tests and Tools (BATT) strives to provide a 'principled' system for ABE/ESL teachers who want and/or need to develop their students' knowledge of Roman alphabet letters, English letter-sound patterns, sight or high frequency words, and transfer those letter-sound-word skills to text fluency and comprehension. This resource includes: 1) teacher-friendly tests for determining known and unknown skills, 2) evidence-based reading instructional practices, orders, approaches, and lesson plans for teaching unknown skills, 3) teacher-tested lists of other activities and materials, and 4) time-saving teacher resources. It was also piloted by a group of MN ABE/ESL reading teachers, who contributed their insightful feedback, teacher-tested tools, and testimonials. BATT is closely aligned with four Reading Standards: Foundational Skills (K–5) from the Minnesota Academic Standards (MDE, 2010) and Career and College Readiness Standards for Adult Education (OCTAE, 2013):

• RF.1. Demonstrate understanding of the organization and basic features of print. (Print Concepts)
• RF.2. Demonstrate understanding of spoken words, syllables, and sounds (phonemes). (Phonological Awareness)
• RF.3. Know and apply grade-level phonics and word analysis skills in decoding words. (Phonics and Word Recognition)
• RF.4. Read with sufficient accuracy and fluency to support comprehension. (Fluency)