Career Pathways

The Teaching the Core video lessons demonstrate standards-based instruction at different grade levels. After opening a free account, use the search feature to find videos by subject and/or grade level. Each video is accompanied by a teacher interview, lesson plan, instructional materials, and student work. The lessons are K-12, so some adjustments and contextualization would need to be made for adult learners. The higher grade levels will be most appropriate for adult educators. Use the Teaching the Core videos for independent study or as part of a professional learning community or professional development program. The most useful feature of the actual videos is the timestamp feature, which allows viewers to go to certain sections of each video and watch for specific teacher and student moves. You may find the following ELA Teaching the Core videos very helpful: “Author’s Message with Multiple Texts” (10^th grade) http://www.teachingthecore.org/view/51 and “Connotation & Exile” (9^th grade) http://www.teachingthecore.org/view/20.

This resource supports state and program efforts to implement adult education content standards aligned with college and career readiness to support rigorous and high-quality instruction. Usage of the ELA/Literacy Foundational Units 1-4 will strengthen the capacity of adult educators to implement CCR standards to better prepare adult students for success in college and careers. These activities provide the field with opportunities to dig into the CCR standards and explore what it means to adopt CCR-aligned standards in classrooms and how to do so sustainably. Understanding how CCR standards differ from previous sets of standards—and the necessary shifts or advances they call for—is essential to implementing CCR standards well. Engagement in these four units of activities will enable adult educators to identify the most significant elements of CCR standards for ELA/literacy and to determine how best to integrate them into instruction and curriculum. The goal of Units 1 - 4 is for participants to leave with specific ideas, resources, and actions they can implement immediately. Designed primarily for group use, these units also support independent study. The four units should be worked through sequentially. The units can be facilitated during a single daylong training or multiple trainings over several weeks or months. Each ready-to-use unit contains all the materials required to facilitate these training activities, including a facilitator’s guide, an annotated PowerPoint Presentation, and a packet of participant materials. The participant materials include directions, charts, worksheets, answer keys, and other resource materials that guide the use of each unit. The PowerPoint presentations are a digital aid for presenters/facilitators who lead CCR ELA/literacy training activities. Notes are provided within the PowerPoint presentations to help you prepare for each session. This information accompanies the information offered in the facilitator guides—including the research base, rationale, advice, and other guidelines—to provide the support and guidance you may require.

This Webinar was created for College and Career Readiness Standards In Action (CCR SIA) project for adult educators from 12 states, who requested information on how CCR standards can be implemented for ELLs. This Webinar responds to their questions. The Webinar content, demonstration video, and links to further resources all provide essential information for you to use as you re-envision ELL education in your states. Use this resource to help plan ways to implement CCR academic content in classrooms with ELLs. View it individually, as part of a professional learning community, or a professional development workshop. In addition to providing essential information about teaching ELLs, it could fuel a discussion of different strategies and approaches to implementing CCR standards. The webinar includes a classroom video demonstration that is particularly useful in conjunction with Ms. Pimentel’s summary of research on reading, writing, speaking and listening, and language (slides 17-28). The slides which articulate the pedagogical shifts in teaching ELLs (slides 29-30) provide a concise statement of the new direction for ELL instruction afforded by the CCR standards. The PowerPoint slides are available a stand-alone resource.

IETs are a core educational strategy for career pathways jointly developed between WIOA partners. This webinar highlights the many ways that states and individual programs have interpreted the definition and core elements of IETs and in turn used them to develop IETs as a strategy across all levels of service delivery in Title II of the Adult Education and Family Literacy Act (AEFLA). The panel, comprised of nationally recognized leaders in their field, provides easy-to-understand information starting with what an IET is to the ways data is collected and reported, and how partnerships can be formed.

Under WIOA, which was signed into law in July 2014, States and localities collaborate with adult education, postsecondary education and other partners to establish career pathways systems to make it easier for all Americans to attain necessary skills and credentials to secure meaningful jobs in their regional economies. The Career Pathways Toolkit will help stakeholders develop more comprehensive and combined systems for workforce development.

This policy brief is best used by state adult education staff in understanding career pathways implementation under WIOA, developing career pathways systems of their own, and leveraging data related to career pathways services. State staff can leverage the career pathways framework included in the brief to assess not only the extent to which adult education providers are implementing career pathways as defined in WIOA, but also to identify gaps that need to be addressed. Additionally, state staff can use the model to communicate to adult education providers the state’s expectations for the types of partnerships that local programs should have in place. State staff may also gather information about current professional development efforts. This data will inform state staff in selecting the types of professional development that can support local career pathways services. Lastly, the brief can be used to determine how to collect and use local data related to career pathways. Data on implementation of program services and quality of professional development can assist state staff in planning more effective professional development and technical assistance to support a local career pathways system. Ultimately, this policy brief informs state adult education staff on how to conduct coordinated education and training services that are aligned with the needs of employers, education, and training that is designed to facilitate individuals’ attainment of skills and credentials that can facilitate their economic well-being and employment in a career pathway.

This document is designed as a resource for state and local program leaders looking to support the effective implementation of state academic content standards. At the center of this supplement are two checklists. One is the State Leadership Checklist. State staff can use this as a self-assessment to gauge the effectiveness of their state’s implementation of and support for academic standards grounded in research. It identifies the actions needed to sustain an effective college and career readiness (CCR) standards implementation initiative at the state level. The State Leadership Checklist includes eight core components of effective implementation. A second checklist is the Program Leadership Checklist. It is designed for use by both state and local program leaders to help guide the implementation of high-quality standards at the local and regional levels. It includes six Sustainability Steps that programs need to take. The second checklist is a tool some states may wish to integrate into their monitoring of local providers. Both checklists also can be used in conjunction with the Handbook for Sustaining Standards-Based Education in Adult Education: https://lincs.ed.gov/publications/pdf/SustainingStandards-BasedEd.pdf The handbook has additional guidance regarding several sustainability elements. Considered together, the checklists and the handbook can assist state and local programs in developing a long-range, step-by-step standards implementation plan.

The CareerOneStop video collections provides short clips for a adult learners looking to start or change their careers and search thousands of job listings in your area or across the country. Adult Learners can learn about fields in high demand, take an assessment, looks at the different career options, and make a career plan. The site also allows learners to find out about High School Diplomas, certifications, licenses, schools, financial aid, and scholarships. Adults are able to customize the results to find local information to meet their needs. Teachers of adult learners can use this site to provide students a starting point to explore and learn about workforce opportunities.