LITERACY RESOURCES/RI


Progress report, October 1999

OVERVIEW OF YEAR THREE and workplan 99/2000


Literacy Resources/Rhode Island continues to work to maximize collaboration and cooperation among literacy providers in Rhode Island, and to strengthen connections amongst existing and emerging adult education programs and practitioners. LR/RI works to expand the existing professional capacity of the adult education field in Rhode Island, thereby strengthening the quality of adult literacy instruction.

LR/RI continues to work to address its interdependent priorities of building capacity and strengthening communication by linking existing Rhode Island adult education, literacy and human resources via the Internet and World Wide Web, and through direct contact in various forms. This work occurs through:

¥ the development and distribution via mail, email, fax and on the internet, of LR/RI's bulletin through which information is regularly shared amongst agencies/practitioners (usually every 10 days to 2 weeks). LR/RI has continued the ongoing process of linking people and information through its bulletin, which is distributed, posted and archived on the web site. The bulletin is directly distributed to over 200 people, representing approximately 80 educational and/or professional development service providers.

¥ assisting practitioners in connecting to one another through sharing and discussion sessions focused on the areas of ESOL, intergenerational learning, women's issues in adult learning, learning disabilities, assessment, adult secondary education, technology and adult education generally. Participation in sharing sessions has served as a means for practitioners to identify both need and interest in learning and teaching more about particular areas. Participation has also furthered more in-depth exploration of particular topics and issues through the processes of sharing resources and jointly exploring topics of interest through practitioners' pursuit of minigrants and other forms of support for their professional development endeavors.

¥ participation in regional and national work through listservs, meetings, and task-based committees, geared towards furthering and (re)designing the National Institute for Literacy's LINCS national and regional web sites, and developing locally-produced content for LR/RI's own web site. Additionally, Janet Isserlis was invited to participate on the Advisory Committee for the LINCS Family Literacy Special Collection, and also to serve on the National Clearinghouse on Literacy Education (NCLE's) advisory board.

¥ distribution of The Change Agent in hard copy and through links to The Change Agent on-line. Janet Isserlis served on the editorial board of this publication and contributed to its most recent issue, a special edition focusing on adult education - its history and evolution.

Additional activity relevant to addressing the priorities within and beyond the state:

¥ telephone and face-to-face consultation including referrals, provision of information about programs, employment and volunteer opportunities, pedagogy, legislation, statistics and responses to requests for technical assistance.

LR/RI is linked to the National Institute For Literacy - through its news flash page, state directories and through various postings on the NLA and NIFL-ESL literacy listservs, and is linked through a number of state web sites also listing state literacy resource centers.

Additionally, links to LR/RI can be found at:


¥ LR/RI represented the state at the international TESOL conference (March, 1999), participating in the academic session of the Adult Education in ESOL interest section, speaking about women and literacy, and also participated in a workshop delivered to the Second Annual Conference on Women and Literacy in Atlanta in January of this year.

advocating for adult learners and practitioners in the realm of policy and practice

¥ LR/RI participated in the work of the Mayor's task force on literacy which studied the state of adult education provision in the city and formed recommendations based on that study. While the report of that task force is slow in coming, LR/RI has stayed connected to those working on the report and has responded to draft versions.

¥ LR/RI is present at meetings of the Governor's blue ribbon panel on adult education, has submitted information to that body for distribution to its members, and participated in its late summer retreat.

¥ LR/RI is working with VALUE, a new national learner organization to support its national and local endeavors, including participation in the state's Adult Literacy Day events held at the State House in Providence. Janet Isserlis has participated in VALUE's board nomination and communication committees and is working with the committee to expand portions of the VALUE web site.

¥ LR/RI is present at meetings of the Adult Literacy Council and the Adult Education Commission. In addition to attendance at these meetings, LR/RI provides information to the field through dissemination of policy updates and other relevant information on its web site and through its bulletin. National attention was recently called to the state, the site and its posting of the Adult Learners' Bill of Rights, enacted by the state legislature during its spring session.

publications:

¥ Why do we do what we do?, book review published in Bright Ideas Volume 9, Number 1 (Summer 1999), and available on-line at http://www.sabes.org/b2janet.htm.

¥ Who is the we when we talk about us?, article, and Until we are strong together: Women writers in the tenderloin, book review, both published in Text Quarterly, Georgia State University, Center for the Study of Adult Literacy, (Volume 11, Issue 4, Summer 1999).

¥ Listening Between the Lines, article published in The Change Agent (Issue 9, September 1999)

developing professional development opportunities for adult education practitioners / review of activities

Professional development is most meaningful when practitioners have opportunities to process learning, share, rehearse, and reflect upon changes they make in their practice and to have a voice in determining the kinds of professional development in which they take part. The following describes professional development activities for which LR/RI was entirely or partially responsible for planning and/or implementing:

Practitioners developed, coordinated and implemented a mini conference in March, 1999, following up on the work of Dr. Susan Baum (who presented a workshop in May of 1998), based on positive response to Dr. Baum's first workshop. They also planned and implemented a workshop on accountability, with Lucille Fandell in September of this year, through which plans to connect to statewide initiatives around standards development and assessment have emerged, with a sharing session scheduled for October. In both instances, LR/RI served in an advisory capacity, assisting with content development for the Fandell workshop and publicizing both events through the bulletin.

Lenore Balliro, editor of Bright Ideas, a quarterly practitioner-based publication of World Education, facilitated a workshop on home buying, sponsored by the Adult Literacy Resource Institute and Fannie Mae and also introduced participants to Bright Ideas, discussing adult education publications and production as well.

Marsha Wise of the Women's Center of Rhode Island facilitated a workshop on learning and trauma, relating to particular resources available in RI and preparing interested parties for a half day workshop presented by Dr. Jenny Horsman on learning issues for women survivors and victims of violence, for which participants were prepared by receiving copies of Dr. Horsman's paper But I'm Not a Therapist, prior to the workshop.

Janet Isserlis provided a half day workshop for teachers from the Institute for Labor Studies and Research on integrating technology into their educational practice, and a two hour training for volunteer citizenship instructors in the Socio-economic Development Center for Southeast Asians. She also provided assistance to Brett Simmons, an art therapist working with chronically mental ill adults in need of literacy provision at a residential hospital in nearby Massachusetts in preparation for Ms. Simmons interest in offering these services within this state.

LR/RI drafted and disseminated a document addressing state leadership activities (section 12 of the Workforce Investment Act), and met with groups of practitioners to seek input into that document before submitting it to the state director of adult education.

Practitioners were invited to participate in a series of weekly drop-in sessions held at the Center for Information Technology at Brown University during the summer, gaining skills with computer technology, including email and the internet. Staff and learners from YouthBuild and practitioners from around the state again participated in informal computer drop in sessions offered at Brown's Center for Information Technology, in a fully wired 13-station training room. At least two practitioners also brought their children to these sessions, thereby expanding their own capacities as parents and as educators in considering intergenerational applications of internet sites.

As before, as a result of LR/RI's dissemination efforts, a number of practitioners in the state have participated in national on-line discussion groups (listservs) in the areas of literacy policy and advocacy (NLA), intergenerational literacy learning (NIFL-family), learning disabilities (NIFL-LD) and regional and national concerns around English language learning (NIFL-ESL). Additionally, through regional work sponsored by the New England Literacy Resource Center, practitioners remain involved in national projects, including work around the Equipped for the Future role maps and standards, multiple intelligences research, civic participation, the VERA sourcebook and practitioner-based research. LR/RI also launched its own listserv which moves slowly (as do many such small electronic lists), but has generated some response and which continues to grow at its own pace. One of its participants has posted information to David Rosen's national interactive problem/solution website and has shared this information through the list.

LR/RI worked with the Department of Education to expand practitioner inquiry projects from six month to eight month projects, broadening the depth and breadth of that work. Inquiry practitioners met monthly in two small groups, facilitated by Janet Isserlis and David Hayes, the state's PDRN leader (see below). Reports of 1998-99 inquiry work have all been posted to the web site and have been accessed by literacy professionals nationally and internationally (one such link to the page is found at the PBS Literacy Link site, cited above).

LR/RI also participates in the New England LD partnership project, providing support to Judy Titzel, the state's liaison to the project partnership and to her team of three practitioners in the form of access to technology and needed communications assistance, and in disseminating information about the project on an as-needed basis. LR/RI participated in hiring the three-person team working with Judy Titzel to begin training sessions for the state during the fall of 1999.

LR/RI's project director continues to meet with literacy practitioners and program administrators. She has participated in numerous meetings with others involved in adult education practice and policy in the state, and in regional and national events including the Eastern LINCS Adult Literacy Technology Hub consortium, the Literacy Assistance Center Integrating Technology Institute, ongoing Internet publications work, and on advisory boards for the New England Literacy Resource Center and its Voter Education, Registration and Action Project (VERA) and Adult Multiple intelligences project, a research project of the National Center for the Study of Adult Learning and Literacy (NCSALL).

LR/RI continues to work closely with a practitioner leader, participating in another NCSALL project, the Practitioner Dissemination and Research Network, (PDRN), which involves dissemination of information about NCSALL research work to practitioners in the state. Participation in a number of activities linked to NCSALL work has been encouraging and feedback from the field has been positive. As well, a series of study circle meetings, organized by David Hayes, RI's PDRN leader, was well attended; the group focused on a close reading and analysis of Juliet Merrifield's Report, Contested Ground: Performance Accountability in Adult Basic Education, and its implications for local practice.

As a result of this work, Rhode Island practitioners have been better positioned to participate in regional and national endeavors: The Washington County Adult Learning Center undertook a technology planning process through the LINCS project; The Genesis Center, which had participated in this process during the previous year shared its findings with educators in the field, co-facilitating a technology sharing session with staff of the Providence Public Library, which described its technology capabilities and services for learners and practitioners. Dorcas Place sent a practitioner to the Literacy Asssitance Center's three-city/three-month technology institute. As well, a Rhode Island practitioner continues to work as a mentor/trainer within World Education/ NCSALL's Multiple Intelligences research project and an educational director of one of the state's largest adult education agencies, has joined the board of the New England Literacy Resource Center, thereby increasing the potential of engaging local practitioners in regional activities.

professional development in Rhode Island - collaboration and future plans

Adult learners and practitioners bring both areas of strength as well as need to the educational process; recognizing and building from these strengths is an intrinsic part of adult education practice and is explicitly addressed in all elements of professional development activity.

As previously indicated in past reports, one-off workshops can spark interest, and generate dialogue, but it remains clear that professional development needs to occur through a variety of delivery models and in a sustained and ongoing manner if it is to be effective. The need exists for sustained activity over time to enable people to come together to share information, reflect upon practice, read, generate information and advocate, and explore exemplary practice locally and beyond. The extension and scheduled follow-up activities resulting from the Fandell workshop embody this principle most clearly in the state at present.

LR/RI has worked to afford a greater number of literacy and language development practitioners in the state opportunities to meet with one another and to participate in staff development activities in order to reflect and act upon current experience and thereby increase capacity in terms of:

- knowledge bases access to colleagues and collegial channels access to information (print and other media)

- expansion of thinking about what it is we mean when we talk about adult education

- participation in leadership education to expand their understanding of and

- influence over systemic forces impacting literacy education. access to model practices

General parameters of these changes include:

- increased access to professional development resources and processes increased ability to communicate with the field - increased leadership capacity for individuals and their programs development of sustainable professional development networks engaged in ongoing projects and activities

Toward that end, mini-grant awards were again offered through the center over the summer and fall, with reports posted online, sharing sessions and workshops through which this work will be shared scheduled for the fall. Topics chosen include intergenerational learning, cognitive development in reading instruction and the development of a science curriculum for adult learners.

Literacy educators nationally and in Rhode Island need a cohesive base for professional development. Funding is low and erratic, particularly in the wake of the reduction of funds available for professional development through the Workforce Investment Act. Too few people are able to access professional development opportunities not only because of lack of funding, but also because most adult educators work in more than one part time position so that finding the time to participate becomes problematic. Work on addressing these concerns and building a strong, local base for professional development has continued and will continue to drive much of LR/RI's activities. A vision that recognizes individuals engaged in adult education as dedicated professionals must encompass provision of ongoing and sustained opportunities for development for them, and by extension, for the communities they serve.

Changes in federal legislation affecting both learners and practitioners will continue to shape the parameters within which our work can be accomplished. LR/RI continues to work on strengthening partnerships and communication among education entities across the state. A survey distributed to the field has yielded an initial 10% return. Survey responses suggest the field is pleased with LR/RI's dissemination of information and with the limited number of direct training opportunities it can provide. There is mixed interest in developing an annual conference and/or a series of themed events. Some of the issues may be addressed through more proactive follow up of the survey results with those practitioners who requested a call to further discuss their comments. Other suggestions about LR/RI's role include a renewed interest in Janet Isserlis facilitating more cross and intra-program sharing, so that practitioners can not only observe one and anothers' classroom practices, but can also find time and means to discuss their findings and to further delve into their work as educators. (Copies of the survey will be sent to RIDE once the deadline for submission has passed).

As it is administered by the Swearer Center for Public Service at Brown University LR/RI is able to utilize University technical assistance for the implementation of Internet applications and University space for conferences, meetings and colloquia, including the sharing session held in June for the most recent round of inquiry projects. During the past summer the university provided LR/RI with a Macintosh computer training lab for Friday morning drop in sessions, attended by YouthBuild participants and teachers as well as educators from other programs in the state. Although LR/RI had provided access to computers/the internet in previous summers, access to an entire lab enhanced both attendance and continuity for those who participated this summer.

As the state embarks on refining its adult education plan, LR/RI is committed to working with the State Director of Adult Education in seeking input from stakeholders across the state in allocating resources made available under the five year state application, and is particularly committed to refining a professional development plan for state adult educators as well. Part of this work entails participation in work on developing program standards and assessment measures, as indicated above, with the aim of shaping requests for proposals that mirror the strength and vitality of programs serving the state's adult education population.

As before, LR/RI wants to increase participation in sharing sessions, encouraging practitioners to come together to identify their own strengths and needs, and to connect practitioners to human or material resources needed to strengthen and ameliorate practice.

Specific areas of ongoing focus include:

- increasing use of, support for and access to the internet and related technology

- continuing to provide access to practitioners and learners wanting to learn to use the technology, and providing training as needed in order to facilitate integration of technology into adult education practice;

- increasing access to national, regional and local information, conferences, and projects

- creating an inventory of programs' work

- identifying who does what, what professional development is supported and sought; increased sharing of in-house and cross/joint collaboration (part of this chronic need should be addressed with the imminent release of LVA-RI's Adult Education Program Directory, which will also be posted online at LR/RI's website)

-  agency workshops/discussions groups - expanding opportunities, as mentioned above, for practitioners to observe one another within and across programs/agencies

- dissemination of information through the bulletin

- continued development of the web site: links, pages developed for particular interests, local practitioners adding content

- increasing practitioner facilitation of/reporting on sharing sessions so that LR/RI has a less active and more supportive role

- support of the Bridges to Practice learning disabilities training team

- attention to practitioners' request for assistance on an as-needed basis

- the development of standards for the state's adult education programs, in collaboration with the Adult Education Commission's committee on standards, Project RIRAL, and all interested practitioners

- development and support of inquiry projects, and other priority areas to be identified in concert with the state director and other stakeholders.


Literacy Resources/Rhode Island workplan - November 1, 1999 - June 30, 2000

Literacy Resources/Rhode Island continues to work to maximize collaboration and cooperation among literacy providers in Rhode Island, and to strengthen connections amongst existing and emerging adult education programs and practitioners. LR/RI works to expand the existing professional capacity of the adult education field in Rhode Island, thereby strengthening the quality of adult literacy instruction.

As before, LR/RI wants to increase participation in sharing sessions, encouraging practitioners to come together to identify their own strengths and needs, and to connect practitioners to human and material resources needed to strengthen and ameliorate practice.

Specific areas of ongoing focus include:

- increasing use of, support for and access to the internet and related technology

- continuing to provide access to practitioners and learners wanting to learn to use the technology, and providing training as needed in order to facilitate integration of technology into adult education practice;

action: To this end, LR/RI will continue to facilitate sharing/discussion session on technology and to offer ongoing internet/computer training to the field on an as-needed basis, in addition to its summer drop in session at the Center for Information Technology at Brown University.

- increasing access to national, regional and local information, conferences, and projects

- creating an inventory of programs' work

- identifying who does what, what professional development is supported and sought; increased sharing of in-house and cross/joint collaboration (part of this chronic need should be addressed with the imminent release of LVA-RI's Adult Education Program Directory, which will also be posted online at LR/RI's website)

- agency workshops/discussions groups - expanding opportunities, as mentioned above, for practitioners to observe one another within and across programs/agencies

-dissemination of information through the bulletin

-continued development of the web site: links, pages developed for particular interests, local practitioners adding content

-increasing practitioner facilitation of/reporting on sharing sessions so that LR/RI has a less active and more supportive role

- support of the Bridges to Practice learning disabilities training team. In addition to providing support to the team, LR/RI will also work closely with the state director to ensure that adult educators will receive information about diagnosis/assessment available to learning disabled adults and will also work with the state director and LD team to educate program directors and practitioners about the ramifications of different testing instruments as part of a substantive statewide effort towards systemic change.

- attention to practitioners' request for assistance on an as-needed basis

- the development of standards for the state's adult education programs, in collaboration with the Adult Education Commission's committee on standards, Project RIRAL, and all interested practitioners

- development and support of inquiry projects, and other priority areas to be identified in concert with the state director and other stakeholders.

- developing new funding sources for professional development opportunities which strengthen connections between the adult education field and other social service/community providers whose clients / customers utilize services across domains

Specific work has already been undertaken in this area, through Janet Isserlis' recently awarded fellowship from the National Institute for Literacy in support of an extended learning project involving education practitioners and women's centers across the state in furthering learning about the effects of trauma and violence on adult learning. The project brings $20,000 of inkind resources to the state. Ten practitioners will collaborate in an ongoing manner within the project, and various workshops and events relating to the project will also be open to all interested others in the state and region. Other areas of professional development for which additional support will be necessary include planning for changes under the Workforce Investment Act, improved means of assessing and reporting on learner/program progress, as well as an ongoing responsiveness to practitioners' requests for information, assistance and access to one another.

specific actions to be taken over the course of the next funding period

addressing multiple intelligences theory through provision of training to RI educators:

In collaboration with the Swearer Center for Public Service, LR/RI will consult with the New England Literacy Resource Center and its work on Adult Multiple Intelligences (AMI) in order to provide both a workshop/mini-conference on the topic, as well as ongoing training and discussion around ways of disseminating information about AMI and its potential to enhance adult education practice. Some of this work will overlap with other efforts addressing learning styles and learning disabilities and LR/RI will work closely with both AMI researchers and RI's Learning Disabilities Training team to ensure that information is disseminated clearly and in a timely manner, and also to serve as a coordinating vehicle amongst these groups.

This activity will be evaluated through the use of paper/pencil evaluation at the completion of workshop sessions, as well as pre-post surveys of those participating in the workshops and discussion groups to assess if their understanding of AMI has been furthered by this work, as well as by survey and other means of assessing the project's usefulness in terms of direct classroom instruction. Indicators of success will be found in teachers' and program directors assessment of improved classroom practice, and (where feasible) through learners' reports as well.

learning disabilities team and URI assessment / diagnoses

As mentioned above, LR/RI will serve as a coordinating entity, through which the state's LD training team can receive support (mailing, meeting space, information dissemination, meeting facilitation on an as-needed basis) and will also participate in ensuring that the field becomes aware of the diagnostic assessment procedures available to up to 125 adults in the state through the agreement between RIDE and URI.

work study students

In collaboration with the Swearer Center for Public Service and RIDE, LR/RI will be available to provide training to college students who do volunteer service within adult literacy agencies, ensuring that both theoretical underpinnings of adult education practice as well as practical methodological concerns are addressed. Receiving agencies who wish to prepare volunteer tutors in their own way are of course, encouraged to do so, but LR/RI proposes to assist RIDE and other community based agencies by providing training to college students on an as-needed basis. Evaluation will occur through evaluation forms at workshops, through interviews with receiving agencies' teachers and administrators in order to ascertain that this training both meets needs and also (as an anticipated outcome) begins to institutionalize the notion that such training is needed if college students are to be sent to adult learning centers.

ongoing communication/information sharing

LR/RI has developed a communications network. Its website and regular bulletin distribution are in place, but also needs to be strengthened so that this information is not stopped at the front line (i.e. a program director who may or may not distribute the information). To this end, a growing number of adult educators have requested that copies of the bulletin be mailed or emailed to them directly. Increased proactive outreach to others in the field will continue. LR/RI, in a typical week, responds to requests for information in the areas of employment, professional development opportunities and general information about adult education, receives information for dissemination through its bulletin (these requests arrive via phone, fax and email), and also responds to both Rhode Island-specific requests as well as requests from practitioners nationwide. Its project director attends meetings of the state's key literacy groups, in an ongoing attempt to ensure that information is shared as broadly as possible amongst key stakeholders. Evaluation of LR/RI's current daily operations is being formally conducted through survey activity; as well, LR/RI has logged praise, suggestions and requests for service received via email over the program year.

moving the field forward

LR/RI is committed to building an assets-based, practitioner-driven means of moving the field forward in ways that broaden our understandings of adult learners' needs and strengths, and recognize and strengthen connections between discrete areas (e.g. health, housing, community wellness, civic participation) and literacy learning itself. Adults come to literacy instruction with a range of experience and expertise and also with questions and needs to be met. Drawing on learners' stated goals, negotiated curricula processes and increased understandings for adult educators about both theoretical underpinnings and methodological realities while posing broader questions in important contexts remains critical to the work LR/RI does.

Broadening access to and interest in professional development through inquiry and minigrant projects, sharing sessions and workshop activities are concrete ways in which LR/RI plans to work collaboratively with adult educators in moving the field forward. Anticipated outcomes include increased participation in professional development events, strengthened classroom practice and increased sharing of knowledge among practitioners. This work will be evaluated qualitatively and quantitatively, through surveys, paper/pencil evaluations and interviews and anecdotal evidence.

LR/RI depends upon the participation of and input from adult learners, educators and administrators across the state, and appreciates help and suggestions received from literacy workers both within and beyond the state's borders. While RIDE and individual programs have supported practitioners' professional development, there is a pressing need in the state to increase linkages and communication between and among practitioners and programs. Enabling these linkages to develop organically and over time seems a wise strategy in attempting to institutionalize the possibilities inherent in ongoing sharing and communication for those teaching in and administering programs for adult learners in the state. Literacy Resources/RI proposes to maintain its commitmet to the state's adult education field in disseminating information and providing support for and access to professional development across the state in order to meet the needs of the learner populations as fully as possible in the manners described above and in ongoing consultation with the field.


OVERVIEW OF YEARS ONE and TWO


LR/RI home