Adult Basic Education
Adult Basic Education (ABE) in Minnesota is intended to provide individuals with educational opportunities to acquire and improve their literacy skills so that they can become self-sufficient, and participate meaningfully in the labor market and as citizens.
More specifically, ABE helps adult learners to:
ð Attain employment and/or better their current employment
ð Achieve high school equivalency (GED or Adult H.S. Diploma)
ð Attain skills to enter post-secondary education & training
ð Exit public welfare and become self-sufficient
ð Learn to speak and write the English language
ð Master basic academic skills to help their kids succeed in school
ð Become U.S. citizens and participate in democratic society
ð Gain self-esteem, confidence and sense of civic responsibility
ABE operates under both state and federal law. At the federal level, governance flows through Title II of the Workforce Investment Act, known as the Adult Education and Family Literacy Act (AEFLA). At the state level, ABE is governed by Minnesota Statute 124D.51-52. Administrative policies are established by the ABE office of the Minnesota Department of Education (MDE), which provides oversight and technical assistance to over 500 programs and 1,200 ABE educators statewide.
To meet its distinct goals, Minnesota ABE consists of a number of specific programs, listed in the chart below.
|
GED/General Educational Development Diploma |
A program for eligible adults leading to a high school diploma from a sponsoring Minnesota school district. |
|
ESL/English as a Second Language |
A program for those whose native language is not English |
|
Basic Skills Enhancement |
A program for learners who need goal-specific elementary or secondary level basic skills such as work-related math, functional literacy (e.g., banking skills), reading or writing assistance. Generally considered "brush-up" (not leading to a diploma or GED) |
|
Family Literacy |
Programs for adults and their children that feature instruction for adults in literacy and parenting, along with educational and developmental services for kids. |
|
Workforce Preparation |
Provides literacy skills to learners who need to obtain or retain work, or are seeking to advance in their jobs. Workforce Education provides basic academic and literacy skills to learners who are already employed by a specific business, industry, or company and it typically provided on-site at the learners’ place of employment. Employment Readiness programs provide general employability skills (e.g. - résumé development, interview skills, career awareness, job seeking skills, etc.) and instruction in soft skills that are essential in the workplace. |
|
Transition to Post-Secondary |
New in FY 2008, this three-year initiative is deigned to teach basic and study skills, and provide counseling to students seeking entry into credit-bearing programs at post-secondary institutions. |
|
Citizenship/Civics Education |
Programs which prepare Minnesotans without citizenship status for U.S. citizenship. Services include application preparation and English language instruction. Civics Education includes content related to general civics knowledge and participation in democratic society. |
Federal AEFLA funds are distributed by formula to states based on number of adults (16 and older) in each state who do not have a high school diploma and are not enrolled in school. Federal aid is granted to MDE, which distributes assistance to ABE consortia throughout the state. Consortia receive three types of federal aid:
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Regular Federal Aid, based upon the program's proportion of eligible prior year learner hours.
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Accountability Aid, to cover expenses related to student testing, data management, and reporting should be planned for and budgeting by every program. Amounts are determined for each consortium based upon prior year enrollment.
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Transition to Post-Secondary Aid to assist students to transitioning from ABE into post-secondary education institutions and training programs. Consortia will be asked to submit a plan for the use of transition aid, and will have a specific amount of federal ABE aid set aside for this purpose. This is a three-year initiative, beginning in FY 2008.
The chart below depicts federal AEFLA funding for Minnesota, in the two main categories in which is it dispersed to states.
|
|
2001 |
2002 |
2003 |
2004 |
2005 |
2006 |
2007 |
2008 est |
|
Adult Basic & Literacy Education |
$5,459,810 |
5,862,007 |
6,002,337 |
6,096,589 |
6,050,135 |
5,990,608 |
5,990,606 |
5,991,756 |
|
English Literacy& Civics Education |
$591,533 |
626,960 |
678,223 |
733,749 |
754,589 |
783,859 |
811,586 |
811,584 |
The vast majority of ABE funding is provided at the state level. In fact, Minnesota provides 91 percent of the funding for ABE programs operated in the state. Two percent of the annual state appropriation is authorized to support a system of “supplemental services” including staff development, technology, distance learning, and special needs services.
Currently, state funds are provided to programs using a mandated aid formula integrating school district population, Limited English Proficiency (LEP) counts in each k-12 school district, Census no-diploma data for residents over 20 in each school district, and prior year learner contact hours within each ABE consortium. The MDE ABE Office has prepared a detailed description of the state ABE funding formula, which can be found by clicking here.
Competitive grant funds (one-time appropriations) are also allocated.
Because of the rapidly growing need for services, the state has increased funding for ABE frequently over the last decade. The chart below shows state funding since 2005.
|
|
2005 |
2006 |
2007 |
2008 est |
|
State ABE Aid |
$36,509,000 |
$36,518,000 |
$37,999,810 |
$41,059,748 |
Eligibility for ABE programs requires that a participant be 16 or older, not currently enrolled in secondary school, and functioning below the 12th grade level in any of the basic academic areas including reading, math, writing, and speaking English.
The chart below shows enrollment levels for each of these programs, as well as select participant characteristics across all programs, for FY 2007.
|
ABE Enrollment |
Selected Participant Characteristics |
|
ESL 36,544 (49%) |
Parents 51,886 (69%) |
|
Basic Skills 25,375 (34%) |
On Public Assistance 11,488 (15%) |
|
GED + Diploma 13,245 (17%) |
Rural Participants 10,098 (13%) |
|
Workforce Prep 5,122 |
Urban Participants 38,964 (52%) |
|
Family Literacy 1,090 |
Unemployed 8,853 (12%) |
|
Citizenship 1,683 |
Incarcerated 7,456 (10%) |
|
Total 74,671 |
| duplicate counts in last 3 categories duplicate counts among all categories
Institutions Providing ABE Services
To be eligible to apply for funding, a provider must: 1) be a nonprofit organization such as a public school district, community based organization, faith based organization, public housing authority, public post-secondary institution, or tribal authority; 2) have documented experience of at least two years providing ABE or ESL services to adults; and 3) have facilities accessible to physically handicapped learners.
Providers of ABE programs come together in consortia around the state:
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ABE programs are delivered at more than 500 sites located in public schools, workforce centers, community/technical colleges, prisons/jails, libraries, learning centers, tribal centers, and non-profit organizations throughout the state. Programs have voluntarily formed 54 ABE consortia to maximize efficiency and share resources.
ABE instructors are licensed teachers as well as volunteers:
ð Public school ABE programs are required to use K-12 licensed teachers or teachers with a degree in ESL. About 300 teachers hold the permissive ABE teaching license in addition to the K-12 license. Many other non-school district ABE providers use licensed teachers if they are available. About 75 percent of ABE teachers are part-time. In addition to professional teachers, over 3,600 trained volunteer literacy tutors assist in ABE annually.
Performance Accountability
There are several measures used to assess the effectiveness of ABE programs. These include “core” and “secondary” outcome measures, as follows:
Core Outcome Measures
Educational gain
Entered employment
Retained employment
Receipt of a secondary school diploma
Receipt of a GED
Placement in postsecondary education
Placement in postsecondary training
Secondary Outcome Measures
Achieved citizenship skills
Reduction in public assistance
Voting behavior
Involvement in community activities
Involvement in children’s education
Involvement in children’s literacy activities
FY 2007 Selected Outcome Results
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The ABE system has exceeded its federally set performance targets(academic level completion, employment, GED attainment, and transition to post-secondary) every year since 2002.
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One out of every ten diplomas issued in MN during 2007 was a GED or Adult H.S. Diploma.
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ABE enrollment has increased by 65% since 1995 (45,322 to 74,671 enrollees).
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