TESTIMONY OF DR. CAROL D'AMICO

U.S. DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION

**ASSISTANT SECRETARY FOR VOCATIONAL AND ADULT EDUCATION**

**BEFORE THE COMMITTEE ON EDUCATION AND THE WORKFORCE**

**SUBCOMMITTEE on 21^st^ CENTURY COMPETITIVENESS**

**U.S. HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES**

March 4, 2003

Chairman McKeon, Ranking Member Kildee, and members of the committee,
thank you for inviting me to testify on basic and literacy education for
the Nation's adults. The Department is preparing a proposal for the
reauthorization of the Adult Education and Family Literacy Act (AEFLA).
I look forward to working with the committee to craft legislation that
will achieve our goals of strengthening program quality, improving
accountability, and meeting the needs of low-literate and basic skills
deficient adult Americans through partnerships with public and private
organizations.

The Federal system of support for adult literacy programs has not been
able to fully address the gap between the literacy skills needed to
effectively function in the labor market and the current level of
literacy possessed. Tens of millions of adults do not have the reading,
language, computational, or English skills they need to be
self-sufficient or to continue to adapt to the changing demands of the
global information economy that characterize our Nation's present and
future.

My office is approaching reauthorization from two directions. First, we
have consulted widely with our constituents to develop a broad vision
for how diverse institutions can come together to raise literacy levels
and promote better real-life outcomes. Second, we have sought to define
the appropriate role of the Federal government in achieving that vision.

To meet the economic imperative of equipping our low literate and basic
skills deficient workers for the demands of the workplace and in order
to prepare residents with limited English proficiency for work and civic
participation, Federal legislation must address the quality of the
educational services paid for with taxpayers' money. The Federal
government, as well as the States, must take a leadership stance in
better focusing and coordinating complementary resources to more
effectively enhance the literacy skills of Americans and provide better
opportunities in the labor market.

# **The Economic Imperative**

The Department of Education is embarking on a new national assessment of
adult literacy to evaluate the skills of America's adults. The results
will be available in late 2004. The findings of the last national survey
were published in the early 1990s. That survey found 40 million American
adults (aged 16 and older) functioning at the lowest level of literacy,
and 90 million functioning at the two lowest levels. These individuals
are not equipped with the skills they need to work effectively in the
high-skill high-wage jobs that increasingly characterize our economy.
Millions of working adults, along with unemployed, dislocated, and
discouraged workers need to upgrade their basic skills to find and keep
employment.

Are we prepared for the future? Today's job market demands that workers
adapt as new technology is introduced, organizations restructure, and
employment opportunities quickly appear and disappear. With the
retirement of the baby boomers, projections are that the Nation will
have a shortage of perhaps 12 million qualified workers in the next
decade. Even now, immigrants fill about one-half of the jobs created
through labor market expansion. Many are highly qualified but, on
average, foreign-born full-time workers have significantly lower English
Language literacy skills than native-born full-time workers.

If the trends of the last decade continue, 80 percent of the jobs in the
fastest growing employment sectors will require some postsecondary
education or certification. Adults without a high school diploma or its
equivalent will have no access to the education or occupational skills
training necessary for those jobs. Adults who possess basic skills below
the high school level will have a very tough road ahead of them in their
quest to gain or maintain employment and self-sufficiency. Furthermore,
an alarming 50 percent of new college students need to take remedial
courses. Statistics leave no doubt that students in college remedial
classes have a significantly reduced chance of finishing their degrees.

We need to create an educational pipeline that will better equip future
workers. In the coming months, I look forward to discussing our proposal
for secondary-technical education serving youth in high schools and
colleges. Today, I will talk about the educationally disadvantaged
adults in this pipeline -- many of whom have already been left behind by
our nation's K-12 education system and are looking for a second chance,
and many of whom, as immigrants, are trying for the first time to take
full advantage of America's opportunities. Of those participating in
adult basic education programs, a growing proportion---now 42
percent---are in English literacy programs. The remaining 58 percent
have basic skills below a high school-equivalent level.

To address their needs, adult basic and literacy education needs to be
well-positioned to more effectively serve low-literate and limited
English-speaking Americans and ensure that when they do enroll in basic
education programs, their program is of sufficient quality that they can
further their education and progress in the labor market.

# **The President's Principles for Education**

The *No Child Left Behind Act of 2001* will ensure that, over time,
American students are better equipped to complete high school and have
more options leading to long-term economic success. Long-term success,
for many adults, includes entering a postsecondary degree or
occupational certification program. But today, many adults are not
prepared. Many left school before graduating or graduated lacking the
basic skills we associate with even ninth-grade competency. The
principles that the President set out in *No Child Left Behind* are
basic principles for the Federal role in education, and they have guided
our thinking about improving the educational outcomes for these
low-literate and basic skills deficient adults.

The first principle of *No Child Left Behind* is *accountability for
student performance*. The President is committed to closing the
achievement gap at all levels of education. While the gap among
demographic and income groups in elementary and secondary education
achievement is well documented, we don't always think about the impact
of that achievement gap on adults. There is a devastating gap between
segments in the adult population. For example, those who succeeded in
the traditional education system are significantly better off in the
workplace. Consider the median annual income of full-time workers 25
years old and over in 1998. Men with a 9^th^-to-12^th^ grade education,
but no high school diploma, earned an average of \$24,000, compared to
an average of \$40,300 earned by men with an associate degree or
\$56,500 earned by men with a bachelor's degree. For women, those with a
9^th^-to-12^th^ grade education but no diploma earned an average of
\$16,500, compared to \$29,900 earned by women with an associates degree
and \$36,600 earned by those with a four-year degree. The national
assessment of adult literacy conducted in the early 1990s found that
unemployment rates among labor force participants who scored at the
lowest literacy level were four to seven times higher than those at the
highest literacy level. Among the employed, the least literate workers
were earning less than 40 percent of what the most literate workers
earned. And the gap has most likely increased this past decade.

In addition to the individual and family costs of low literacy, there is
an economic cost. We are at a critical juncture with the levels of basic
skills attainment by many in our Nation and the needs of business to
compete in the global marketplace. Our Nation's ability to keep and
provide more jobs while increasing productivity will rely on our ability
to produce the workers the employment market needs.

We must ensure that adult basic education programs help adults learn,
and learn quickly. This is where the accountability system is critical.
The accountability system must use the right measures. It must contain
reliable and meaningful data. The right and meaningful measure is
whether students are learning what they need for success in college,
employment, or community participation.

The second principle is to *focus on what works*. Very little empirical
evidence is available to inform us about what works in adult basic and
English literacy instruction. While researchers have made substantial
progress in understanding what works in teaching children, we do not
know as much about how to effectively teach adults reading, mathematics,
or English. In the last three years, the Department has made significant
new investments in order to start filling this research void, but the
results are just beginning to become available and much more work must
be done.

We can *reduce bureaucracy and increase flexibility* by positioning
States to take a leadership role in developing a vision for adult
education and a complementary vision for workforce preparation. One of
the challenges in this area is to reduce the burden of data collection
while improving the accountability system. Right now, adult education
agencies are struggling to meet Federal data collection requirements. It
is particularly difficult to find out about students' education and
employment after they leave the adult basic education programs. Many
States rely on student surveys to gather this information and have a
hard time locating students. However, working in conjunction with the
Department of Labor, we believe that we can develop more reliable data
gathering techniques for more reliable outcome reporting. We must do
what we can to simplify the accountability system and help States
produce reliable and meaningful information on student outcomes, but we
must not ask States for data that is unrealistic to collect.

The final principle is to provide options and choices for students. If
there is a population that needs educational choices, it is
out-of-school youth and disadvantaged adults. In many areas, the vast
majority of the State\'s adult education grants go to one education
system---usually the secondary schools and sometimes the community
colleges. So that potential students can choose from a variety of
programs, legislation should support the participation of a broad array
of agencies in the competition for adult basic education grants in each
State and community.

## Vision for Adult Basic and Literacy Education

I advocate expanding our vision by thinking creatively about the
literacy education system. A system that includes business, community
agencies, social service agencies, libraries, volunteer literacy
providers, and any source that can help prepare students for employment
and self-sufficiency through increased opportunities for postsecondary
education or training. A quality adult education system would achieve
the following:

-   Adults will learn the core academic skills they need for current and
    future education, training or work opportunities.

-   Adults will complete the high school-equivalent level of adult
    education possessing the basic reading, language, English-language,
    and computational skills they need to go to postsecondary education
    or training or employment without the need for remediation.

-   Students will be able to find educational options close by that fit
    their schedules.

-   Programs will be equipped to meet the special needs of students with
    disabilities.

-   Students will improve their skills quickly when they participate.

-   Adults will learn in a context that is appropriate to their
    individual needs.

The Federal role in achieving this vision is to provide funding and
other supports to the States and local programs to carry out educational
services and improve the effectiveness of those services. Federal funds
pay for basic operations: teachers' salaries, instructional materials,
technology, and professional development. Federal funds allow States to
keep up with rising costs, improve quality, and serve more students.
Federal funding to AEFLA and the corrections literacy programs increased
\$104 million, or 21 percent, between FY 2000 and FY 2002. Federal
funding must be used more strategically and wisely and utilize existing
service delivery mechanisms for greater efficiency.

The Federal legislation must build community capacity within and outside
of the Federally funded system, establish Federal leadership for
instructional quality through dissemination of best practices, and
ensure accountability for student outcomes. For example, our office is
launching a work-based literacy project to gather information about
effective adult literacy/employer partnerships for strengthening the
basic skills and employment skills of individuals. We will gather that
information, and create useful materials that State and local adult
literacy programs can use to build their internal capacity to more
effectively partner with employers and increase availability of adult
basic skills education.

The States' role is to ensure quality programs through the competitions
they hold among possible providers, through statewide program
improvement activities, and through the accountability system. The
States reserve a portion of their Federal grants for this work. I
believe that the State adult educational agencies also must step into a
new leadership role if we are to achieve the vision. Then the States can
spearhead the building of community capacity and take a strong stance
for local program accountability.

There are some things legislation can do to promote the vision. It can
encourage high-quality instruction and instructor competency. It can
focus on academic achievement and instructional practices that work and
lead to more meaningful employment outcomes for participants. It can
support States in holding local programs accountable for what students
learn. In exchange for that accountability, it can give States and
instructors the flexibility to do what works and reduce the
administrative burden imposed by Federal laws and rules.

**Achieving the Vision for Quality Instruction: Focus on Academics and
What Works**

The instructional component of adult basic and literacy education is
essential. Programs need to *improve their quality,* both to accelerate
student learning and to attract partners. Students need academic skills.
Employers need to see documented results that they value, such as
students' attainment of basic skills that will increase productivity.
While the law should continue to authorize basic, secondary, family,
workplace and English literacy activities, each of these programs needs
to focus on student achievement of core academic skills that leads to
better employment opportunities. This may include a transition from
welfare-to-work, a new arrival into the nation's workforce, preparing
for citizenship, retraining for dislocated and trade-affected workers,
or family literacy.

One route to quality is *rigorous content standards and student
assessments*. We propose that the new legislation provide Federal
support and encouragement for the adoption of State content standards
and standardized assessments in every State in language arts,
mathematics, and English fluency. Just as accountability under *No Child
Left Behind* is dependent on clear academic standards and assessing
students' proficiency against those standards, so are standards and
assessments needed to foster accountability in basic and literacy
education. Many States already are working to this end. California has
had standards for English literacy programs in place for several years.
New York State adapted its K-12 standards for adult education and uses a
peer-review process to check alignment of instructional materials with
the standards.

It is time to institutionalize this practice to ensure that all adult
basic, secondary, and English language students benefit from the
increased rigor and consistency that comes from standards and
assessments. For adults, standards should be calibrated against
real-world expectations, such as entering postsecondary education or the
workforce. Therefore, the standards should be developed in consultation
with employers and postsecondary educators. The standards States
establish under *No Child Left Behind* provide another benchmark against
which States can calibrate their standards for adult students. We will
support States in forming voluntary partnerships to develop standards
and align student assessments to the standards, so that each State does
not have to incur the expense of developing them.

Another mechanism for improving quality is *research-based practices.*
The Administration is investing millions of dollars in new research on
adult learning, and will continue to do so. My office uses the national
activities funds from AEFLA to support this research. For example, we
are supporting the National Institute of Child Health and Development's
rigorous research on the most effective methods for teaching reading
skills to low-literate adults. Finding from our new research will help
adult educators better understand what instructional strategies work.
Without better scientifically based research on what instructional
strategies work for adults, as well as what proficiencies are needed for
initial and advancing employment, our efforts to support program
improvement will have no grounding. We will identify promising practices
that need to be scientifically tested, and test them. Over the next few
years, as the findings from this research become available, we will
support the translation of research into practical strategies for
instructors and professional development to ensure research affects
classroom practice.

To encourage and motivate adult educational programs to adopt promising
practices, we propose that the legislation contain provisions to support
research-based practice. For example, we can ask States to plan how they
will adopt research-based practices and share them with instructors
through professional development. The National Institute for Literacy
(NIFL) can play an important role in the support and dissemination of
research on literacy. The Administration recommends reauthorization of
NIFL with changes to ensure that national research on adult literacy is
coordinated with what we are learning in reading research across the
lifespan.

## Achieving the Vision for Accountability in Exchange for Increased Flexibility

We envision a system that holds programs accountable for real-world
results that matter to students. For those either employed or seeking
employment, acquiring a core academic foundation enables them to compete
in the labor market and seek upward job mobility. For immigrants and
others who are not fully literate in English, the result that matters is
a level of English literacy that allows them to be successful at work
and actively participate in the community and in their children's
school. For those wishing to enter postsecondary education, the result
that matters is entering college without remedial coursework and earning
a degree. Our current accountability system does not do enough to inform
students, the Department, or Congress about the degree to which adults
in programs receiving Federal funds are meeting these objectives.

We know that in any endeavor, a system will "treasure what we measure."
That is why choosing appropriate accountability measures and attaching
value to those measures is extremely important. The accountability
system established in AEFLA in 1998 was a breakthrough in the
Federal-State relationship, in that it was a step toward accountability
for student outcomes. We recommend that new legislation streamline and
strengthen the accountability system to focus on what we really want
from adult basic education---student learning, completion of education
credentials and successful employment outcomes. These measures are
consistent with a set of common measures the Administration has
developed in order to assess various Federal programs serving youth and
adults through education and training services, including adult basic
and literacy education. The unique contribution of adult basic education
to workforce development is to ensure that adults have a solid academic
foundation to prepare them for the challenges of the labor market. Thus,
the adult basic education accountability system must maintain a focus on
learning gains, education credentials, and workforce participation.

The legislation should promote accountability by continuing to offer
incentives for success and much more explicit consequences for failure
to perform, including both technical assistance and sanctions. States
must be held accountable for taking action to improve local program
results if the States are not meeting their goals.

Local program accountability for student achievement is a weak point in
the highly decentralized system of adult education. Improved local
accountability is the next step if performance information is to be used
for program improvement. Accountability for results can create an
incentive for programs to adopt the most effective research-based
instructional practices. We will ask States to present a plan to
increase the accountability of the agencies they fund. As in current
law, States should annually assess the performance of grant recipients.
But legislation must encourage States to be more proactive, providing
technical assistance to grantees that are failing to deliver results.
Ultimately, States should stop funding grantees that are not effectively
serving the public. While States currently have the authority to do
this, we believe the Federal legislation should strengthen States'
authority over local performance.

Public commitment to results and public disclosure of results are a
compelling part of accountability. Therefore, the legislation should
require that the results of the accountability system be made easily
available to students and potential students. We will ask Congress to
create a report-card provision to enhance local program accountability.

### Achieving the Vision for Building Capacity: More Access, Enrollment, and Choice

In our vision, the State adult education agency will provide leadership
to establish consistent, high-quality services across many public and
private settings, thereby increasing students' options and the number of
adults enrolled. We will ask States to diversify providers at the local
level. We will also ask States to build the capacity of community-based
organizations, including faith-based organizations, to provide these
services.

To further improve the options for students, the legislation should
support increased participation of employers and promote workplace
literacy projects. The legislation should leverage the participation of
for-profit educational institutions, which currently cannot compete for
the AEFLA grants. We are exploring other means to encourage States to
create options for students, including financial incentives for agencies
that successfully diversify their local providers and increase the
number of students enrolled.

There already is a large number of Federal funding streams that may, but
often do not, support literacy education for specific groups of
disadvantaged adults. Coordination between basic and postsecondary
education can help basic education students make a smooth transition to
college. Coordination with employment-related programs can help
job-search and job-training clients succeed in new jobs. Coordination of
English literacy programs with refugee and community services for
immigrants can help limited-English speakers increase their employment
opportunities and civic participation. Our legislation should encourage
better coordination across these programs and limit bureaucratic
barriers. These connections help to ensure that individuals referred to
literacy education from social and employment services, such as the
One-Stop system, receive a high-quality education, equipping them to
meet their goals.

To promote coordination across the public systems and connections
between public and private literacy efforts, my office is planning to
work with States to experiment with system-wide coordination. We will
explore how a State can better plan for coordination, so that each
agency identifies its expertise and contributes accordingly to a
statewide effort. We will also explore how to spread quality across all
Federally and non-Federally funded programs through content standards
and assessments.

I believe technology holds great promise for improving basic and
literacy instruction, improving adults' access to education and
increasing the number of adults who are working to improve their skills.
Adults need to significantly increase their skills in a reasonable
amount of time so that they do not become discouraged. The legislation
should support advancement of technology for adult learning. We propose
to continue emphasizing the development of technology applications and a
new approach to teaching through technology in the State and national
leadership activities.

Part of improving customer choice is ensuring access to basic and
literacy education opportunities through the one-stop career centers.
For the reauthorization of WIA, the Departments of Education and Labor
will propose to reduce the administrative burden and provide more
flexibility in the establishment of State and local interagency
relationships. Basic and literacy education will continue to be a
partner in workforce investment. Together, the Departments are
developing ideas for reauthorization that will encourage referrals,
joint services, and other strategies for coordination within the
One-Stop system, while increasing State and local flexibility.

During this statement, I have mentioned several times the Department's
investments in research and leadership projects. For future years, we
propose to support national leadership activities through an allowable
set-aside of the total appropriation for State grants, in contrast to
the current practice of requesting a separate congressional
appropriation for this purpose. A set aside would provide the Secretary
flexibility to spend up to a certain percentage of funds for these
national investments, and would also simplify the appropriations
process.

## Conclusion

The vision for the proposed Adult Basic and Literacy Education Act is
that eligible adults have opportunities to improve their basic and
literacy skills in high-quality research-based programs that will equip
them to succeed in the next step of their education and employment. I
look forward to working with the Committee to craft Federal policy that
will successfully support the realization of this vision.

I will be happy to answer any questions you may have.