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Community Colleges
Adult Education and Literacy
Secondary, Career, and Technical Education
Other Department News

Community Colleges

Innovative Education Through the Use of Simulation Technology in the Health Sciences

Temple College in Temple, Texas, inspires traditional and nontraditional students alike about the importance of education for a career in the 21st century.   It is doing so through hands-on experiences with advanced technological systems.  The community college is at the forefront in promoting the most innovative health sciences programs.  The college’s new state-of-the-art facility provides classroom space and integrated simulated clinical training in its departments in dental hygiene, emergency medical services, respiratory care, and surgical technology. 

Temple houses the award-winning Clinical Simulation Center (CSC), which is a collaborative initiative of Temple College’s Divisions of Health Sciences and Nursing, Scott & White Memorial Hospital, and Texas A&M University System Health Sciences Center’s College of Medicine.  This “mini hospital” uses human patient simulators to enhance the experience of its health care students.  The facility, which houses the dental hygiene, respiratory therapy, emergency medical services, and surgical technology departments, allows its students to learn in an environment that offers unlimited opportunities to build competence and confidence without risk to the patients and themselves. 

On a recent visit to Temple College, Acting Assistant Secretary Beto Gonzalez praised the college for their ability to meet the needs of the community.   He went on to say that this is an opportunity to establish “pathways” between the high school curriculum and Temple College.

For more information on this state-of-the art program visit the Web site at: www.templejc.edu/dept/HealthScience/Sim_Center.htm.

Adult Education and Literacy

First Interagency Coordination Group for Adult Education Meeting Held on March 7, 2006

In December 2005, the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) released the results of the National Assessment of Adult Literacy (NAAL).  The report, “A First Look at the Literacy of America’s Adults in the 21st Century,” represents the first national findings on adult literacy since 1992.  The NAAL confirmed that there has been little change in American adults’ reading skills between 1992 and 2003. 

As part of a comprehensive and preventive approach to improving literacy of adults nationwide, Secretary Spellings announced the formation of the group to review ways of better coordination of adult education and literacy federal resources.   

The first meeting of the coordination group was held on March 7, 2006, with fourteen federal agencies attending.   The meeting opened with NCES Associate Commissioner Peggy Carr reviewing the findings of the NAAL with a focus on the 93 million individuals scoring at the “below basic” and “basic” levels of literacy and the effects of those levels on employment, poverty, public assistance, and job training.  Acting Assistant Secretary Beto Gonzalez stressed the importance of partnering across federal agencies to improve literacy services nationwide.  Emily DeRocco, Assistant Secretary of Labor’s Employment and Training Administration, addressed the need for an educated workforce, particularly in developing strong foundational skills in math and science as a part of President Bush’s American Competitiveness Initiative. 

The group’s mission is to improve collaboration and coordination across federal agencies, leverage resources among agencies, share promising practices and research on effective strategies, and reduce duplication of effort.  The group began to identify projects that can facilitate these goals.

A Web site will be launched that contains information and products associated with the goals of the workgroup.  One such product will be a searchable database of federal programs that have relevance to improving literacy among American adults.  The group will convene as a whole on a quarterly basis over the next year, with targeted focus groups meeting on an ongoing basis.  The next interagency coordination group meeting is tentatively scheduled for summer.

For more information on the interagency coordination group for adult education, please contact Megan Phaneuf at (202) 245-7835 or Megan.Phaneuf@ed.gov.

A significant number of English language learners (ELLs) who enroll in adult education programs need help not only learning English, but also in improving their basic literacy skills.  One-quarter of the immigrants who participated in federally funded adult education programs in 2003 had completed eight or fewer years of education in their home countries.  Meanwhile, our knowledge of how we can most effectively help English language learners who lack basic literacy skills is limited. 

With support from OVAE, the Institute of Education Sciences (IES) has launched a new project that will begin to address the needs of English language learners with limited basic literacy skills.   The American Institutes for Research has been competitively selected to oversee the development and evaluation of a curriculum of explicit instruction in literacy.  The “explicit literacy” or “enhanced” curriculum is being developed by Literacy Works of New Mexico, and the evaluation will be conducted by the Lewin Group, Berkeley Policy Associates, Mathematica Policy Research, and the Educational Testing Service.  This $7 million experimental research and development effort will address the following questions:

• Do adult low-literacy-level ELLs who receive an enhanced curriculum have better reading and writing, as well as speaking and listening skills, than those who receive the instruction normally provided by English language programs?
• Does the enhanced curriculum have different effects on subgroups of low-literacy-level learners, e.g., those who enter the program with different levels of native language literacy?
• How well do instructors implement the enhanced curriculum?

Data will be collected on two student groups enrolled in 2007-2008 in test sites throughout the nation.  A report on findings will be available in 2009.  If shown to be effective, the curriculum will be made available free of charge to all requesting ESL programs by 2009-2010.

Strategic Partnership for a Competitive Workforce Holds First of Four Institutes

The Departments of Education and Labor have created the Strategic Partnerships for a Competitive Workforce Initiative (Partnership Initiative) to inform and support communities that are building comprehensive workforce and education solutions to meet the needs of their local economies.  The purpose of the Partnership Initiative is to support enhanced education outcomes through the development of comprehensive educational assets for workforce solutions that will ultimately contribute to local and regional economic growth.

To this end, OVAE and the Department of Labor’s Employment and Training Administration (ETA) have been working together to launch a series of four institutes to support the development of career pathway programs at the local level.  These two-day institutes engage recently established community-based teams, helping them to foster wide-ranging partnerships to build career pathways. 

The first of these events was held March 13-14 in Baltimore.  Eight teams attended from around the country, each of them working on building career pathways in the healthcare industry.  Leaders from the school system, adult education, industry, community colleges, and workforce investment boards were represented on each team.

Committed to President Bush’s goal of collaboration among federal agencies, ETA and OVAE have worked closely for months to develop and jointly deliver the program.  Attendees were chosen from ETA’s Community Based Job Training program.
 
The institutes are expected to deliver the following benefits:

• Sustainable and effective collaborations between key partners in participating communities;
• Common understandings of the significance of career pathways and their application within each participating organization;
• Increased awareness of resources that can help partners refine workforce quality and economic development objectives; and
• The opportunity to begin the planning process for sustained change.

The second of the four institutes will be held on May 1-2 in Los Angeles, also focused on healthcare.  Subsequent institutes will focus on advanced manufacturing and skilled trades/construction.

For further information, contact Gregory Henschel at (202)-245-7661 or gregory.henschel@ed.gov

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Secondary, Career, and Technical Education

CTE State Directors’ Spring Meeting

OVAE and the National Association of State Directors of Career Technical Education Consortium (NASDCTEC) will jointly sponsor the annual spring meeting for the state directors of career and technical education (CTE).  The meeting will take place April 10-12, 2006, at the Hilton Washington and Towers, in Washington, D.C.  Topics will include promoting improved collaboration between secondary and postsecondary education and the role of CTE in high school improvement.  Acting Assistant Secretary Beto Gonzalez and other key OVAE staff, Congressional staff and experienced educators will speak.  For new state directors, a special session will be held on April 8 to review legislative requirements, policies, and procedures for managing the Perkins grants programs.  For more information, please contact Lois Davis at (202) 245-7784; Lois.Davis@ed.gov; or visit the NASDCTEC Web site: www.careertech.org.

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Other Department News

$30 Million in Striving Readers Grants Awarded to Help Struggling Readers

On March 22, 2006, U.S. Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings announced that a total of $30 million in Striving Readers grants has been awarded for the 2006-07 school year.  The money is to support the implementation of eight Striving Readers programs across the country.  Over five years, these eight recipients will receive a combined total of over $142 million.

"Reading is the foundation of all learning, a key factor in earning a high school diploma and a ticket to success in the 21st century," said Secretary Spellings.  "The Striving Readers grants help more students get the skills they need to succeed in college and the workforce and in life."

The programs focus on middle and high schools that have significant numbers of struggling readers and are striving to meet No Child Left Behind Adequate Yearly Progress requirements in reading.  They include a range of research-based adolescent literacy projects serving diverse populations.  Each program includes a rigorous evaluation conducted by independent researchers.  The president's 2007 budget requests a $70.3 million increase in Striving Readers grants for a total of more than $100 million. Following are the awardees for the 2006-07 school year:

• Chicago (Illinois) Public Schools / District #299, Chicago Public Schools Striving Readers—$24.5 million over 5 years
• Danville (Kentucky) School District, Kentucky Content Literacy Consortium (KCLC)—$16.2 million over 5 years
• Multnomah County (Portland, Oregon) School District #1, Striving Readers Project—$23.5 million over 5 years
• Newark (New Jersey) Public Schools, Newark Public Schools Striving Readers—$13.9 million over 5 years
• Ohio Department of Youth Services, Striving to Achieve in Reading and Re-Entry (StARR)—$14 million over 5 years
• San Diego (California) Unified School District, Strategies for Literacy Independence Across the Curriculum—$17.5 million over 5 years
• Springfield (Massachusetts) Public Schools, Springfield-Chicopee Striving Readers Program—$16.6 million over 5 years
• Memphis (Tennessee) City Schools, Memphis Striving Readers—$16 million over 5 years

Grantees may use the Striving Readers funds for activities such as interventions for middle and high school-aged students to improve basic reading skills, motivation, vocabulary, fluency, and comprehension using research-based programs; professional development aligned with scientifically based reading research; valid and reliable reading assessments; and the design and implementation of a rigorous evaluation. Applicants had to meet the following requirements to be eligible to receive Striving Readers grants:

• Serve students in grades 6-12 only in Title I eligible schools; and
• Include each of the three following components in their program: (1) school-level strategies; (2) intensive, targeted intervention for struggling readers; and (3) a project evaluation conducted by an independent evaluator that includes a rigorous experimental research-based evaluation of the intervention.

A fact sheet that lists all of the recipients and grant amounts, as well as additional information on the Striving Readers program, is available at http://www.ed.gov/nclb/methods/reading/strivingreaders.html. For more information about the Striving Readers program, visit http://www.ed.gov/programs/strivingreaders/index.html.

Secretary Spellings and Secretary Leavitt Join Governor Easley at North Carolina Pandemic Planning Summit

Pandemics are global in nature but their effects are always local, so I am pleased that Governor Easley is taking a leadership role to prepare North Carolina for this threat," Secretary Leavitt said.  "Pandemic planning needs to address how schools, businesses, public agencies, faith-based organizations and others participate in pandemic preparedness.  With this meeting, local officials can identify needs specific to North Carolina communities and begin crucial coordination to assure readiness if a pandemic outbreak strikes."

At the summit, Secretary Leavitt and Secretary Spellings announced the release of three checklists to assist local schools in pandemic preparation; the checklists target childcare and preschools, school districts (K-12), and colleges and universities. These checklists are the latest in a series of checklists that will help communities, businesses, and individuals prepare for a possible pandemic.

"At the federal level, we will do everything we can to make sure Americans have the resources and support they need in the event of a pandemic outbreak," said Secretary Spellings. "When it comes to preparing our school community—from pre-school all the way to college, there are three key steps to take: talk to health officials and work together to develop a plan; train staff to implement the plan and prepare; and teach students so that they know what to do in the event of a pandemic."

Governor Easley and Secretary Leavitt signed a planning resolution during the summit, agreeing to prepare the state for the possibility of a pandemic influenza.  In the planning resolution, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) committed to providing guidance and technical assistance to North Carolina and provided an initial amount of financial assistance for planning ($2,547,844).  Also, HHS agreed to review the state's plans for use, storage, and distribution of antivirals and notify it of its portion of the federal stockpile of pandemic influenza antiviral drugs.  North Carolina agreed to ensure that its operational plan for pandemic influenza response is an integral element of the overall state and local emergency response plan and to establish a Pandemic Preparedness Coordinating Committee representing all relevant stakeholders.  The state will also exercise its preparedness plan within six months of today's summit.

Secretary Leavitt outlined a series of in-state summits to address pandemic preparedness December 5.  Invited guests included first responders, business leaders, educators, health care providers, faith-based organizations, volunteer agencies, policy makers, and others.

The in-state summits will help the public health and emergency response community in each state inform and involve their political, economic, and community leadership in this process.  Secretary Leavitt and other top HHS officials will participate in the meetings over the next few months.  Along with the education checklists, HHS has prepared a state and local checklist, a business checklist, a guide for individuals and families, checklists for medical care providers, and a checklist for faith-based organizations.  The checklists were distributed at the summit.

More information on pandemic flu readiness is available at www.pandemicflu.gov.

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