A r c h i v e d  I n f o r m a t i o n

The Department of Education has just completed the National Evaluation of Adult Education Programs, a four-year study that provides information on programs supported by the Adult Education Act, characteristics of clients enrolled in the programs, and outcomes achieved by those clients. The major findings of this study are presented below.

The Adult Education Act authorizes instructional services for adults aged 16 and older who are not enrolled in secondary school; lack sufficient mastery of basic education skills to enable them to function effectively in society; do not have a secondary education graduation certificate or its equivalent; and lack basic English language speaking, reading, or writing skills. Most federally supported adult education programs offer the three basic types of instruction: adult basic education (ABE), designed for adults functioning at or below the 8th-grade level; adult secondary education (ASE), for adults functioning at the secondary-school level including General Educational Development (GED) preparation; and English as a Second Language (ESL), which is designed to teach English to non-English speakers.

Federal restrictions on use of adult education funds include a maximum of 20 percent to be used for ASE/GED programs, a minimum of 10 percent to serve inmates in correctional institutions, and a minimum of 15 percent set aside for demonstration and teacher training projects.

English as a Second Language is the emerging focus of adult education. There were between 2.6 and 3.2 million adult education clients who received one or more hours of instruction during the 1992 program year. About 2 million new clients entered the program over that 12-month period.

• Forty-six percent of new adult education clients enrolled in ESL programs, an increase of almost two and a half times the 19 percent enrolled in ESL in 1979. ESL clients are concentrated in metropolitan areas of the West: 72 percent are located in the West and 94 percent reside in metropolitan areas. All but two percent were born outside the U.S.

  --In terms of total hours of instruction received, clients in ESL classes account for approximately 76 percent, ASE for 13 percent, and ABE for 11 percent. For adult education clients who attend at least one class, the median number of hours of instruction is 58 over a period of 13 weeks. ESL clients stay longer and get more instruction. Median hours in ESL is 113--more than three times the averages for ABE (35 hours) and ASE (28 hours).

• Thirty percent of new clients enrolled in ASE. ASE clients are mostly young, white, and located in the mid-West or the South: Many live in small towns or rural areas. ASE clients are predominantly non-minority (68 percent), located in the mid-West or South (68 percent), and young (71 percent age 30 and under). One-third live in non-metropolitan areas (small towns and rural areas).

• The remaining 24 percent of new adult education clients enroll in ABE. ABE clients are also concentrated in the mid-West and South (78 percent), but are more likely to be minority (54 percent compared with 32 percent for ASE) and somewhat older (39 percent over age 30 versus 28 percent for ASE) than new ASE clients. Nearly a third (30 percent) live outside of metropolitan areas.

In June 1990, there were 2,819 local programs supported by the Adult Education Act. Although most clients are served by large programs in urban areas, most local programs are small and located outside metropolitan areas. There are also large regional variations in levels of service.

• Most programs are small and serve non-metropolitan areas. Programs in non-metropolitan areas account for just 43 percent of all clients, although they represent 86 percent of all local programs. Even though only 14 percent of programs are located in metropolitan areas, they serve 57 percent of clients.

• On average, programs in metropolitan areas are eight times larger. The average number of clients being served as of mid-October of 1991 in programs located in metropolitan areas was 2,800. Non-metropolitan programs were serving an average of 350.

• Western States, with about 19 percent of the program's target population, have 40 percent of the clients. Increasing enrollments in ESL account for the concentration of adult education clients in the West, where clients amount to over 13 percent of the relevant target population. In contrast, States in the Northeast region, with 22 percent of the target population, serve just 11 percent of the national total. Participation rates are uniformly low in the Northeast (less than 2 percent of target groups).

Programs have the capacity to serve more participants. Data clearly indicate that the adult education system, with the important exception of ESL programs, has the capacity to serve additional clients.

• During its peak season (mid-October) the program is operating at about 70 percent of reported capacity. Total excess capacity across all programs (with and without waiting lists) is estimated at 642,000--about 42 percent of the number actually being served as of mid-October, 1990.

• Utilization of capacity varies by type of area and sponsor. Programs operated by community colleges and programs serving non-metropolitan areas were especially likely to report excess capacity.

• Demand is strongest for ESL. A quarter of all programs had clients on waiting lists in October 1990. Nationally, about 64,000 were waiting to be served, and two-thirds-- 41,000--were waiting for ESL.

Client Motivation and Persistence is highly variable. Clients come to adult education programs for a variety of reasons, but almost all attend voluntarily. Persistence in adult education programs is highly variable. ESL clients receive high levels of instruction and many ASE clients report completing their program. However, ABE clients have typically experienced low retention rates and few contact hours, often not participating long enough to realize benefits.

• Motives for participation are mostly personal. Eighty-one percent of new adult education clients report that they are pursuing their own personal or employment goals while eight percent say they enrolled to satisfy family or friends. Only eight percent were required to enroll by another program or agency, and just three percent enrolled to meet an employer's requirements.

• Among those who register for an adult education program, many do not attend class or complete enough instruction to benefit from the program. Fifteen percent of those who register never attend class. Intensity and duration of participation varies depending upon the type of adult education program.

• Long-term participation is quite rare in adult education. Just 8 percent persist past the first year, and only 2.5 percent complete two years. Clients entering the programs in August had the highest average number of weeks of enrollment: 40 weeks for ESL clients, 28 for ABE clients, and 23 for ASE clients.

• ASE clients report the highest program completion rate. Former ASE clients, who are distinguished by the lowest average number of hours of program participation (just 28 hours compared with 35 hours for ABE clients and 58 hours for ESL clients), are most likely to cite successful completion of the program as their reason for leaving--39 percent of the group compared to 22 percent of former ESL clients. This may be related to preparation for and passing a GED exam.

• A change in personal circumstances is the most common reason for dropping out. Follow up of former clients who commenced instruction, but had been inactive for at least six months, indicate that most clients leave for reasons unrelated to the program-- especially changes in their employment situation. This is especially true of former ESL clients. However, eleven percent cite family responsibilities including child care and four percent report transportation problems.

• Use of support services is a strong predictor of persistence for all three instructional components. About one-fourth of clients use at least one type of support service, most frequently counseling (16 percent), followed by financial assistance (7 percent) and transportation (7 percent).

Most evidence indicates that adult education programs have a positive, although modest, impact on literacy. In addition, a large majority of former ESL clients reported that their participation in the programs helped them in their job or helped them find a job.

• About one-third of adult education clients stay long enough to advance to the next level of instruction. Roughly 650,000 out of 1.7 million new participants each year put in enough hours to complete the instructional level in which they were initially placed. For ESL clients in the beginning level, this amounts to a very substantial 216 hours. In contrast, just 32 hours sufficed on average for completion of the ABE beginning level.

• Literacy test scores of persisters show modest gains in all three components of about one grade level. ESL students, after an average of 120 hours of instruction, showed a gain of 5 points on the CASAS reading test--an appreciable but modest improvement. Those retested in ABE after about 84 hours of instruction progressed from about grade level 6.1 to 7.4 (TABE scores of 728 and 743 respectively. ASE students, also tested on TABE--showed gains from about grade level 8.5 to 9.3 (scores of 755 and 762).

• Former ESL clients are most likely to report job-related benefits from their participation in the program. Sixty-seven percent of ESL clients who were not working when they enrolled in the program, but were employed when contacted 6 months after they left the program, thought that what they had learned in the program had helped them in finding a job. Only 36 percent of ABE clients and 38 percent of ASE clients unemployed when they enrolled in the program, reported that what they learned helped them get a job.

Variation in the size of the program, staff qualifications, and instructional method results in widely varying program costs. Most programs rely heavily on part-time instructors and tutors and on volunteers. However, spending more per hour of instruction is not positively related to persistence.

• Small programs are least likely to meet professional standards. Small programs in rural areas are least likely to have experienced (at least 3 years), adult education certified, full-time staff or to provide in-service training for their staff.

• Professionalism also differs by type of local program sponsor. One-third of all local programs operated by community colleges have experienced, full-time staff and regularly provide in-service training. In contrast, 41 percent of the programs operated by local education agencies lack all three features: no training, and no full-time or adult-education-certified staff.

• Programs adopt a variety of curriculum and instructional approaches. Over half of the programs reported using more highly individualized than fixed curricula, with another 27 percent placing themselves in the middle of this continuum.

• Unit costs vary by type of service component. Average costs per client-hour in ESL were a relatively low $4.28, compared to $6.11 for all ABE clients and $5.12 for those in ASE. Average expenditures for ESL clients are more than twice the averages for ABE and ASE clients. Considering the client's average length of stay, programs spent an average of $484 on ESL clients, compared to $214 for ABE and $143 for ASE.

Most local programs lack basic management information needed to improve their programs. In addition to the lack of individual client records, testing procedures often preclude documentation of learning gains.

• Few local programs maintain client-specific records. For many of the 130 local programs participating in the study, compiling attendance and service records for individual clients was a new challenge. This was especially true of large multi-site programs. Two such programs--Chicago and Miami--succeeded in collecting intake data on new clients for the study, but were unable to provide attendance and service data.

• As a result, the accuracy of program data reported by States is of concern. The study's high-end estimate of total clients served during the 1990-91 program year was 3.2 million, compared with 3.7 million reported by States to Federal program officials. Since Federal rules call for clients who completed fewer than 12 hours of instruction to be excluded from these counts (and about 300,000 clients drop out each year before 12 hours), the discrepancy between data reported by States and the NEAEP estimate is at least 800,000.

• Local programs reported valid pre- and post-test scores for only three percent of the new client sample. Matched pre- and post- tests were reported for only 57 percent of clients. Most of the matched tests were found to be invalid when analyzed further. Pretests were frequently administered after substantial instructional time. Clients were administered tests that were too difficult or too easy on either the pre- or post- test (or both).

Potential Implications:

• Because of different mixes of adult education target groups, states should have more flexibility in distributing and spending federal adult education funds. Funding limitations and set asides hamper the ability of States to set priorities for allocating resources among target groups. The need for ESL instructions is a good example: Nationally, ESL participants account for 75 percent of all client-hours of instruction. In the several states that have large ESL populations, set-asides may interfere with provision of ESL services. On the other hand, in states where there is little demand for ESL programs, limitations on SE funding may restrict addressing local priorities.

• New strategies need to be explored that improve the retention and completion rates of adult education participation, particularly for adult basic education. The findings show that many ABE participants do not study long enough in the program to receive any significant educational benefits.

• Adult education programs should consider placing more emphasis on the relevance of the programs to the workplace. The small percentage of ABE and ASE clients who felt that their adult education programs helped them get a job is of concern. In many cases, what adult education participants learn does not seem to be clearly connected to work skills.

• States should develop better performance indicators for adult education programs that improve their capacity to assess program participation, completion, and effectiveness. Record systems lack the capacity to provide basic information on enrollment, services provided, and literacy gains. While the program is moving in the direction of common indicators and development of data systems, substantial work is still needed in this area. Performance measurement systems need to be developed to provide information for continuous improvement of local programs and for accountability in exchange for flexibility in federal funding.

• Because of the cost of dispersing adult education through many small local programs, strategies should be considered to provide adult education services more effectively. Roughly 1,000 local programs (out of 2,800) serve fewer than 100 clients a year. Most of these programs lack full-time staff, resources for maintaining records and providing support services, and teacher qualification and training standards. Strategies such as better use of technology, distance learning, and formation of partnerships and consortia should be explored to improve productivity of adult education in small programs and rural areas.

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Last update September 1996 (swz).