The OVAE Fact Sheet Series highlights efforts currently underway at the Office of Vocational and Adult Education (OVAE) to support the principles of the President's No Child Left Behind Act of 2001. The principle(s) supported by this effort are:

• Increase Accountability and Academic Achievement
• Focus on What Works

Background

Improving the quality of instruction through the development of content standards is a critical step in developing effective curriculum and meaningful assessment to enhance student learning. In adult education, many programs do not use standards to guide its programs. Standards development is a slow and intensive process. The Adult Education Content Standards Warehouse project has been created to assist states to build capacity in the development, alignment, and implementation of state adult education content standards in reading, mathematics, and English language acquisition.

Overview

This initiative will assist states that are committed to standards-based education by (1) collecting and disseminating information on existing state and national content standards; (2) developing guidance on how to validate and implement existing standards for state adoption and the assessments and curricula aligned with those standards; (3) supporting interested states to develop state content standards for adult basic education (ABE), adult secondary (ASE), and English language acquisition (ELA) programs.

Outcomes and Products

• Electronic information warehouse providing universal access to a wide range of adult education content standards
• "How To Guide" for establishing state adult education standards for ABE/ASE and ELA programs
• State collaborative working groups that address the development and alignment of content standards in reading, mathematics, and English language acquisition

Timeline

FY 2003 to FY 2004

Fact Sheet Series

Contact

Ronna.Spacone@ed.gov

Website