[Reading-hall-of-fame] Adult Literacy Workshops

[tsticht at znet.com]

RHF Colleagues: Greetings for the New Year of 2012!

The field of adult basic education is presently meeting challenges for
funding for serving the more than 3,000 programs in the nation which serve
some 2.5 million adult learners per year. For many state and federal
government agencies and several charitable foundations the year 2012
continues major initiatives concerned with (1) adult basic education for
workforce development and (2) projects enhancing the intergenerational
transfer of adult basic skills education from parents to their children.
Both of these types of initiatives address the issue of upward social and
economic mobility for adult basic skills learners and their families. To
address these two thrusts for adult basic skills reform I will continue to
offer free one day workshops in 2012.

The Functional Context Education and Workforce Development workshop
discusses   workplace literacy, career pathways, and postsecondary
transition and looks at R & D on educational approaches such as
contextualization, integration, and acceleration for assisting adult
learners to achieve upward economic mobility through employment. Among
other major initiatives, the workshop discusses the Joyce Foundation’s
Shifting Gears project which believes that “The most innovative state
policy work on adult basic skills education blends basic skills and English
language services with postsecondary education and training, 
”  The
Functional Context and Workforce Development workshop focuses on the
professional wisdom and scientific research supporting the educational
practice of blending  basic skills and English language services with
postsecondary education and training.

The second workshop to be offered in 2012, The Intergenerational Effects of
Adult Education, reviews extensive professional wisdom and scientific
research on adult basic education and its effects on children’s cognitive,
educational, and economic development. This is a direction consistent with
the Pew Foundation’s Economic Mobility Project (EMP) which “focuses public
attention on economic mobility---the ability to move up or down the income
ladder within a lifetime, or from one generation to the next.”  The
Intergenerational Effects of Adult Education workshop makes the case for
investing greater resources to prepare adult educators for getting more
involved in early parenthood education and family literacy programs as a
means of promoting upward mobility across generations.

At the present time my workshop and presentation schedule for 2012 is being
developed and includes the following dates and states:

January 23  Melville, Long Island, New York. Contact: Martin Murphy         
                                                          email:
murphy at li-raen.org

February 3  Miami, Florida. Contact: Mark Needle                            
                                   email: mneedle at dadeschools.net

May 10  East Baltimore, Maryland. Contact: Todd Elliott                     
                                           email:
telliott at greaterhomewood.org

May 23  Albuquerque, New Mexico. Contact: Kimberly Iwasko                   
                                                  email: kai at websnm.com

June 14 Natchez, Mississippi. Contact: Cindy Heimbach                       
                                           email: cindyheimbach at msn.com

June 22 Oxford, Mississippi. Contact: Cindy Heimbach                        
                                          email: cindyheimbach at msn.com

July 11  Chamberlain, South Dakota. Contact:  Barb Unruh                    
                                            email: barb.unruh at state.sd.us

As usual I charge no fee for my presentations but sponsors need to pay my
travel and accommodation expenses. For additional information on workshop
content or to arrange a workshop or other presentation in your area I can
be reached by email at

tsticht at aznet.net