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What Kind of Adult Literacy Policy will help all
Adults Develop the English Language and Literacy Skills they Need to
Participate Fully in American Life? This summary paper was prepared by staff of the National Institute forLiteracy to serve as a stimulus for discussion among participants at a policy forum on Achieving the National Education Goal on Adult Literacy to be held on June 23-24, 1994 at the Westin ANA Hotel in Washington,D.C. This forum is jointly sponsored by the National Institute for Literacy, the National Education Goals Panel and the National Governors Association. The forum was conceived to engage policymakers, researchers, practitioners and citizens in serious and creative discussion of the ideas raised in a set of papers commissioned by the National Education Goals Panel and the National Institute for Literacy. In these papers researchers were asked to examine the significance of the findings of the National Adult Literacy Survey (NALS) for achieving critical national policy goals including the adult literacy and life long learning goal of the National Education Goals. A volume of the complete papers will be published in late 1994. In preparing summary papers for this forum, NIFL staff have drawn on these commissioned papers and discussions with their authors. We have placed their research findings in a uniform framework that includes a series of key questions that will be addressed by forum participants. INTRODUCTION In the past fifteen years the United States has experienced the largest wave of immigration since the beginning of this century. Forty-four percent of the 20 million foreign born persons living in America in 1990 entered the country between 1980 and 1990. This represents about 39% of the total national population increase for the decade. The waves of immigration at the turn of the century brought Western and Eastern Europeans who shared a common cultural and racial heritage with the "founders" of the nation. But this latest wave of immigrants joined Native and African Americans in making our country look even more like a true microcosm of the world. It includes a 108% growth in the Asian and Pacific Islander populations and a 53% growth in the Hispanic population. While the numbers involved are small relative to the total U.S. population, the racial and ethnic diversity of these newcomers, and their geographic concentration in a few states, makes the new Americans stand out. Spanish speaking immigrants and refugees are especially visible -- and audible: at present the U.S. has the fourth largest Spanish-speaking population in the world. The visibility of Hispanic and Asian newcomers raises to a new level of intensity questions about culture and language and what it means to be an American. As in past periods of high immigration, these new arrivals to the United States bring all their talents, skills and desires to make a good life here. They also create a challenge for the adult education system, because they arrive in an America where, no matter what their prior skills or training, a good job -- the key to a better life -- requires English language and, increasingly, English literacy skills. As a result, immigrants feel an urgency to gain those skills as quickly as possible. And in the ten states where they are concentrated, they swell the ranks of an adult basic education system that is clearly inadequate to meet their needs. Analysis of U.S. Department of Education adult basic education programs found that 97% of the adults currently in ESL services are foreign-born, and 50% have entered the country since 1990. Spanish-speaking adults account for 46% of these ESL learners, while Asians account for another 32%. Seventy percent of current ESL learners attend classes in the western United States; 90% are served in metropolitan areas in large programs serving over 1000 adults. In a recent study supported by the Lila Wallace Foundation, the Southport Institute found that the ESL delivery system (which includes state and local funded programs, and refugee, welfare and job-training programs in addition to those supported by federal Adult Education Act dollars) is strong in meeting immediate, short-term survival needs but weak helping adults improve their skills to the point where they can take full advantage of the economic and social opportunities of American life. This finding has serious consequences for the major human resource and family policy issues addressed in this policy forum. How can we build an adult education system that has the capacity to -- o end welfare as we know it by enabling refugees and immigrants to develop the English language skills they need to assure self-sufficiency for their families? o assure that every child comes to school ready to learn by building the English language and literacy skills of non-English speaking parents? o prepare a work force with the flexibility to compete in a global economy by using the skills and talents -- including native language skills -- of all work-age adults, and building their skills and knowledge so that they can continually adapt to changes in the workplace and the world around them? All of these goals require that new Americans increase their English language and literacy skills to the point where they can take full advantage of the economic and social opportunities of American life. The purpose of this Policy Forum is to generate creative and thoughtful discussion among policymakers, practitioners, researchers and citizens about what we can do to assure that adults without English language and literacy proficiency develop the skills and knowledge necessary to compete in a global economy and exercise the rights and responsibilities of citizenship. While we are focusing separately on ESL issues today because of the unique challenges they pose, we are committed to developing integrated policies and programs for welfare reform and workforce development that are responsive to the needs of adults from all language and cultural backgrounds.
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