RD416 - Addressing the Education, Skill, & Workforce Needs of Adults Without a High School Diploma or Equivalent: Report of the Virginia Adult Learning Panel - September 2008

  • Published: 2008
  • Author: Secretary of Education
  • Enabling Authority: Executive Order 61 (2008)

Executive Summary:
The National Commission on Adult Literacy entitled its report to pose a challenge to the nation and the individual states - Reach Higher, America: Overcoming Crisis in the U.S. Workforce. In its June 2008 report, the Commission members called for “a fundamental transformation of the adult education enterprise in America.” Labeling America’s adult education system as “obsolete and ill-equipped to meet 21st Century needs,” the Commission report is a call to action for the Congress and state governments to pursue “an aggressive approach that leads to the acquisition of credentials, certificates, and degrees” for those adults without high school diplomas.

The National Commission on Adult Literacy cited an analysis by the National Center for Higher Education Management Systems (NCHEMS) which identified as many as eighty-eight million adults as having at least one significant education barrier: no high school diploma, a high school diploma but no college credits, and limited English skills.

Moreover, as of 2006, national enrollment in adult education programs had declined to only 2.4 million, a decline of nearly 10 percent from 2001. The United States is also the only democratic, industrialized country where young adults are less educated than the previous generation, ranking 11th in the percentage of adults with a high school diploma.

Cheryl King, the Study Director for the National Commission on Adult Literacy and former Commissioner of Adult Education and Workforce Development in Kentucky, concluded that with regard to adult education, the United States is “going backward, simply going in the wrong direction.”

Highlighting the recommendations of the National Commission on Adult Literacy is a call to Congress for a comprehensive new Adult Education and Economic Growth Act to overhaul and expand adult education and workforce skills training. While acknowledging the need for strong national leadership, the Commission also identifies the following actions which need to be taken by the states:

• States should engage in comprehensive planning and establish goals to improve educational attainment and workforce skills of their adults in light of their economic development goals.

• The states should legislate authority for coordination and alignment of systems consistent with their postsecondary education, workforce, and economic development goals. In some cases, a cross-agency planning body already exists; in others it may need to be created. In some states, a cabinet level position might be either established or strengthened. Whatever the approach, the involvement of the governor’s office is essential.

• States must invest in the skills of their workers so that increased productivity helps offset the effect of low-cost labor furnished by developing countries. Business must be an active partner in this effort.

Virginia’s response to these action items and the huge challenge facing the Commonwealth will be illuminated and addressed in this report. According to a ranking by the National Commission on Adult Literacy, as of December 31, 2006, only 13,173 persons in Virginia attained GEDs out of a population of 587,097 adults from ages 18 to 64 without a high school diploma. (*1) That achievement translates into a 2.2 percent recovery rate of GEDs attained as a percentage of need. While that percentage is above the national average of 1.5 percent, it is nothing to brag about.

Existing funding levels and solutions to reach adult learners and connect them with the workforce and postsecondary education and job training are falling well short of what is needed. The Report of the National Commission on Adult Literacy concluded with a challenge for enhanced coordination of adult education efforts:

Current federal adult education and workforce skills programs need to be overhauled, redesigned, and connected more effectively to state and local programs. We cannot make it with services that operate in isolation - each with different eligibility requirements, reporting systems, and performances metrics. We must have an integrated system that serves millions of Americans in accessible, affordable, and accountable ways - on the job, online, and in the classroom.

Virginia has its work cut out for it if it is to respond successfully to the workforce challenges of the 21st Century. Failure to act boldly and comprehensively will leave the Commonwealth at a distinct disadvantage in meeting its workforce and economic development goals.
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(*1) Data reported to the National Commission on Adult Literacy is static representing GED passers during strictly the 2006 calendar year. The Virginia Department of Education database is dynamic, allowing the number of 2006 GED passers to increase to 15,178 since the Commission study. The increase is the result of a tester, for example, having completed testing requirements of the GED in 2007 though he or she originally attempted the test during the 2006 calendar year. As a result, this data would be credited to the initial year of attempt, 2006.