Massachusetts Department of
Elementary and Secondary Education
75 Pleasant Street, Malden, Massachusetts 02148-4906 Telephone: (781) 338-3000
TTY: N.E.T. Relay 1-800-439-2370
2
Adult and Community Learning Services
TO: ABE Directors, SABES Coordinators, WIA Administrators, Career Centers, LWIB,
Teacher/All Staff
FROM: Jolanta Conway, ABE State Director
DATE: May 12, 2017
RE: What's in this Mailing?
The monthly mailing for May will be posted to our website shortly. Please review the information and share with your staff.
Ø Reminder:
ABE Directors’ Meeting – “Connecting for Student Success”
Tuesday, May 23, 2017 8AM to 5PM
Devens Common Center and Hilton Garden Inn - Please visit Registration for 2017 Annual ABE Directors' Meeting to register and select the workshops you would like to attend. For your convenience, driving directions will be found on the registration page. The deadline for registration is Friday, May 19 at 5PM.
As previously announced, the DM conference information and materials will primarily be shared digitally. We, too, will be doing our part to “go green” and decrease reliance on paper copies. Attendees are encouraged to bring their own devices.
Ø ACLS Funding Updates
-The FY18 continuation funding application has been sent for posting. Unfortunately, a decrease of 7.041% was applied to all grants except: IELCE/IET pilot programs, DL Option amounts, Outstationing, newly released grants for FY18 Workplace, Transitions to Community College programs, SABES grants, and test centers.
Ø Exciting changes at ESE and ACLS
Jen Cabral has taken on a new role at ESE. She is the new Grants Liaison in the Office of Financial Management. While we will miss Jen, we are thrilled that her hard work and skills have been recognized and are happy to cheer her on. ACLS is fortunate that Lorraine Domigan will take over as our new Business Management Specialist.
Ø Coffee & Accountability
In an effort to make accountability approachable and to give the field an opportunity to check in with ACLS on a regular basis around this topic, Cheryl Russo, Brian Newquist, and Dana Varzan-Parker are now hosting a series of 45-minute webinars on the last Friday of each month. The first one started on April 28. We had 15 participants! Thank you for taking time out of your Friday morning to log in and ask us questions!
Please join us for the second webinar in the series by going to the link below:
http://sabes.adobeconnect.com/ac2/
Type in your name and the room pass code. The pass code is 2017.
Grab your coffee, log in, and ask us questions!
Ø Curriculum Updates
Evidence-based Reading Instruction Requirements for FY18
As program directors and teachers may know, the US Department of Education’s Office of Career, Technical and Adult Education (OCTAE) released a document brief in 2016 regarding reading instruction legislated by WIOA.
-Attached is a four-page document, Provision of Instruction in the Essential Components of Reading: Guidance to Prepare for FY2018, explains more about the requirement and recommends how to provide this instruction.
Ø High School Equivalency Office Update
Unfortunately, a vexing situation has again surfaced this year with regard to the HiSET Writing test on computer. See below.
Ø Integrated Education and Training Resources
Ø Professional Development Announcement:
The timeline for the FY19 open and competitive request for proposals (RFP) for the Massachusetts ABE Professional Development System is as follows:
Release of RFP: early January 2018
Proposal submission deadline: mid-March 2018
Award notification: end of April 2018
This information will also be posted on the home page of the ACLS website under the ACLS HOT TOPICS heading.
Ø SMARTT Update:
All updates can now be found on the new SMARTT Dashboard.You can also access the dashboard by clicking on “What’s New” from the SMARTT landing page. Be sure to visit the dashboard often to get the latest information on all things related to SMARTT.
FY18 Funding Updates
The FY18 continuation funding application has been sent for posting. Unfortunately, a decrease of 7.041% was applied to all grants except: IELCE/IET pilot programs, DL Option amounts, outstationing, newly released grants for FY18 workplace and Transitions to Community College programs, SABES grants, and test centers.
During the current funding cycle, ACLS was able to use unspent federal funds to increase grant awards with a onetime increase of 10% in FY15, increases of 4.5% in FY16, which carried over into FY17 along with an additional 1.7% increase. Those federal funds also protected grantees from decreases due to state 9c cuts. We no longer have funds to off-set the decreases to our state ABE line item. Funding amounts for FY18 will be listed on table 1 which will be posted shortly after the continuation RFP goes out.
All applications will be submitted online through EdGrants. ESE Grants Management will email program directors asking them to identify EdGrant system users. Users are those who will access EdGrants in order to submit applications for ESE grants, amend ESE grant budgets, and request monthly draw downs. Then Grants Management will provide training, resources, and support.
ACLS has updated the SMARTT Technical Manual for Program Planning for FY18, which has been posted on the SMARTT System Information page. Please note that federal and state continuation applications are due June 7.
ESE will not continue to grant ABE funding for WAITT House and USES in FY18. A portion of these funds will be rebid to offer services in Roxbury in Boston. Boston adult education providers should be on the lookout for the upcoming RFP, which will have a short response timeline.
Curriculum Update, May 2017
Evidence-based Reading Instruction Requirements for FY18
As program directors and teachers may know, the US Department of Education’s Office of Career, Technical and Adult Education (OCTAE) released a document brief in 2016 regarding reading instruction legislated by WIOA.
As required by WIOA, ABE curriculum and instruction must provide explicit and systematic instruction in the essential components of reading to adult learners at all levels, GLE 0-12. (See WIOA document brief for more information about this requirement.) Providing reading instruction to adult learners is not new, of course, and almost all programs teaching reading to intermediate level (i.e., GLE 4-8) learners have already been trained in the STAR Reading Program. What is new for FY18 is that the reading instruction practices taught by STAR are now required to be used—in a targeted way—by teachers of beginner (GLE 0-3) and advanced level students.
An attached four-page document, Provision of Instruction in the Essential Components of Reading: Guidance to Prepare for FY2018, explains more about the requirement and recommends how to provide this instruction. The document contains an overview of the four reading components, evidence-based reading instruction (EBRI), and the instructional priorities for beginner, intermediate, and advanced level students.
More detailed information is forthcoming. On Friday, May 12, Jane Schwerdtfeger, ACLS Curriculum Specialist and ACLS STAR Lead and Merilee Freeman, director of the SABES PD Center for ELA and STAR Coordinator, will offer a session at the MCAE Network Conference. A similar session—targeted towards directors—will also be presented at the Directors’ Meeting on Tuesday, May 23.
These presentations will also provide more information about training in FY18 for teachers of beginner (GLE 0-3) and advanced (GLE 9-12) level students. The STAR training, supported since 2010, will continue to be available to train teachers of intermediate (GLE 4-8) level students in FY18. Training for teachers of beginner and advanced level students will be sequential using a mix of face-to-face and hybrid models to start in FY18, with the goal of offering more portions online in FY19.
Questions, Comments, or Suggestions?
Please contact Jane Schwerdtfeger at .
Updates from the High School Equivalency Office
Unfortunately a vexing situation has again surfaced this year with regard to the HiSET Writing test on computer.
In several instances this winter and spring, examinees have inadvertently ended the Writing test when their intention had been to go back and review earlier questions. In a couple of these cases, the examinees initially skipped the essay (which as you know is now the first “question” on the test), choosing instead to begin with the fifty multiple-choice questions, with the idea that they would go back and focus on the essay at the end. Instead, they exited out of the whole test without the chance to ever look at the essay. The situation is irreversible at the test-center level once the wrong button is selected, and the examinees must retake the entire exam, not merely rewrite an essay.
Even though HiSET will waive the retest fee in these cases, the situation is a major inconvenience for the examinees and could affect their opportunity to take three subtests in a calendar year. All test center personnel administering the Writing test on computer have been alerted to this situation and will be taking explicit measures to make this issue known to the examinees, but it would be helpful if you could reinforce this with your students as well.
The culprit is the Continue button on the last page of the test. Everywhere else in the instructions and on the test, the Continue button means “Continue.” However, on the last page, the Continue button means “You will not be able to return to the section.” Clicking the Continue button at this point ends the test. Below is a screen shot of the page in question, “End of Section – Time Remaining.” If you so choose, you may use this slide in illustrating the pitfalls to your students.
Integrated Education and Training Resources
Below are some recent Integrated Education and Training (IET) resources:
Integrated Education and Training: Model Programs for Building Career Pathways for Participants at Every Skill Level
The Center for Law and Social Policy’s (CLASP) Opportunities for Action is a series of short memos with recommendations for local WIOA implementation. This IET memo includes examples of IET and Integrated English Literacy and Civics Education programs from around the country.
Integrating Education and Training: A Career Pathways Policy & Practice
CLASP has also published this IET policy and practice document that includes the results of a national survey of adult education providers on IET models, funding mechanisms, and partnerships.
Integrated Education and Training 50-State Scan
The National Skills Coalition (NSC) has published a scan of IET policy in all 50 states and the District of Columbia. The scan describes each state’s policy and includes links to related materials.
Integrated Education and Training Policy Toolkit
The NSC has also published an IET Policy Toolkit that describes the key components necessary for effective IET policies and includes examples.
2