Adult Education and Family Literacy Act Program

Florida has a longstanding history of standards-based instruction from the original Sunshine State Standards to the Next Generation Sunshine State Standards and most recently, in 2014, the adoption of the Florida Standards (English Language Arts and Mathematics) by the State Board of Education. The Florida Standards are the official state-adopted challenging academic content standards fulfilling statutory requirements, under section 1111(b)(1) of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 (20 U.S.C. 6311(b)(1)). Anchored by empirical evidence informing what employers and educators demand of prospective employees and students, the Florida Standards share the dual purpose of preparing both K-12 and adult students to be college and career ready.

Florida sets clear expectations between K-12 and its content equivalent counterpart in adult education by ensuring standards-based instruction is aligned to state adopted content standards in K-12. This guarantees all students (K-12 or adult), regardless of their pathway to graduation, have access to rigorous standards that prepare them to be college and career ready. Florida aligned its adult education content standards for Adult Basic Education (ABE) to the Florida Standards. ABE standards are the grade level equivalent of K-8 of the Florida Standards. The adult education curriculum frameworks containing the aligned standards were approved by the State Board of Education in April 2015 and annual revisions to the frameworks are made.

At the secondary level, adult high school credit programs implement the same course descriptions and standards as those used in the K-12 educational system and adult students participate in the same statewide assessment program measuring student mastery of the Florida Standards. GED® preparation courses are a component of Florida’s adult secondary level programming aligned to Florida’s evidenced-based standards.

A high school equivalency diploma is issued to candidates who successfully demonstrate competency in language arts (reading and writing), mathematics, science and social studies. The assessment used for the diploma program is the 2014 GED® Test, which was selected through a competitive procurement to select a single assessment product for high school equivalency. The competitive process included a review of assessment content for alignment with Florida’s Standards for English Language Arts and Mathematics, social studies and science content. The review process confirmed alignment of the assessment with challenging academic standards. The current contract period for using the assessment ran through December 2017 and may be extended through December 2020 on an annual basis. All high school equivalency diploma state curriculum is aligned to content standards for this assessment. Future competitive procurements require the assessment be based upon Florida’s academic content standards for high school graduates.