Adult Education and Family Literacy Act Program

The DDOE uses funds available under Section 222(a) 2 to support the required leadership activities described in Section 223. No more than 12.5% of the state’s AEFLA allocation will be allocated to fund these activities. To support the required activities under Section 223(a) (1)(A), DDOE will work with core programs and one-stop partners to align services in support of the state’s workforce development plan including: (1) adult career pathways to provide access to employment and training services for ABE and ESL students in adult education programs; (2) create an alignment of assessments used by DDOL and DDOE; (3) support seamless interagency referrals; and (4) cross train staff regarding partner services. To support the required activities under Section 223(a)(1)(B), DDOE will develop high quality professional development activities to improve reading, writing, speaking, math instruction and English language acquisition skills provided in all Adult Education programs. These activities will be evidence based where applicable; align with Delaware’s College and Career Readiness, Nex Gen Science, and English Language Proficiency Standards; provide guidance on new practices; and continue technical assistance during implementation of the new practices. The professional development will be delivered through a variety of methods including professional learning communities, webinars, in person projects, summer academies and conferences. In addition to instructional improvement, professional development activities will also focus on increased use technology into instruction and development of the skills required for successful transition to employment and training. Activities that enhance instructors’ abilities to create lessons aligned with the Delaware Standards and share/integrate information across content areas will continue. The provision of online resources such as LINCS for program use in site based professional development activities that will satisfy teacher certification requirements will also continue as will the development of online resources specific to Delaware adult educators such as DE Adult Education Orientation Course. To support the required activities under Section 223(a)(1)(C), technical assistance to eligible providers will be data driven as reflected in individual program performance reports. This assistance will target individual program low performance area(s), work with the program to identify causes for the low performance, collaboratively develop an improvement plan, assist with the implementation of the plan, and monitor program improvement offering more technical assistance as needed. Other professional development areas to be addressed will include: teacher ability to use classroom data to improve instruction and enhancement of programmatic processes that support work readiness skills. Technical assistance activities will include: implementation of STAR reading instruction for reading improvement; evidence based writing instruction; distance learning basics for teachers involved in distance learning options; program data analysis; MIS data input; and working with one-stop partners on information sharing, increased access to services, and transitioning students to employment and training. To support the required activities under Section 223(a)(1)(D), DDOE will monitor and evaluate the performance of all providers and provide information on models and proven or promising practices that could increase student progress. DDOE will monitor all programs’ data to evaluate effectiveness through the state approved MIS. DDOE will provide technical assistance to lower performing programs through on site visits and conferencing with program administrators to develop an improvement plan to increase performance.