Located in:
- Program-specific Requirements for Adult Education and Family Literacy Act Programs
The Unified or Combined State Plan must include a description of the following as it pertains to adult education and literacy programs and activities under title II of WIOA, the Adult Education and Family Literacy Act (AEFLA).
a. Aligning of Content Standards
Describe how the eligible agency has aligned its content standards for adult education with State-adopted challenging academic content standards, as adopted under section 1111(b)(1) of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965, as amended (20 U.S.C. 6311(b)(1)).
Current Narrative:
The California Department of Education (CDE), through the State Board of Education (SBE), adopted the Common Core State Standards (CCSS) in 2010. In March 2013, the CDE adopted the College and Career Readiness Standards (CCRS). In March 2014, the State Superintendent of Public Instruction announced the Standards for Career Ready Practice. These standards describe the fundamental knowledge and skills that students need to prepare for transition to postsecondary education, career training, or the workforce. The Standards for Career Ready Practice are taught and reinforced in all career exploration and preparation programs or integrated into core curriculum, with increasingly higher levels of complexity and expectation as a student advances through a program of study.
The CDE adult education office has aligned its content standards to the state-adopted challenging academics of the CCSS and CCRS. The California adult education high school diploma meets the same standards as required for the K–12 high school diploma. The CDE has developed and implemented curriculum and assessment standards within Adult Basic Education (ABE) and English as a Second Language (ESL) to meet the Educational Functioning Levels established by the National Reporting System (NRS) and to achieve the K–8 academic literacy objectives established by the state’s standards and frameworks.
The CDE provides numerous professional development opportunities to the Title II local providers on the CCSS and CCRS. Thus, local adult education programs are aligned to the CCSS and CCRS, providing standards-based contextualized curriculum, evidence- based instruction, and assessment focusing on the skills that enable learners to participate more fully within American society as citizens, workers, and family members. In addition, the CDE, through the professional development contractor, has been offering trainings on the English Language Proficiency Standards (ELPS) for Adult
Education since January 2017. The ELPS, published by the American Institute for Research on October 2016 for the U.S. Department of Education, correspond to the CCRS for English Language Arts and Literacy, and Mathematical and Science Practices.