| An online magazine dedicated to sharing best practices and providing in-depth coverage of issues and trends affecting the Washington State community and technical college system. |
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December 2005 |
Creating Opportunities for a stronger economy through language and career pathways |
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by Erin Brown, Communications Specialist |
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Main Story |
According to the National Center for Public Policy and Higher Education, the United States is hearing its economic “wake-up” call. The Center warns if current population trends continue and states do not improve the education of all racial and ethnic groups, the skills of the workforce and incomes of U.S. residents will decline over the next 20 years. In Washington state, one in every six adults lack the literacy skills they need to secure a livable wage job. The future of Washington’s economy will depend on the very workers who are currently under-prepared and part of the fastest growing population in the state. The study also shows that Washington state would realize an estimated $3.9 billion increase in total personal income and $1.4 billion in additional tax revenues if all ethnic groups experienced the same educational attainment and earnings as whites. These statistics haven’t gone unnoticed by our state’s leaders, as Governor Christine Gregoire officially proclaimed the first week of November, “Adult Literacy Week.” Washington is ahead of the curve in identifying the needs of its underserved populations. However, there is a long road ahead in order to increase public awareness about the importance of making an investment in adult literacy. “The need to serve this population is no longer a question of improving the lives of individuals,” explained State Board Adult Literacy and Basic Skills Programs Director Israel David Mendoza. “It’s now an imperative if our state’s economy is going to grow. We all have a stake in this.” Washington state – a national leader in developing educational pathwaysIn 2003, Washington was one of six states selected nationwide to participate in the Ford Foundation’s Bridges to Opportunity initiative, which focuses on community and technical colleges providing pathways for low-skill adults to attend college and gain skills for livable wage jobs. Washington’s two-year colleges have the unique distinction of being one of only a handful of state college systems that serves as the primary provider of adult basic education (ABE) and English as a Second Language (ESL) training. Because of this, they have conducted ground-breaking research that identifies the critical points where adult students drop out or fail to advance in their education. “We found through our research that students who entered our system with a high school diploma or less showed a substantial boost in earnings if they attended college for at least one year and earned a credential,” explained State Board Research and Analysis Senior Manager David Prince. “One-year of college, plus a credential is what we refer to as the ‘tipping point’ for measuring success for this population of students.” Credentials are evidence that a student earned a specific job skill, such as a certificate in welding, nursing or drafting. This research has led the two-year college system to direct its ABE/ESL efforts toward serving more students, tracking student outcomes, and building public awareness and understanding of adult basic education. Identifying the need to pair language skills with work skillsIn its 2004 publication High Skills, High Wages, the Workforce Training and Education Coordinating Board reported that even at the height of the recession in 2003, nearly half of Washington state employers had difficulty finding qualified job applicants. There were an estimated 14,300 employers who had difficulty finding workers with a bachelor’s, master’s or Ph.D. At the same time there were 22,700 employers who had trouble finding workers with either vocational certification or a two-year vocational degree. “As employers continue to need skilled workers to remain competitive in our global economy, the influx of non-English speaking adults, combined with the number of adults that lack a high school diploma, has created an increased demand for adult literacy and occupational skills training,” said Jim Crabbe, workforce education director for the State Board. Traditionally, language and workforce training programs are offered separately and are not strongly linked. Students who try to make the transition from language to workforce training have a long and often fragmented or incomplete journey, Crabbe explained. Last year, the State Board supported 10 pilot programs on two-year college campuses throughout the state to integrate ABE or ESL education with workforce training programs. The Integrated Basic Education and Skills Training (I-BEST) program provided funding for colleges to pair an ABE instructor with a vocational instructor to work together to develop and deliver instruction. “For most of our students enrolled in ABE or ESL classes, their overarching goal is to acquire the language skills they need to either get a job, or get a better job,” stated Joyce Fogg, Walla Walla Community College director of transitional studies. “We found that the students who participated in the I-BEST program were more engaged because the language skills they learned directly correlated to the work world.” Walla Walla Community College serves a region that has experienced a large expansion of its Hispanic population over the past few years. They used their I-BEST pilot to integrate ESL students to technical programs that would lead to entry-level jobs in high demand fields in their area, such as pre-nursing assistants and commercial truck drivers. “The whole college saw the value of bringing students into a career ladder that would help them succeed in life,” stated Fogg. “For them, education is the bridge from seasonal agricultural employment to living wage jobs.” Based on the success of the pilots, the State Board has developed a new funding model for colleges who want to start an integrated program, as of January 2006. Partnerships create opportunities for studentsFor Big Bend Community College, the relationships they shared with their community partners meant everything to the success of their I-BEST program. College officials knew there was a significant portion of the Hispanic population they were failing to reach, and they looked to the community to help them understand the barriers that kept education from being a viable option. “Our community partners helped us understand that non-traditional students need non-traditional settings,” explained Sandy Cheek, director for basic skills at Big Bend Community College. “For those students, taking the time out of work to attend college has a huge opportunity cost.” Community partners helped the college design a program that better accommodated working adults by offering classes in the evening and weekends. In addition, they advised the college how to pay attention to regional nuances, such as the harvest season. But most importantly, they bolstered the program by offering things the college could not, such as assistance with student transportation, household expenses and child care. “Through our I-BEST program we reached a population of students we might not have otherwise seen on campus,” Cheek added. “Our commercial driving program offers realistic job opportunities for our students and in the end, the opportunity to see themselves as college students.” As the program progresses, the college is trying to do a better job of making students aware of an educational pathway and something they can build on in the future, Cheek stated. The value of the message: Better skills - Better jobsWhen Governor Gregoire visited Everett Community College during Adult Literacy Week, she learned first-hand the valuable partnership between the two-year colleges and local employers. Everett CC, in partnership with their local Department of Social and Health Services office and Refugee and Immigrant Services NorthWest, has shared a long history of helping non-native English speaking people find good jobs in their community. “We’ve been using a co-instruction model, similar to the I-BEST model, for a long time,” stated Bill Sperling, dean of learning services at Everett Community College. “We look very closely at the data provided by our partners at Employment Security to find out what types of skills are in demand, and have our ESL and professional technical instructors work together to deliver curriculum that is specifically related to the industry we’re training for.” Everett CC’s robust ESL/ABE program helps the college better serve local immigrants, a population that has drastically increased in the region over the past decade, added Sperling. Everett CC’s goal is to be ready to train and re-tool the workforce as the economy goes through its ebbs and flows. “We want to continue to send the message to those business leaders in the community that we are an important and viable resource,” said Sperling. “We are contributing positively to their business by preparing workers, as well as providing opportunities for students to gain the self confidence they need to enter the workforce and support the economy.” So what was learned? The best practices and challenges aheadIf Kim Ward, Tacoma Community College’s director of adult basic skills, had it her way, every ESL program would resemble the I-BEST model. What Tacoma Community College and others learned from offering an I-BEST pilot was the importance of wrap-around support services to ensure that students get the right information they need before starting a program. “We do a good job of providing support services for our traditional students,” stated Ward. “However, non-traditional students have language barriers, which make navigating our educational system very difficult. We need to start looking at basic skills and ESL students as our future transfer and workforce students.” Part of the progress the system has made is in its accountability efforts. The State Board assists the colleges in analyzing their student data, identifying trends, and tracking and reporting student progress. While the two-year college system has made great strides in identifying needs, there are still barriers in the traditional educational system that make it increasingly difficult for non-traditional students to achieve academic success. One of the resounding barriers identified as part of the Bridges to Opportunity research was the need for an improved financial aid system that supports students who work and go to school part time, or need remedial coursework. “Our goal at Olympic College is to transition students,” explained the college’s WorkFirst and Special Projects Director Amy Hatfield. “However, our entire system needs to look at how we view financial aid and the populations we exclude by our own requirements.” She further explained that the students who need financial aid the most are often the ones who don’t qualify for reasons such as attending part time, or have not completed their high school graduation requirements. “These are the students who least can afford the cost of higher education,” said Elaine Williams Bryant, Olympic’s director of ABE/ESL. “We can have all the integrated programs we want, but if our students cannot pay for them or access them, where does that leave us?” What is apparent is that in order for any student to be successful, they need a network of support that extends beyond the college classroom. For non-traditional students this means addressing their needs for child care, transportation and tuition assistance in order to expand access. “Building awareness is what we do,” stated Tacoma’s Ward. “We need to get people thinking and talking, even on our own campuses, about the importance of the ‘third leg’ of the community and technical college mission. And we owe it to our students to ask the questions, ‘Where are you at? Where are you going? And what do you need from us to get there?’”
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