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Education Trends Start Focusing On Adult Literacy

Sara Newman |
September 23, 2013 | 9:34 p.m. PDT

Executive Producer

Adult literacy program graduates, photo by RTLibrary via Creative Commons
Adult literacy program graduates, photo by RTLibrary via Creative Commons

In anticipation of increasing numbers of non-English speakers under new immigration policies, the United States Education Department has begun designing a curriculum to help adults with English mastery. 

“The Department will work to transformsystem and create an adult learning infrastructure that better meets the demand for high-quality English lang

uage, literacy, numeracy, and problem-solving skills,” according to their strategic plan for 2014-2018.

The plan focuses on making it so that after citizens and non-citizens alike will have the skills necessary to secure well-paying jobs and thrive in the in the workforce.   

“Data on educational attainment and skills show that there are at least 30 million Americans without basic literacy skills in need of educational credentials for work,” states the strategic plan. “The social and economic consequences are severe for these adults and their families, as well as for their communities, where large numbers of low-skilled adults can limit economic development.”

The intent is that by pumping money into the education of more of the American workforce, the government will be able to take more proactive measures to address issues of unemployment and low wages. 

The plan does not go into any detail about what types of changes are going to be made in order to accommodate a larger group of adults in literacy programs. The Adult Education and Literacy program has traditionally been in charge of appropriating funds to each state for managing educational programs for adults, so it is likely that they will continue to run similar programs to those currently in place, but with a larger budget to serve a larger sector of the American populace. 

Contact Executive Producer Sara Newman here and follow her on Twitter. 

 



 

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