Forum: Broadening the Lens on Adult Literacy Education Outcomes - Examining the Role of Federal Adult Education Funding in Adult Literacy Education - Part 2 of 3

Oct 15, 2026

Spring 2020 forum discussion on adult literacy education outcomes, focusing on how federal adult education funding shapes program models, services, and accountability. The text argues for valuing skills needs across adult life through a lifelong education framework while acknowledging gaps in early and K-12 quality. It reviews how federal goals have evolved and contrasts federal eligibility and performance requirements with state investment, including California’s adult school system.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryResearch & Report

FormatPDF

Pages4

Reading Time10 min

AccessFree to download

Forum discussion

Adult education funding within lifelong learning

Federal eligibility, program models, and accountability

State investment and maintained classrooms during downturns

Measuring outcomes and the risks of ROI focus

Lessons from WIA and opportunities under WIOA

ADULT LITERACY EDUCATION Spring 2020 Forum: Broadening the Lens on Adult Literacy Education Outcomes (Part 2 of 3) Examining the Role of Federal Adult Education Funding in Adult Literacy Education Judy Mortrude, World Education, Inc. First, Steve Reder is right. No one in the field of adult education is going to argue against Steve’s conception of skill needs across the length and breadth of adult life. And certainly no one is going to argue against the need for more resources over and above the perpetually starved federal Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA) system to fund Steve’s conceptual framework. Beyond agreeing, I do think it is helpful to examine the role of federal adult education funding inside the lifelong and life-wide educational framework as both a way to value federally funded adult education programs and services AND a way to imagine the other funds, programs, and services needed to provide for skills needs across the length and breadth of life. Lifelong learning in its platonic ideal would be a high-quality, fully accessible continuum of early childhood education, elementary and secondary school, postsecondary undergraduate and graduate schools and continued upskilling opportunities as digital displacement changes jobs and the pace of change in the digital economy leaves the knowledge economy behind. Unfortunately, quality universal early education is far from a reality in the United States, and the recent Programme for International Student Assessment again demonstrates that our elementary and secondary education systems need strategic investment and redesign to serve students better. College for all is a common rallying cry, but who gets what in the world of postsecondary education is largely still determined by income and race. Adult basic education’s role, from the beginning, has been about serving people with foundational skill needs. Except for highly skilled immigrants (now welcomed into WIOA as a target population via the Integrated English Literacy & Civics Education program), adult education participants are generally those failed by their public education system, whether here in the United States, in a home country, or in displacement. Adult education as part of a broader safety net of social services catches some few (by no means all) people who have fallen off that lifelong learning path at some point. Some states limit adult education programs to serving only those without a high school diploma or equivalent, but very clearly foundational skill need is not defined by the secondary credential. The federal eligibility criterium is simply a demonstrated educational need. The original federal investment in adult education came as part of the Great Society movement, part ofthe war on poverty. In 1966, the goal of Correspondence: Judy Mortrude, [judy_mortrude@worlded.org](judy_mortrude@worlded.org) 54 adult education was to help people achieve an 8th grade level of education-a level needed for selfsufficiency in the economy of the time. Over time, as that standard changed, adult education became more about high school completion, and now adult education has more focus on college and career readiness. Federal educational investments are about equity, about delivering certain program models/services to specific targeted populations, (pretty much) regardless of your state’s governor and lawmakers. State investments, of course, can do a whole lot more. In 1856, California brought us the first adult school which provided English language learning to communities with foreign born populations. Over time, California invested to create a large system of comprehensive adult schools. Then California’s adult education investment was nearly“flexed” out of existence during lean budget times when local educational agencies opted to use the state funds to keep K-12 systems afloat. (The‘deservingness’ question looms large over adult education-who deserves educational investment?

FAQs

What is the forum’s main focus in Part 2 of 3?

It examines the role of federal adult education funding in improving adult literacy education outcomes and shaping the services provided to learners.

How does the document describe the evolution of federal adult education goals?

It traces a shift from helping adults reach an eighth-grade education level, to emphasizing high school completion, and then toward college and career readiness.

What concerns does the text raise about performance measurement under WIA?

It warns that “what gets measured is what gets done,” leading programs to prioritize standardized test gain and Educational Function Level (EFL) targets.

Oct 15, 2026

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