Forum: COVID-19 and the Future of Adult Education - Part 3 of 3 - Adult Education-Facing the Future

Oct 15, 2026

Forum: COVID-19 and the Future of Adult Education - Part 3 of 3 examines how adult basic education responded to pandemic-driven class disruptions and what should be carried forward. It reviews early emergency remote teaching and the innovations that addressed structural barriers in adult learning. Key themes include leadership communication, intensive professional development, learner access to devices and connectivity, and resilience in meeting immediate needs, while highlighting persistent funding gaps and assessment challenges.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryHealthcare

FormatPDF

Pages6

Reading Time15 min

AccessFree to download

Initial Responses: Emergency Remote Teaching and Learning

Moving Forward: Changed Work and Changed Education

ADULT LITERACY EDUCATION Summer 2021 [http://doi.org/10.35847/JMortrude.3.2.55](http://doi.org/10.35847/JMortrude.3.2.55) Forum: COVID-19 and the Future of Adult Education (Part 3 of 3) Adult Education-Facing the Future Judy Mortrude, World Education, Inc. Over the past year, the field of adult basic education has mounted a strong response to COVID-19’s disruption of classes and educational practices. As we begin to think about the longterm consequences of this disruption, it might be useful to consider the ways that these changes and innovations could be built upon. In the first place, some of the innovations developed by programs and institutions address important structural problems in adult education programming. Additionally, the pandemic will increase the need for adult education as so many more people have experienced “interrupted or deficient education” and some subset of those will remain disconnected from K12 . In order to understand these issues, I first outline some of the key policy issues that have become clear over the past year and then make a plea to adult educators not to return to business as usual. Initial Responses: Emergency Remote Teaching and Learning As COVID-19 necessitated community-wide closures beginning in March 2020, adult education joined the international natural experiment in emergency remote teaching and learning. Like many other educators, adult educators tackled challenges and developed new skills, strategies, and program models with energy and commitment. Some of these responses were documented by a collaborative of adult education researchers and practitioners who conducted interviews with practitioners, administrators, and state staff just weeks into the school shut down orders, producing a snapshot of the pandemic’s immediate impact on adult education (Belzer et al., 2020). Vanek and Mortrude (2020) followed up the initial studies by convening multiple researchers with the task of looking across their findings to identify cross-cutting themes. Some common issues that emerged include: • the importance of leadership providing timely communication and supportive policy and practices; • the need for and practitioners’ intense engagement in high quality, multi-layered professional development; • strategies for supporting access to devices, connectivity, and non-educational resources for learners and instructors; • the resilience and creative problem solving that emerged among practitioners to meet learners’ immediate needs; and, • recognition that although much was lost without daily face to face interactions, much had been gained in terms of learning to support students across time and distance. As 2020 wore on, it became clear that while many adult educators had adjusted to remote teaching, there was inadequate funding for the kind of programming shifts necessary to sustain Correspondence: [judy_mortrude@worlded.org](judy_mortrude@worlded.org) 55 their work and ensure high quality instructional and programmatic delivery. For example, the Federal CARES Act funding for education did not specifically allocate resources for adult education. Instead, the decision about using funds for adult education was left to the states, setting off advocacy campaigns to convince governors to provide the needed funds for adult education, especially for expanding adult access to devices and connectivity. Local adult education programs – like their K12 and post-secondary colleagues – often whiplashed between opening and closing restrictions. In addition to trying to meet the needs of their students, they had to comply with the various state and federal regulations and procedures. Testing companies developed remote proctoring processes so that programs could restart assessment and accountability procedures, but barriers related to training, cost, and equipment remained for many programs and learners. Stories like that of a young woman 5 hours into an online test in her bedr

FAQs

Why is funding described as a major challenge as the pandemic continued?

Sustaining instructional and program delivery required programming shifts that were limited by inadequate funding, and federal education funds did not specifically allocate resources for adult education.

Oct 15, 2026

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