- Minutes- DRAFT

Adult Education Advisory CouncilRetreat

June 7-8, 2017

Icicle Inn, Ridge Room, Leavenworth, WA

Members Present:Lynn Christofersen, Chair, Laurie Shannon, Vice-Chair, Jan Yoshiwara for Marty Brown,Michele Cook,Mindy Coslor, Susan Crane, Anne Goranson, Bryce Humpherys, Rick Torrance forDiane Klontz, Eleni Papadakis, Louisa Erickson for David Stillman,Lisa van der Lugt, Joan Youngquist andJon Kerr, BEdA State Director and AEAC Secretary

Members Absent:Marty Brown, Kathi Hiyane-Brown,Diane Klontz, Mike Paris, Dave Petersen, Bob Raphael and David Stillman

Guest:Doug Emory, LWIT

Staff:Ha Nguyen, BEdA staff;and Christy Lowder,BEdA staff

Welcome, introductions, and agenda review

Lynn Christofersen welcomed the council and introductions were made. The agenda was reviewed and accepted as proposed. Lynn also reminded the council that they requested Jon to do a deep-dive from the last meeting.

Business Meeting

  • Approval of Meeting Minutes –unfortunately, we had Wi-Fi issues, and members could not review the minutes – decision was made to move the vote to Friday.
  • Final adoption of Goals – Motion made to approve the 7 Goals for the 2016-18 Work Plan – motion was seconded – discussion: what is the difference between goal 3 and 7? Goal 3 is focused on agency partners and how they are funded. Goal 7 is about workforce objectives. Vote called and goals were unanimously approved.

State of the Union – Jon Kerr, SBCTC

Jon began by thanking the council for all the hard work that they’ve done over the years and listed a few of their accomplishments:

  • Insured that tuition for basic skills remains affordable for every individual.
  • Developed the Mission, Vision, and Goals that are still guiding basic skills innovation and development in our state, now that guidance is under Title II of the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA) vs. the Workforce Investment Act (WIA). Which is the federal act governing Basic Education for Adults.
  • Provided detailed input into the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act regulations and Washington state’s WIOA plan that will govern our work for the next 10+ years. As a result of that work, many of the regulations were changed to benefit our programs here in Washington, one of which is critical to HS 21+ expansion.
  • This council championed HS 21+ which is changing the world of basic skills for thousands of individuals in a way that has never happened in all of his 42 years in education! HS 21+ has expanded into all 34 colleges, four community based organizations, and our correctional education programs.
  • There are taskforces that are bringing HS 21+ training to local WDCs and are working on fine forgiveness for adults wanting to move into HS 21+ programming.

He then shared an overview of Washington’s Basic Education for Adults, beginning with our State’s workforce needs:

Currently, nearly three-fourths of available jobs require at least a postsecondary credential; and while our workforce’s need for trained employees with college credentials will increase almost 60% by 2030, our population will only grow by 10%. Over the next 20 years, there simply won’t be enough high school graduates to meet the higher education needs of our state’s workforce. Washington will need to fill the gap with our out of school youth and working age adults—our students.

This work is critical in meeting Governor Inslee’s and our State’s Roadmap Attainment goals for 2023 – which state:

  • All adults in Washington, ages 25–44, will have a high school diploma or equivalent.
  • And that at least 70 percent of Washington adults, ages 25–44, will have a postsecondary credential.

Good news for us, as this is our work! Under WIOA a basic education pathway eligible person must be:

  • 16 years of age or older
  • Not enrolled or required to enrolled in secondary school
  • Is an English language learner
  • Basic skills deficient
  • Does not have a high school diploma or its equivalent

The most significant change to basic education under WIOA is that basic education is now defined as Academic instruction and education services below the postsecondary level that increases:

  • Reading, writing, speaking, listening, mathematics, English acquisition, technology and employability skills for attainment of a secondary school diploma or its equivalent
  • Transition to postsecondary education and training
  • Obtain employment

Jon shared that Senator Patty Murray has gotten year-round Pell Grants and is working to extend Pell to Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) students. YEAH! However, DACA students no longer feel safe in our current political environment and are no longer coming forward, for fear for their families.

New Integrated English Literacy & Civics (IELCE) funds (also known as 243 funds) must be used in this manner “The term integrated education and training means a service approach that provides adult education and training concurrently and contextually with workforce preparation activities and workforce training for a specific occupation or occupational cluster for the purpose of educational and career advancement.” This went into effect last July. All providers must now ensure that IELCE students (our ELL students) are on pathways and that funds are only used for the activities described in WIOA in the definition.

Pathways programming that would qualify for IELCE funding include:

  • IELCE specific navigators(this is where most of our colleges are spending this funding)
  • All I-BEST and I-BEST like programs contextualized to a specific career or career cluster
  • I-BEST at Work On-ramps. I-BEST at Work works with incumbent workers in the workplace with the teaching team made up of a basic skills instructor and training from the company. (CBOs may want to consider this.)
  • On-ramps where all instruction is contextualized and delivered concurrently with training in a specific occupation or occupational cluster.

Integrated Education and Training (IET) is at the heart of the WIOA legislation and it is clear that in the future it will be a requirement for all basic skills instruction. It is defined as “‘a service approach that provides adult education and training concurrently and contextually with workforce preparation activities and workforce training for a specific occupation or occupational cluster for the purpose of educational and career advancement.” This is the definition of a career pathway.

IET has three required components:

  • Adult education and literacy activities
  • Workforce preparation activities
  • Workforce training for a specific occupation or occupational cluster

Side bar – brief discussion:

Eleni commented that the WIOA law requires that all partners invest in the operations of the comprehensive One-Stops. We have to get the cost sharing agreements in place before we can have the conversation about structuring the One-Stop.

The funding stream restrictions have been lifted and we are able to serve these students longer.

Jon believes the key to next steps is to get the front-line staff trained, like we did with the WWA/CBS to create the Principles of Collaboration document to help the colleges/cbo’s work with the WDC’s.

Anne believes that affiliate sites on campus would be a great way to go and keep costs low. Doesn’t believe the push back is coming from basic skills, but from workforce education.

Louisa commented that affiliate sites are a great idea, but the legislation is spelled out and the core partners must be at the affiliate sites.

This is both a Challenge and opportunity, for all broader partners. They need to knowwhat it means to be in basic skills and how we all can work better to serve this population.

Laurie commented when she’s in the field she is asking schools. We need to maximize the opportunity youth being served and utilize K-12 dollars to off-set that.It is not happening enough (there are dollars there that are not being maximized); what are you doing to get GED+ students to apply for Pell Grants while they are still eligible for K-12 funding?

K-12 students also have a “high school and beyond plan” that is developed for every student.It’s to help students plan for their future and it’s free and electronic (it’s a graduation requirement). This document is intended to follow the student into secondary education and help the transition go smoother and be less duplicative for the student, but the student has to understand its meaning and why it is helpful to them.

Jon suggested that maybe this council would like to invite Chris Reykdal to come and hear the great collaboration that is happening here and how we could all work more collaboratively together. (Open Doors and HS 21+ great examples of that collaboration)

Bryce feels that this council is where we can have an impact to create same language around Guided Pathways among our system and our partners.

Jon also shared a few unique features that have made HS 21+ so effective: contextualized instruction, competency based (including life experience), rigorous content and college readiness, and that it is student driven. It has also increased expectations for faculty, this requires courses to meet multiple competencies, comprehensive planning of instruction for the entire quarter to make sure that all content is covered and is assessed rigorously. This is much more challenging than assigning pages out of a book and is much more fun and fulfilling!

Co-enrollment in HS 21+ and I-BEST is the ultimate accelerated model to move our students to a living wage employment. This requires intentional advising and navigation and giving attention to both the I-BEST college program completion and the completion of a high school diploma and this must be done from day one. Dual credit is definitely encouraged, a class that counts for five credits toward a professional technical degree, can also be used to award competency toward a high school graduation requirement. This dual credit strategy simply accelerates students’ progress toward a high school credential and a college certificate or degree.

Guided Pathways are created with the student end goal in mind, what’s their individual career goal. Research has found that simply improving completion of diplomas and entry-level certificates by their selves is not enough to close equity gaps and improve post-college outcomes for sustainable jobs and further education. The pathways must get students to living-wage employment.

The four major components/principles to guided pathway:

  • Clarify the paths
  • Help students get on a path
  • Help students stay on the path
  • Ensure students are learning

College Highlight: Lake Washington Institute for Technology (LWIT) – Doug Emory, LWIT

Doug shared that the majority of the basic skills population at LWIT are second language speakers and they are an easy population to work with, as most students have been to college before, so they know how to be good students.

The basic skills population is significant on their campus;they make up 20% of the total college population and15% of those students transition to college. One of their goals is to use I-BEST courses as an entry to every Metamajor (manufacturing, health sciences, STEM, information technology and they are developing computer services and culinary arts). Each pathway is supported by pathway maps, navigation, ongoing faculty advising and assessment of student learning.

Legislative Update – Jon Kerr

  • We are trying to get our Corrections contract to be a two-year contract, so we can hopefully avoid layoffs if the legislature does not develop a budget in a timely manner.
  • Special legislative session continues.
  • HB1913 remains outstanding - Provides for a leasehold excise tax exemption for colleges who may have contracts for service with private bookstore or food vendors.
  • McCleary remains the top priority for budget writers and will have a lot to do with where our funding comes out.
  • We are currently in a “wait and see” mode while encouraging outreach to Senators in support of the college budget ask.
  • TAP (state level plan) where’s the navigation committee at? Unfortunately, it’s been a struggle and people have faded away. Some specific next steps:
  • Finalize input on the Navigation as a System guidance tool created by Seattle Jobs Initiative
  • Collect tools and resources for each sub-topic in the Navigation as a System guidance tool:
  • Recruitment and Outreach
  • Connecting Participants to Funding Sources
  • Connecting Participants to Public Services
  • Coaching Participants
  • Liaison Between College, Employers, CBOs, and Participants
  • If any of your agencies have tools or resources they would like to submit to the workgroup, they can be sent to Will Durden,
  • Youth Navigation Committee (Laurie Shannon) – how would the role of the youth (16-24) navigator be different from an adult navigator?
  • Very different needs – they have developed what the role would look like (but did not develop a job description). What would be in your tool kit?
  • Literature resources
  • Trainings
  • Tools you can use right now
  • TAP Accelerator Funding (Eleni Papadakis) – Governor Inslee gave WTECB up to an additional $60,000 to each TAP Implementation Committee. The committees have decided to hire a contractor to work with the front-line staff of all the different programs to determine tools/resources they may need, including information about funding.
  • Jon thought it would be great if out of these committees, we could bring together region area navigators to develop a cadre. Helping them to connect with one-another and how they are able to integrate and help each other work this process. This would be for both adult and youth navigators and help us get to the next steps. Maybe have the cadre meet quarterly and see how things are working and where improvements could be made. We need to describe the functions of what this position is when calling this group together vs. calling them navigators, as we still have a barrier around consistent language.

Discussion & Sharing

Given the major changes enacted by WIOA, what do you see as the major opportunities and challenges of these requirements on our work as the AEAC?

Creating/developing a navigational tool to connect students to the program they need

How can we help the undocumented students? Best answer, get them a HSD

Across all WIOA funds, there is no longer a time limits for services, we can stay with the student longer

Colleges going to Guided Pathways, bringing our partners, same terminology

Challenge / opportunity – all of broader partners and what it means to be in basic skills

AEAC Taskforce Updates – Ha Nguyen, SBCTC

  • HSC Outreach – these visits have brought together groups of people in a region who have shared outcomes of trying to get adults a credential. They found these people do not know one-another and they don’t talk to each other regularly. So by doing these meetings, it has helped build relationships/connections that may not have otherwise happened. The Outreach visits have brought together WorkSource, OSPI and SBCTC. They have completed 9 of the 13 scheduled outreach visits.Another option is to attend the Local Planning Area (LPA) quarterly meetings as invited guest.
  • Fine Forgiveness – exploring legislation to help students attain HS records and forgive outstanding fines after “x” time, probably something OPSI might take the lead on. SBCTC needs to survey our system to help determine how large the problem really is. Eleni suggested we contact Randy Spalding, Student Achievement Council (WSAC), as she believes they are working on a similar project (Adult Reengagement Initiative).
  • AEAC Work Plan – thank you for your help in developing the work plan for our retreat.
  • Vision, Mission and Goals taskforce completed their work and were dissolved.

Equity and Inclusion Activity – Ha Nguyen, SBCTC

Ha shared a leadership video,

So, if the culture is informed by social justice values and is set by the leaders in the organization, what does that mean for everyone in this room? Ultimately, it means opportunity to use your influence to make change that will hopefully support the students and clients we work for every day.

AEAC Work Plan 2016-18 – group work

Breakout groups will review goals 1-3 first, then goals 4-6 and then goal 7 tomorrow. Please review the overall goal and the objective below, then come back and review as a group.

This work was done and collected, for Ha to compile into final draft Work Plan that will then be sent to the task force to be finalized

SBCTC Strategic Direction – Jan Yoshiwara

Jan was welcomed by the council as the new Executive Director for SBCTC!! She then shared her thoughts for the college system. Overarching principle, we have to figure out what are the needs of the economy / education.