ProLiteracy Worldwide

 

Please make your voice heard! We are asking ProLiteracy's organizational members to sign their organizations on to the letter below. We will be sending the letter and all of the signatures to the House and Senate. Thank you for signing!

Dear Member of Congress:

We greatly appreciate your efforts to reauthorize the Workforce Investment Act (WIA). The organizations listed below strongly urge you to consider the needs of adults with the lowest literacy levels and other special needs who too often are not adequately served by the Act. To better serve these students, we recommend the following be included in Title II:

Reinforce Title II provisions that benefit the lowest level learners: While current law requires all Title II providers to have "direct and equitable access" to federal funds, in practice, many community-based organizations (CBOs) that serve adults with the lowest literacy levels and other special needs have limited access to Title II funds.

Steps need to be taken in reauthorization to ensure that community-based organizations can access federal formula funds and continue to assist the lowest level learners. Reauthorization should ensure additional resources to increase the capacity of community-based organizations to meet federal requirements while still serving students most in need.

Recognize the need for flexibility in the intensity and duration of instruction: While adult learners should be encouraged to move as quickly as possible to achieve their educational and career goals, many adult learners have multiple demands on their time due to work and family circumstances—making highly intensive, uninterrupted participation in instruction unrealistic. Title II should provide flexibility regarding intensity and duration of instruction in provisions related to evaluation of grantees. The benefits of higher intensity and duration of instruction requirements should be balanced with a flexible approach recognizing the particular challenges facing adult learners that may require different modalities of instruction.

Revise the National Reporting System (NRS): The NRS needs to be reformulated to ensure it adequately reflects the progress made by all learners, including lower level students making incremental progress in literacy and skills development. WIA reauthorization should include instructions to the Administration that a commission should be established that convenes all the stakeholders, including CBOs, to develop recommendations for improvements to the NRS.

While we are pleased that the Department of Education is working to develop preliminary changes to the NRS, a comprehensive effort that includes all the stakeholders is necessary to ensure that changes to the NRS accurately reflect progress at all levels of adult learning.

Ensure the Workforce Innovation Fund includes Title II programs: The Workforce Innovation Fund should include grants to replicate innovative and effective local practices for low-level learners—including wraparound services and career pathway development. CBO providers, many of which have decades of experience in assisting low-level adult learners, should be eligible entities to apply for WIA funds. A significant focus of these grants should build stronger linkages between Title I and Title II programs to create career pathways that enhance participants' long-term economic success.

We strongly support higher quality instruction, better accountability, and support for career pathways for adult learners and look forward to building improved linkages with Title I programs. We need your help to ensure that students at the lowest levels of literacy will not be forgotten in a renewed Workforce Investment Act.

Thank you for the consideration of this request.

Sincerely,

Your Name


Name of Your Organization


Your State


Email