RE: Question 1: Attracting and Retaining Teachers

Yes! Success in teaching and successful learning experiences attracts and retains teachers. Overwhelming teachers with paperwork repels us. Pay commensurate with responsibility and experience attracts and retains teachers. Adult education teachers in general have neither much of a career ladder nor much of a salary table. We are attracted and retained by the rewards of the teaching, the clear and measurable impacts on our students and their lives. But we certainly need the rest of it. Even working with predominantly low income students I have had students who shortly after school were making more money than I. High school students who have enjoyed their education, participated in shaping their own educations, experienced the liberating effects of education, will be attracted to teaching -- if they believe they can teach with dignity, respect and a decent standard of living.

Teachers in adult education generally speaking have little or no paid preparation time, or collegial staff development and reflection time. This must be changed. Student populations and their demographics, needs and learning styles, as well as social demands and expectations of skills sets, continue to change and we need time to understand and strategize, as well as to refresh and improve our own abilities and knowledge (particularly in vocational education).