RE: Adult Education

I somehow managed to miss this day's discussion in my busy schedule and I wanted to jump back in here; I assume someone on staff at least reads all this stuff eventually and even belated comments like my own will be heard.

People should be aware that generally speaking the absence of adult education from the master plan in the area of professional development reflects the absence of an institutional commitment to professional development within adult education. All serious adult educators I know engage in constant professional development, but we do it in the main as volunteers and on the basis of voluntarism. We have fought for years to obtain a career-spanning salary schedule that rewards and supports such development, but it does not exist. There is a day of paid professional development in a school year at LAUSD for example (only for tenured adult education teachers, a small percentage of the teaching staff). There is no paid preparation time, not organized collegial departmental meeting time. We attend workshops and conferences almost entirely on our own time and at our expense, without either reimbursement or recognition in 'salary points' for such professional development or educational attainment. The comprehensive plan for education needs to direct the appropriate educational authorities to engage the teacher corps and administrators as well as school boards and other governing authorities in a serious effort to resolve this problem. There is no longer any justification for adult education teachers to be any different from other teachers in our responsibilities or remuneration.