California
Education Dialogue
A public policy dialogue produced by Information Renaissance
with support from The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation,
IBM Corporation and Intel Corporation
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Emerging Modes of Delivery, Certification
and Planning NOTES [2] Information technology refers to information, communication, and distribution technologies. [3] Members expressed their conviction that learning support is critical to achieving equity in the overall learning process. All students must have their basic needs met before they can effectively learn. Students cannot succeed in school when they do not feel safe, are hungry, have untreated illness or have high levels of emotional stress. Academic performance can be improved by ensuring that basic needs are met for nutrition, health care, safe places to be in non-school hours, and enrichment activities that reinforce learning. The State should expand upon the recommendations of the School Readiness Group by ensuring learning-support services for PreK-12 students. Further, some members commented that these supports should be extended to adult learners. [4] Developed by the NGA Center for Best Practices, 2001 [5] Emerging research on adult learning is based on the theories of andragogy and social learning, and it identifies certain assumptions about the design of adult learning: (1) adults need to know why they need to learn something, (2) adults need to learn experientially, (3) adults approach learning as problem-solving, and (4) adults learn best when the topic is of immediate value. [6] Small schools are to be defined by the communities they serve. [7] The Working Group used research findings from the National Center for Research on Evaluation, Standards and Student Testing (CRESST) Standards for Accountability Systems, 2002 to develop its recommendations. [8] The report should have short (1-3 year), intermediate (5-10 year), and long-term (20 year) projections. [9] As an example, to produce a new K-12 accredited teacher from a high school graduate takes at least four years of post-secondary education, educational institutions (with their own instructors) that can provide that education, in-class internship opportunities, and an eventual geographic distribution system that moves these teachers to the districts that can use them. Once a teacher arrives at a district, the district must have a classroom and supplies to support that teacher. Securing baseline forecasts of teacher supply and demand proved to be problematic. When the Group sought to secure a forecast of the demand for K-12 teachers, assistant principals, and principals, disaggregated by school level, subject matter expertise, and geographic area, it discovered that there was no single agency or entity in the State responsible for collecting the baseline data needed to generate these forecasts. Instead, it heard numerous accounts of fragmented data collection efforts relevant to forecasting teacher supply and demand, mounted by individual colleges and school districts, the California State University, the University of California, the California Department of Education, the California Department of Finance, and the California Commission on Teacher Credentials. [10] Two state agencies — the California Department of Education and the Chancellor’s Office of the California Community Colleges — oversee noncredit and adult education. These programs are offered in unified and high school districts and in community colleges as noncredit classes. In some areas of the state, adult schools are the predominant providers; in other areas, the community colleges are the predominant providers - and in many areas, the two segments share the provision of instruction. When the two segments share instruction in a given geographical area, there may be formal or informal agreements to delineate responsibilities or there may be competition for students. The availability of noncredit and adult education courses varies by geographic region. [11] Members of the subcommittee of the Working Group assigned to explore adult continuing education heard many pleas for increasing the number of counselors and advisers to assist adult learners navigate the educational system, develop career plans, and remain in programs long enough to develop the basic literacy skills needed for postsecondary education, workforce placements, and participation in their children’s education.
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