California delivers Integrated English Literacy and Civics Education using performance-based instruction and assessment. This ensures English language learners are prepared to participate in society as workers, parents, and active community members. This article describes the 20-year-old program's history, structure, requirements, and successes.

Adult basic education's role, from the beginning, has been about serving people with foundational skill needs. The author, Judy Mortrude, agrees with the argument that adult literacy education needs to be repositioned within a new framework of lifelong and life-wide learning, a framework in which new policies are formulated, programs are designed…

Since the introduction of workplace computers in the 1970s, policymakers have been racing to outpace the workforce demands of the information age. To address concerns, policymakers have promoted an expansion of skills training to help workers keep up in the changing economy. Because the way people learn, work, and live is transforming, so should…

In today's globally competitive economy, low-income students, students of color, opportunity youth, and adult learners need a postsecondary education and work-based learning opportunities to secure family-sustaining jobs and careers. Since the Great Recession, the economy has added 11.6 million jobs. Ninety-nine percent of them have gone to…

Ensuring that all students achieve successful post-school outcomes has been a goal of U.S. education policy for many years. Clear statements and policy priorities emerged in the late 2000s about a goal for all students to leave high school ready for success in postsecondary education or employment (often referred to as college and career…

In the 20 years since the implementation of the Work Investment Act (WIA), federal funding for adult literacy education has remained largely stagnant, and actually decreased in inflation-adjusted dollars from FY2001-FY2019, despite the fact that the field serves fewer than 5% of those in need. Yet over these two decades, the field has moved away…

This article describes the Division of Career Development and Transition's (DCDT) position regarding Career Technical Education (CTE) and provides recommendations regarding more intense collaboration to improve access to and persistence in CTE for students with disabilities. Professional groups, such as the DCDT and the Association for Career and…

Each state participates in the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA), which prescribes certain types of activities and organizational structures for states to direct federal investments in workforce development. Participation in WIOA requires a state to create a workforce investment board with duties such as developing, implementing and…

As the free college debate continues to gain momentum in states across the country, advocates' and policymakers' growing success in reframing access to college as a guaranteed benefit raises the question: Should federal or state governments do more to ensure that guarantee includes access to quality job training programs more generally, and if so,…

In the United States, adult and workforce education (AE) seems to be located, simultaneously, both everywhere and nowhere in particular. Ongoing shifts in national economic demands and changes in requirements for training and education have brought learning in the adult years into the federal public policy arena. Sometimes referred to as lifelong…

This mix methods study was completed at a medium sized, rural, public two-year community college located in a southeastern state. The purpose of the research was to determine whether the administration of a workforce development program by a community college leads to better student success. Specifically, the community college wanted to analyze…

While financial aid programs exist to support enrollment in specific career fields in many states, Education Commission of the States examined only those programs that appeared in state statute and used explicit language that signaled an intent to support workforce development in high-demand fields via postsecondary credential attainment.…

Despite legal mandates and evidence of predictors of success in transition, there continue to be poor outcomes for students with disabilities as compared to students without disabilities. This article describes the first steps of a quality improvement project, including a needs assessment and description of the current constraints of transition…

A career pathway system is made up of multiple programs that span educational institutions, workforce entities and support service partners. These systems are oriented around a shared understanding of the needs of industries. Career pathway systems are one of many policy models states use to help connect education and workforce in the K-12,…

The context of this study was to examine factors contributing to significant workforce shortages in building trades in the United States. As it is, recruitment of qualified skilled trades workers is becoming increasingly difficult due to lack of a pipeline of prospective workers, and training programs. The study assumed a theoretical inquiry…