Accountability in Adult Basic Education: The Marginalization of Adults with Difficulty Reading

Abstract

Federal accountability policies requiring rapid, measurable outcomes have increasingly shaped the nature and type of public literacy services available to adults. However, little empirical research has explored the impact of accountability policies on program practice in adult basic education, and almost no research has focused on the effect on services for adults who have difficulty reading. This ethnographically grounded research article explores one publicly funded adult basic education program’s efforts to comply with federal accountability policy and the impact these efforts had on services for adults with difficulty reading. Findings suggest that efforts to comply with accountability policies resulted in instructional practices that limited students’ opportunities for substantive engagement with reading and in program policies that excluded students who did not produce outcomes from participation. The findings also suggest that in the context of accountability pressures, student marginalization became normalized as an ordinary part of practice.

Adult Basic Education Under WIOA Title II Implementation: An Integrative Literature Review

“…Second, the authors emphasized that WIOA-mandated coordination between ABE providers and workforce development partners, including employers, could potentially increase access to services for some students (Bergson-Shilcock, 2019;Davidson, 2017;Green, 2020), but also requires ABE providers and students to prioritize employers' needs (Reder, 2020;Shin & Ging, 2019). Next, the authors criticized the new performance accountability system (McHugh & Doxsee, 2018;Pickard, 2016;Reder, 2020) and how it disincentivizes ABE providers from supporting adult learners who would benefit most from adult education (Pickard, 2021a(Pickard, , 2021b. Finally, the authors asserted that WIOA's prevailing focus on economic outcomes constricts adults' opportunities to achieve other lifewide goals such as civic engagement or family literacy (Belzer, 2017;Clymer et al, 2017;McHugh & Doxsee, 2018;Vanek, 2016;Vanek et al, 2020) and discourages providers from working toward educational equity (Yankwitt, 2020).…”

“…The performance accountability system also influences ABE instruction. Authors documented how practitioners devote substantial time to testing and test preparation, in the case of English language learners in an IET, Certified Nursing Assistant program (Britton & Austin, 2020) and adult literacy classes (Pickard, 2021a(Pickard, , 2021b. Furthermore, Pickard (2021a) suggested that the emphasis on accountability has shifted professional development, likely influencing the types of instructional services that practitioners can provide.…”

“…Since WIOA became law in 2014, scholars have explored relevant topics such as the historical evolution of U.S. federal adult education policy (Belzer, 2017;Roumell et al, 2019), accountability (Pickard, 2021a(Pickard, , 2021b and family literacy under WIOA (Clymer et al, 2017). Nevertheless, due to WIOA's recency, the field has yet to produce a comprehensive literature review on the implementation of this policy.…”

Teaching about climate change: Possibilities and challenges in Australian adult literacy programs

“…This has meant that adult literacy programs, particularly those subsidized by government, are subject to increasing accountability requirements. Researchers in the United Kingdom (Tusting, 2009), United States (Pickard, 2021), and Australia (Osmond, 2021) all report the high volume of ‘form‐filling’ that is required by teachers to demonstrate that they are addressing curriculum outcomes. Moreover, the idea of curriculum as something negotiated around learner needs has shifted to an externally produced, standardized ‘product’ with a heavy focus on assessment.…”

Teachers’ experiences of promoting young students’ language development in inclusive settings

“…Consequently, reading and writing are related to further education and employment opportunities (de Beer et al, 2014;Hulme & Snowling, 2016). Students who struggle with reading and writing are at risk of marginalization (Pickard, 2021;World Literacy Foundation, 2012). With the knowledge that reading and writing are related to students' early oral language and language teaching (Castles et al, 2018), early education is essential in promoting language development for all young students.…”