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RPDAC Directory | Work Plan | Meetings | Upcoming Calendar | Homework Assignments | Mailing List Contact Person: Cyndi Godbey (clg5723@garnet.acns.fsu.edu) REGION 24 - 30 - 99 Meeting Minutes
Chairman Lyndarae Martin called the meeting to order at 10:20 a.m. Renew Introductions Chairman Martin asked those present to introduce themselves.
COUNCIL MEMBERS PRESENT:
COUNCIL MEMBERS ABSENT:
GUESTS PRESENT:
FSU TEAM MEMBERS PRESENT:
DOE TEAM MEMBERS PRESENT:
Housekeeping/Announcements Dr. Peter Easton announced that the project has a presentation scheduled for the Florida Literacy Conference on May 12 and asked for volunteers to participate. Disseminate Updated Council Directory Gary Liebert distributed updated copies of the Region 2 Council directory. Objectives for Meeting Dr. Easton reviewed the status of Region II's progress in the project to provide some background for the discussion of objectives for the meeting. He referred to the diagram depicting the First Year Implementation Strategy for ADE 21 Project where the following phases are illustrated:
Dr. Easton pointed out that in the context of planning for subsequent years, consideration needs to be given to what appears to be a trend for DOE; a shift in planning and training development to the regions. Dr. Lyndarae Martin asked if DOE is planning to pass the statewide training initiatives on to the local Councils, like that provided by ACE. Dr. Easton pointed out that ACE is a provider, but doesn't perform the function of conducting regionally tailored needs and resources assessments and planing for training specific to the regional situations. Dr. Martin clarified that she wanted to know if all training will be done regionally. John Denmark said there would still be statewide training but what would be provided would be built around input from the regional Councils and their common needs. Dr. Martin recognized the importance of this Council in communicating the needs for training in the regions and determining the extent to which they are similar to other regions. Dr. Easton clarified the distinction between statewide and regional training in the future as the distinction between those needs that are common among regions and those that are region-specific. Dr. Easton added that there are discussions that the vocational training might be folded into the same or a similar structure. Dr. Easton then stressed that this year is really a trial run and what happens in subsequent years is dependent upon what results are achieved in the Councils this year. Dr. Easton moved to the diagram of the overall image of the Regionalized Professional Development System and emphasized that in this vision, the Regional Councils serve as a hub to the entire system. Dr. Easton then moved to a review of what the Council will need to have accomplished by the end of this year in order to be postured to assume a strategic role in this model in subsequent years. He clarified that when he refers to the Council, he is actually including the Council members and other individuals and entities which the Council members can engage and mobilize. It is not intended that the Council members, themselves, are the only ones who carry out all of the described tasks. Ms. Godbey pointed out that this is a primary reason for establishing the constituency network which is a focus of this project. He elaborated on the task of Constituency Development and distributed a diagram that depicts how we go about developing the network that will provide information about what the Council is doing and also get input form the constituencies which they represent. Dr. Easton also stressed the importance of the selection of a regional technical support institution. The intent is that the Council would select a regionally based technical support institution that can serve as the technical support backstop in future years as FSU steps out of that role. Dr. Martin asked if it needed to be one. Dr. Easton indicated that it could be more than one, the important aspect is ensuring the institution selected acquires the capacity to provide the technical support that the Council would need to facilitate the Council operations, such as those described under "Year 1" activities," in subsequent years. He added that there is only about $4-5,000 available for each regional institution during the first year of the project. Dr. Easton proceeded by explaining that the group has previously reviewed the table of activities but had not really discussed the required deliverables. He elaborated saying that there need to be some established criteria by which it can be determined that the Council has done what it was expected to do during the first year. Dr. Martin asked how this review of the work plan fits with the other regions. Dr. Easton indicated that the general tasks and minimal deliverables are the same; how each region gets there is up to them. He added that what each region does will certainly be available to each of the other Councils. John Denmark indicated that DOE expects that a needs and resources assessment will be completed by the end of the first year. Dr. Easton followed up by pointing out that the Region 2 Council has taken the "temperature" of the needs, resources, barriers and best practices in the region. He then asked for the group's reaction to the general framework of the model and the described scope of work. Dr. Glenna Kyker indicated that she feels that the assessment of needs is really important and she also thinks the issue of whether the training transfers is critical. She indicated that she is becoming more and more aware of how important it is. Marilynn Stevenson pointed out that this isn't really new information it just frames the model more in the context of planning out what needs to be done next. Dr. Easton added that there is another perspective to think about: sometimes training is not what people need. They may have been trained extensively but the resources and policies are not in place to allow teachers to use the training. Housekeeping Issues/Announcements Chairman Martin announced that the group would have lunch at around 12:30. It will be lasagne and tea for $5.25. She also gave directions for restrooms and other facilities. II. Review of Second Meeting Review/Adoption of Meeting Minutes for 3/29/99 Dr. Kyker indicated that, although she can serve as a liaison to a variety of groups in the community, she needs to be designated as representing PEG in the minutes. There being no further changes, the minutes from the March 29, 1999 Region 2 RPDAC were adopted as amended. Clarification of Roles of Council Members Having already reviewed the scope of work for the Council, Dr. Easton pointed out that the Council may wish to now discuss further how they will perform in the capacity that has been outlined - how they will develop in their roles. Dr. Martin indicated that Dr. Kyker raised an important point; she elaborated that there are groups in the community that all the Council members have contact with which may not have a direct responsibility in adult education, but if the other Council members knew this, it would make it easier to ensure representation of more diverse constituencies. It was pointed out that the group could compile this information using the Sampling Matrix and provide it to project team staff for compilation in order to share that information with the group. Dr. Easton indicated that it might be helpful to add an extra line at the bottom of the Sampling Matrix where Council members can list different non-provider groups that are stakeholders. The issue was raised as to whether the representation of constituency groups on the Region 2 Council is really adequate. Dr. Easton described the process in Region 5 where it was decided to add different stakeholder group memberships for the Council in response to the restrictions that have been placed on the size of the Councils. Cyndi Godbey elaborated that the diagram for developing a constituency network is intended to also get at the expanded representation that is possible through the groups that they may be representing through those they more directly represent. Each Council member may have direct contact with colleagues and other professionals that provide conduits to other groups themselves. Dr. Easton pointed out that this exercise of going through the needs and resources assessment in Region 4 led to their decision to focus on teaching their people how to do this assessment for the future. They felt this constituency building and awareness of the system needs was important enough to make that the emphasis of their first year training. III. Old Business Needs Assessment Ms. Godbey disseminated a compilation of the information that had been gathered prior to the last meeting regarding needs assessment. She pointed out that this information was also well represented in the minutes. Jane Murray shared information that she had gathered from CBO's from around the state who provide adult education; she pointed out that this is not just Region 2, but may be helpful:
Training Needs for Students
Training Needs for Teachers
Training Needs for Employers
Training Needs for Legislature
Policy Barriers to Training Students
Resources Barriers
Available Resources Local Workforce Development Issues Dr. Martin pointed out that guests had begun to arrive and summarized the current Council discussion. She indicated that the needs assessment is being seen as a broader tool for developing the Council and the capacity of the Council to become a significant player in the adult education system. Dr. Easton elaborated that this group is really trying to look at the current job market situation and what is needed on the job and then work backwards to determine what teachers need to know how to train or what they need in order to teach their students. Beverly Collins and Vanessa Fairbrain introduced themselves as Transitional Services Coordinators for ITEC which is funded primarily through the Department of Vocational/Rehabilitative Services. The program works with people with disabilities to try to find employment and provides job coaching to facilitate maintenance of employment. The program also teaches employability skills in high schools and is available to do the same training in ether settings. They do some ABE/GED training, but also refer students to other providers for that. In the coming school year, ITEC is going to be doing a job apprenticeship program where they will be matching employees for job shadowing. They are currently preparing to start working with the hard core welfare to work population. Ms. Murray pointed out that the population of folks served in adult education are usually people who have had to struggle in school; they essentially have disabilities. Dr. Martin pointed out that this points to a whole other population that is disabled and needs to be served - those people who don't know how to plan for their career. Dr. Kyker said she recently visited a One Stop Center in Palm Beach and was pleased with the services they offered. However, she said she went looking for the One Stop Center in Clay County and couldn't find it. She was going to pose as an ex-offender and indicate that she needed help. She finally ran across a man who was a saint; he located the one placement counselor for ex-offenders in North Florida and made her an appointment. She indicated that we as professionals in this field need training about what resources are available and how to access them. There needs to be a way to put together a resource directory that can tell everybody where to go when you need certain things and where you need to go to accomplish certain things. Dr. Martin said that one of the deliverables that the Council may pursue is to make certain recommendations for statewide accessibility to information about where various resources are. The next guest, Robert Franck (Bob) introduced himself and indicated that he has spent nearly 40 years in industry. He was at a technical center and then went back in industry for one of the largest employers in St Johns County. They are in such dire need for employees, that anyone who walks through the door gets hired. The turnover is about 70% annually. They haven't had a layoff in 20 years. Any turnover primarily comes from the transient community; they've done a number of things to promote retention. They have a group of employees that are very good and have been with the company since they opened. They hire at $7.50/hour with full benefits. They had about 130 people last year who had perfect attendance for the previous year. The turnover they experience presents serious training problems for the company. They offer training at the job site and have found that 50% of their employees can't read a tape measure. They have had to move to digital tape measures to accommodate this. People who leave are not necessarily the lower performers on the TABE. It was pointed out that transportation is the biggest barrier. Their biggest need is attendance and that is the biggest reason they have to let employees go. They currently bus people from Jacksonville. He pointed out that in education we assume so much. In the field you can assume nothing; they've had to teach adults (40-50 years old) to read. They've gone to testing with the TABE before hiring. Dr. Martin responded that the training of employability skills in adult education is really just an add-on. Maybe it needs to be more central to the curriculum. Dr. Easton reminded the group that it may not be a training problem that the are discussing. Karen Soukiasian pointed out that the employability skills issue starts much earlier than the training for employability. It starts early in the school setting. She has a sister who has moved to treating her students at school just like it's a job; the students get paid every Tuesday for what they have done; they get violations if they don't do things that are assigned. They also get bonuses for extra efforts. They get a paycheck; pay their fines for violations and can then cash their check by filling out a deposit slip. Dr. Easton pointed out that the adult education system by virtue of how it operates doesn't prepare people to go to work. Dr. Martin added that we are just teaching teachers to talk about training. What Karen described is performance training - achieve a particular outcome. Marty Mayor talked about a system that she employs which is very behavioral in its methods of immediate feedback on their performance; she pointed out that there are some very simple contract terms that people can't understand Mr. Denmark pointed out that there is a general problem with training young people because that's where the training begins. But we also have the job readiness issue that needs to be addressed; that may need to be addressed through family literacy where parents need to teach their children more than just how to read. Dr. Easton pointed out that this Council has selected job readiness as the theme for training in this region. Karen added that there still needs to be some education provided by the parents about what a work ethic is. Bob pointed out that he has noticed that people aren't getting enough attention for pursuing an education. Dr. Easton reviewed what had been discussed by using a diagram depicting what is needed to ensure job performance and security: Employees need basic skills, technical skills and work discipline. It was pointed out that some employers will train the technical skills and may do the basic skills with help. However, they have real difficulty trying to teach work discipline. Dr. Martin pointed out that the visitors have made it clear that what adult education needs to do is focus on performance-based training of students that is connected to real expectations and consequences. Marilynn asked how this concept could be applied in adult education where you have people coming and going. Dr. Easton summarized that what we are talking about - again -are the performance needs of students and that will dictate what the characteristics of adult education need to be and therefore what skills the teachers need to be able to teach it. Ernie Matthews, of St. Augustine Technology reported to the group. He provides adult education services at Bob's site; they are open to providing training at any job site, but the big issue is paying the employee extra to attend the training. Probably only about 5% of Bob's employees actually pursue the adult education. Ernie stressed that caring is probably the most important issue for employees. What they really want is to feel important, to know that someone cares. He said that's important with the teachers, too. And he's not sure that you can teach or instill that in people. They either have it or not. Incentives were discussed. One employee does a matching program where the employee goes to class for two hours and the employer pays them for one. Ernie said that won't even work if there isn't some other motivator, however small. He said you'd be amazed at what an employee will do for a $.10/hour raise. Dr. Easton said that could be another issue to address in working with employers is to agree to get them employees that will work as long as they will allow an audit of the incentive structure. IV. New Business Dr. Easton began discussion on determining a workplan and schedule for Region 2 by drawing a distinction between Performance Consulting and training. He pointed out that Performance Consulting takes a different approach to addressing performance problems. In this field, practitioners address the following issues:
Ms. Mayor pointed out that one of the problems with ABE/GED is constant turnover. If you encourage portfolios, the student can have some continuity for the student's education. Ms. Mayor said that she tries to get the students to set goals for what they want to accomplish and added that what the teachers need is training in goal setting. Dr. Martin suggested that the group go to "super teachers" and ask them what they think makes a good teacher. In light of this discussion, Dr. Easton asked whether the group still agreed that work force readiness of the student should be the theme. The group affirmed this choice, adding that goal setting could certainly be a part of the curriculum. Teresa Bestor said that DOE has a lot of the curriculum resources on this topic. Everybody agreed that there is a lot out there (e.g., through special education, the bureau of career development, vocational education) and the curriculum doesn't need to be created. Dr. Easton stressed the benefits of starting with what is manageable and getting small successes early. Dr. Martin pointed out that the issue is more how to do the training so that the teachers incorporate the workforce readiness skills training. Dr. Martin said they require the students to sign up for the workforce readiness if they want to get into ABE. Ms. Stevenson pointed out that there will still be difficulty getting it incorporated because they aren't getting paid for it. Dr. Martin added that what the Council should focus on is packaging it so that it's easy for the providers to get the LCP for meeting that criterion. Dr. Martin pointed out that the state curriculum for LCP's is the minimally required performance standards and the programs can add anything else. Dr. Easton pointed out that this raises the fact that there are two sides of this issue - the training part and the policy aspects. There was discussion about what is meant by workforce readiness. Members indicated that it consists of things such as:
how to interview job search strategies resume communication skills workforce culture what are the job expectations Dr. Martin said the focus should be on teaching students how to be a person they haven't been before in order to get and keep a job. Ms. Mayor pressed the point that how the training is delivered will be critical to selling teachers on delivering it in the classroom. A marked distinction was made between the content and the delivery strategy. Dr. Martin said she would like to see a full menu of pieces of curricula to choose from. Dr. Easton summarized the Council members' input as suggesting two packages:
He pointed out that given the time frame, the group may need to survey quickly what curriculum is already out there, adapt that but really focus on doing package B the first year. It was pointed out that if you get the teachers to acquire the skills and understand the needed characteristics, the teacher can do package A. So package B is the more important. Dr. Kyker said another content issue that should be addressed is how to be a caring teacher and that something about the student's social and emotional skills needs to be included; Dr. Easton pointed out that's part of the second stage. Dr. Martin said the group then needs to decide what package A should contain. Ms. Stevenson said she wants everything in the state frameworks included and Dr. Martin says she wants flexibility. She added that the integration of job and family needs to be a consideration in determining the curriculum. Dr. Martin summarized that they have outlined important pieces of that curriculum and suggested they do a training that helped people understand what is needed and let them identify what the other pieces of the training need to be. Mr. Denmark said that sounded like a curriculum workshop; Council members, though, said it's really strategy development. Marty stressed that it is training and Ms. Bestor added that part of the project is identifying innovative ways to deliver training, which this suggestion would fit. It was pointed out that if you did 2-3 training sessions that got people excited about incorporating workforce readiness then you have provided valuable training. Dr. Easton summarized that it could actually boil down to putting them through training on the Needs and Resources Assessment and capacity building processes. Then you've killed two birds with one stone; you do the needs assessment and train at the same time. With regard to objectives, Dr. Martin said she would like to come away from the workshop with the identification of about 10 discreet content items that need to be a part of the workforce readiness curriculum. Ms. Mayor said this sounds like 2 trainings- the first is the needs assessment, the second is the resource development (what the teachers have available). Dr. Easton asked if the objective was to get teachers to go through this or to get administrators to go through this with the teachers. The group agreed it is both. Dr. Martin then interjected that the first piece would be to take them through the exercise of trends, needs, and resources assessment and, secondly pull together the resources they have available, and the third then could be the development of a curriculum. The group discussed the possibility of going to the Florida Vocational Association meeting to carry out the training. Selection of Regional Lead Institution There was discussion about the selection criteria for the regional lead institution. Dr. Easton pointed out that there are limited funds available the first year for regional institutions, however, it's important to recognize that this could be conceived of as a "foot in the door." The group was concerned about the limited funds and short time frames. Dr. Easton suggested one alternative for selection of the institution could be to have them do a training instead of writing a proposal. Dr. Martin suggested that the group consider forming a consortium of institutions, each of which could contribute resources to support the first year trainings. Ms. Stevenson pointed out that the group will need some real concrete things that the group is doing and where it will lead, to present to their institutions to gain support for joining into a consortium. Dr. Martin asked that the Project Team do a one page summary conceptualizing the consortia, what each would do (e.g., give leave to people to participate in the initiative); and on what the Council has done, expects to do and where they want to go by Tuesday. She added that this needs to be from herself and FSU, addressed to the CEO of the institutions. Regionally Based Training Dr. Easton pointed out that it might be helpful if the group discussed when it will be feasible to do the training. The group agreed that two should be held in July and the third in August. V. Close Meeting Set Next Meeting Date/Location The next meeting was set for May 24 at the Union Correctional Institute. Review Next Agenda/Assignments The following assignments were made:
Evaluate this Meeting Comments on the meeting included: "Good lunch" and "Good meeting." There being no further business, the meeting adjourned at 3 p.m.
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