CAEP Annual Plan: 2019-20 26 Long Beach Adult Education

Status: Consortium Approved

California Adult Education Program : Annual Plan : 2019-20 Produced: Sep 18, 2019, 02:51 AM UTC Debbie Broadway

26 Long Beach Adult Education

Plans & Goals - Consortium Approved

Executive Summary
The Long Beach Adult Education Consortium (LBAEC) is a collaborative of Long Beach Unified School District School for Adults (LBSA) and Long Beach City College (LBCC). The vision of the LBAEC is to have focused and well-aligned educational programs that provide the region’s adults with equitable access to educational and wrap-around support services that will prepare them for long-term success. LBCC has seen substantial growth in the creation of noncredit courses, particularly in the areas of ESL and short-term CTE. In 2018-2019, LBCC saw a 333% increase in course offerings (from 19 to 65), a 467% increase in non-credit programs (from 3 to 17), and a 140% increase in offsite offerings (from 3 to 7) when compared to 2017-2018. Many of the new courses are in CTE, including automotive maintenance, construction, and computer technology. These LBAEC supported programs are geared to support low-income adult learners through short-term courses that lead to rapid workforce re-entry. ESL course offerings have also been expanded to provide employment-focused language skills as well as immigrant support and citizenship attainment. Beginning in year two of the previous planning cycle, LBCC began serving a mere 45 students at one off-site location and is now serving over 200 students off-site, averaging (over the last three years) another 1900 adult education students taking on-campus classes. ESL has given out over 147 certificates of competency in English and Reading. In 15-16, LBUSD was getting ready to close LBSA when the AEP (formerly AEBG) money became available and was distributed to consortiums. With the receipt of the AEP, money LBSA began to rebuild itself. In 16 -17, LBSA reestablished its High School Diploma and Adult Basic Education programs. LBSA had 28 graduates that first year, and 62 graduates in 17-18. With the AEP money, LBSA has been able to increase its numbers in HiSET preparation, HiSET Home Studies, and English as a Second Language classes serving 700 to 800 students each semester. In the last three years, LBSA has added both certificated and classified staff to meet the needs of its growing student population and to provide the needed infrastructure support. LBSA has been able to upgrade all of its technology for staff and has purchased both classroom and office furniture which is not only ADA compliant, but comfortable for adult learners. The upgraded technology has given LBSA the ability to register students using online registration, and in 18-19 there were 68 high school diplomas and 22 high-school equivalency. LBSA is an official test center for the HiSET test and now offers both computer and paper testing in both English and Spanish. During the last three years, LBSA has reconnected with community partners and has been able to offer off-site classes at their locations. These relationships will continue to get stronger with the connection to the LBAE Consortium. LBSA is making an impressive come back and is hoping to continue its growth, which will be determined by future funding. At this point, LBSA is hoping to maintain the level of services and continue to meet the needs of its students and community. During the 19-20 year, LBSA is transitioning from one campus to two campuses to better serve the community. The LBAEC identified four major goals through its pre-planning assessment, review of Labor Market information, and through review of the community needs in the region. These include: leveraging consortium resources and partnerships to strategically recruit students, creating diverse programming to meet the community’s needs, meeting the workforce demands of a changing economy, and streamlining access to services provided by consortium partners and community members to ensure seamless transitions and support for students. The strategies for 19-20 will lead to short-term and long-term impact on the adults in this region. LBAEC will continue to serve high school diploma and high school equivalency students, and expand services for ESL and Career Technical Education students. The LBAEC identifies needs for the next planning cycle in three major adult education program areas: basic skills (especially below 8th grade level), adults with disabilities, an older adult program that are primarily related to entry or reentry into the workforce. In addition, the LBAEC will promote professional development for faculty and staff through an adult learner lecture series.
Regional Planning Overview
The goals and subsequent activities that support these goals will lead to short-term and long-term impact on the adults in this region. Opportunities for improvement include a renewed focus on collaboration among the consortium members. Long Beach School for Adults and Long Beach City College both serve adults with low English proficiency, adults with disabilities, low-income individuals, older adults, and workforce re-entry populations. LBSA also serves students seeking citizenship and adults needing elementary and secondary education. LBCC also serves students seeking CTE program training and adult learners seeking to transfer to a 4-year institution. ESL is the most popular program and the LBAEC will continue to serve these students and expand offerings to include ESL focusing on work-based language needs as well as offerings at community partner facilities. Consortium members will expand services in adult basic education to support both the needs of the large population of adult learners in the community as well as adults with disabilities that may benefit from the added supports provided by ABE programs. The LBAEC will provide professional development in adult learning to its members and partners.

Meeting Regional Needs

Regional Need #1

Gaps in Service / Regional Needs
The need to intelligently use existing resources to enroll students into programs, expand on existing programs provided by consortium members to meet the community’s needs, and to utilize community partnerships to recruit students in need into new and existing programs.
How do you know? What resources did you use to identify these gaps?
The Long Beach Adult Education Consortium (LBAEC) utilized a series of bimonthly public meetings to maximize the collaboration present in the planning process. Staff, administrators, and faculty from the two consortium member institutions, and a diverse array of community partners were consulted in a series of interactive exercises geared toward collecting feedback, building consensus on the state of adult education in Long Beach, the needs and objectives of our current and prospective students, and our programmatic goals for the next three years. The planning process began by reviewing the pre-planning assessment tool. Consortium members and community partners were engaged in evaluating the elements of the pre-planning tool in order to gain diverse perspectives about the strengths and opportunities for improvements present since the completion of the last three-year plan. Guided workshops using the pre-planning assessment tool included small group activities and full group discussions that yielded fruitful input. Consortium members and community partners were also given opportunities to comment through online surveys in case they were unable to attend the meetings or wanted to provide additional feedback. LBAEC planning meetings began with a review of an interactive dashboard of the Los Angeles-Orange County area’s census data with particular emphasis on English learners, those without a high school diploma and adults with disabilities. The attendees were asked to list their assumptions about the demographics while slowly breaking down those assumptions through the dashboard. The partners were able to quickly highlight areas of high need and match them to where the consortium was providing services. In subsequent iterations, the Office of Institutional Effectiveness utilized Geographic Information Systems (GIS) to map where the majority of LBAEC’s noncredit enrollment lives, the region’s poorest and most disenfranchised neighborhoods. The dashboard was subsequently published online for all consortia members, community partners, and regional colleges to use. The data was collected from 2017 estimates of the American Community Survey. Additional labor market information was collected from Long Beach City College’s instance of the Economic Modeling Systems Inc. platform (EMSI). The Consortium has access to a LBCC research analyst which supports data sharing needs. Consortium members and community partners routinely mentioned that students need access to educational programs as a means of obtaining economic security and socialization. These programs include adult basic education, adult secondary education and high school diploma, ESL, citizenship, career-technical education, workforce re-entry and readiness, adults with disabilities, and parenting. Consortium members should expand services in adult basic education to support both the needs of the large population of adult learners in the community as well as adults with disabilities that may benefit from the added supports provided by ABE programs.Consortium members and community partners also noted the importance of community connection and socialization. Feelings of belonging routinely featured in conversations about students’ willingness to persist through academic programs at both consortium institutions. Cultural competency was prominent in this category. Community partners acknowledged that consortium members can improve in their broader understanding of the diverse communities as a means of motivating student success.
How will you measure effectiveness / progress towards meeting this need?
Update the Long Beach Adult Education Consortium website both with respect to the user experience and the content, so that it can easily be used by consortium members and the community to discover where to obtain different services. Following updates, feedback will be solicited from consortium members to determine how useful the website is to inform future adjustments and modifications.

Regional Need #2

Gaps in Service / Regional Needs
The need to develop programming that supports the goals of a diverse community, increase offerings of existing programs (such as ESL and high school diploma/high school equivalency), and recognize and respond to the demands of adult work re-entry populations, adults with disabilities, and low income families.
How do you know? What resources did you use to identify these gaps?
The Long Beach Adult Education Consortium (LBAEC) utilized a series of bimonthly public meetings to maximize the collaboration present in the planning process. Staff, administrators, and faculty from the two consortium member institutions, and a diverse array of community partners were consulted in a series of interactive exercises geared toward collecting feedback, building consensus on the state of adult education in Long Beach, the needs and objectives of our current and prospective students, and our programmatic goals for the next three years. The planning process began by reviewing the pre-planning assessment tool. Consortium members and community partners were engaged in evaluating the elements of the pre-planning tool in order to gain diverse perspectives about the strengths and opportunities for improvements present since the completion of the last three-year plan. Guided workshops using the pre-planning assessment tool included small group activities and full group discussions that yielded fruitful input. Consortium members and community partners were also given opportunities to comment through online surveys in case they were unable to attend the meetings or wanted to provide additional feedback. LBAEC planning meetings began with a review of an interactive dashboard of the Los Angeles-Orange County area’s census data with particular emphasis on English learners, those without a high school diploma and adults with disabilities. The attendees were asked to list their assumptions about the demographics while slowly breaking down those assumptions through the dashboard. The partners were able to quickly highlight areas of high need and match them to where the consortium was providing services. In subsequent iterations, the Office of Institutional Effectiveness utilized Geographic Information Systems (GIS) to map where the majority of LBAEC’s noncredit enrollment lives, the region’s poorest and most disenfranchised neighborhoods. The dashboard was subsequently published online for all consortia members, community partners, and regional colleges to use. The data was collected from 2017 estimates of the American Community Survey. Additional labor market information was collected from Long Beach City College’s instance of the Economic Modeling Systems Inc. platform (EMSI). The Consortium has access to a LBCC research analyst which supports data sharing needs. Consortium members and community partners routinely mentioned that students need access to educational programs as a means of obtaining economic security and socialization. These programs include adult basic education, adult secondary education and high school diploma, ESL, citizenship, career-technical education, workforce re-entry and readiness, adults with disabilities, and parenting. Consortium members should expand services in adult basic education to support both the needs of the large population of adult learners in the community as well as adults with disabilities that may benefit from the added supports provided by ABE programs.Consortium members and community partners also noted the importance of community connection and socialization. Feelings of belonging routinely featured in conversations about students’ willingness to persist through academic programs at both consortium institutions. Cultural competency was prominent in this category. Community partners acknowledged that consortium members can improve in their broader understanding of the diverse communities as a means of motivating student success.
How will you measure effectiveness / progress towards meeting this need?
Increased number of courses options and fields of study, increased number and types of ESL offerings, increased number of off-site locations, development of basic skills offerings for lower than 8th grade level, and increased existing basic skills offerings. LBCC has a local goal to increase noncredit offerings by 20% in the 19-20 academic year.

Gaps In Service

New Strategies

Strategy #1
LBCC will work with community partners in scheduling noncredit courses for English Language Learners, older adults seeking re-entry program into the work force, and CTE.
Strategy #2
LBCC will develop new contextualized basic skills courses below 8th grade level and programs for adults with disabilities.

Seamless Transitions

New Strategies

Strategy #1
The LBAEC will work on streamlining the transition of students between the school partners by providing increased counseling and opportunities for exploration, both at LBSA and LBCC.
Strategy #2
Streamline infrastructure for referrals including set common transition procedures, develop pathways between ABE, ASE, ESL, CTE, and credit transfer , and coordinate counseling activities to assure consistency and cultural competency .

Student Acceleration

New Strategies

Strategy #1
LBCC will create basic skills content into the context of a student’s goals and career path (contextualized) including workforce preparation in Health Sciences, and Electrical.
Strategy #2
LBCC will provide a dedicated counselor to LBSA that will help monitor access and student progress from the adult school into the college setting. The counselor will work with students to create career and academic pathways that meet the adult education goals and objectives.

Professional Development

New Strategies

Strategy #1
Te LBAE consortium is invested in supporting students in the face of these barriers by increasing professional development in inclusive pedagogy and cultural competency for faculty and staff. LBCC will host a lecture series for faculty, staff, and community partners.
Strategy #2
LBAEC will attend CAEP regional workshops and conferences to better serve consortium needs, and share new information with community partners at a public forum.

Leveraging Resources

New Strategies

Strategy #1
LBAEC will have increased engagement with LBCC’s Workforce Development and ensuring that program offerings align with labor market data and employment opportunities will help ensure that adult learners are supported through to the final outcome of securing employment.
Strategy #2
LBCC will hire dedicated Admission and Records staff and Student Services staff to better serve on and off-site adult education programs in ESL, CTE, and basic skills.

Fiscal Management

A narrative justifying how the planned allocations are consistent with the annual adult education plan which is based on your CAEP 3-year plan.
The allocations in 19-20 aim to increase development of courses designed to meet employment demands, develop of culturally competent curricula in support of workforce readiness, increased job training opportunities for students, increased job placements, and program creation.
An approach to incorporating remaining carry-over funds from prior year(s) into strategies planned for 2019-20.
LBCC is using carry over over funds to provide equipment and marketing for new noncredit CTE programs. LBCC will focus on using a large number of our carry over funds in the development of a dedicated infrastructure for adult education.

Certification

Long Beach CCD - Member Representative

Approved by Michelle Hillman

2019-09-18

Long Beach Unified - Member Representative

Approved by Debbie Broadway

2019-09-18