Educational Attainment in the United States: 2009,
United States Census Bureau, February, 2012
This report provides a portrait of educational attainment in the United States, including comparisons by demographic characteristics such as nativity, race, Hispanic origin, and race; and breakdowns by state.  Twelve levels of educational attainment are reported from "no schooling completed" to "doctorate degree." In 19 of the 50 states (including Maryland, New Jersey and Pennsylvania), the proportion of foreign-born adults with a bachelor's degree was larger than the proportion of native-born adults who had completed colleges. Similarly, rates of high school completion for the foreign-born in these three states were more than ten percentage points higher than the national average of 67.7 percent.

Bad English,
Center for an Urban Future (CUF), January, 2012, 12 pp.
This follow-up to CUF's 2006 Lost in Translation Report explores the policy implications of New York State's growing immigrant population and the declining availability of state-funded ESOL (English Speakers of Other Languages) classes. The report finds that, despite the significant benefits immigrants bring to the state economy--- in terms of population replenishment, entrepreneurship, and labor--- "New York is not leveraging their full potential." According to the authors, ESOL classes serve as an essential building block for increasing the skills and knowledge necessary to employment. Yet capacity has not kept pace with the growing need for instruction. The report sites two major factors in declining enrollment trends:  a decrease in inflation adjusted state-funding for ESOL and a move towards higher-quality, longer-term education.  While improving outcomes for learners, according to the report, smaller class sizes and extended course length has reduced the capacity of many ESOL programs to serve a majority of those that seek their assistance. The report also finds fault with the Employment Preparation Education (EPE) funding formula based on county property values. The paper concludes with a number of recommendations calling for state and local governments to increase funding and develop collaborative partnerships amongst agencies and service providers. (Dan McNulty)


Up for Grabs: The Gains and Prospects of First- and Second-Generation Young Adults,
Migration Policy Institute (MPI), November, 2011, 54 pp.
Funded by the Gates foundation, this study seeks to determine whether immigrant-origin youth, defined as young people ages 16 to 26 either born in another country or with parents born in another country, are "on track to complete post-secondary education and obtain jobs that pay a family-sustaining wage."  Immigrant-origin youth now make up 25 percent of all U.S. young people in this age category (38 percent in New Jersey, and 37 percent in New York). From 1995 to 2007, the majority of immigrant-origin youth were born in other countries.  By 2010, the second generation surpassed the first generation and now numbers 14.1 million compared to 10.3 million immigrant youth.  The study disaggregates data by generation, age at arrival, Hispanic vs non-Hispanic origin, and gender, and presents a mixed picture of progress.  On the one hand, Hispanic second generation women are enrolling in college at the same rate as third-generation non-Hispanic white women, yet their college completion rates are significantly lower (33 percent compared to 51 percent). One of the more vulnerable groups are Hispanic immigrants in the 16- to 26-year-old age category who entered the U.S. at age 16 or later.  According to the report, two-thirds have poor English skills, many have limited or interrupted education in their home countries, and more than 70 percent are unauthorized and unlikely to qualify for legalization under the DREAM Act.  Those seeking to improve their educational or work-related skills will have to rely on an underfunded adult educational system with "limited capacity to integrate English language instruction in the context of work."  MPI will continue its exploration of this subject in the future by examining policies and programs designed to serve different sub-sets of the immigrant-origin youth population.


Increasing Opportunities for Immigrant Students: Community College Strategies for Success,
Community College Consortium for Immigrant Education (CCCIE), November, 2011, 47 pp.
CCCIE is network of 23 community colleges and other organizations that have joined together to increase educational and workforce opportunities for immigrant students. This report, written by CCCIE Director Jill Casner-Lotto, seeks to identify the key elements of a comprehensive and systemic approach to the challenge of educating immigrant students.  A growing demographic for community colleges, immigrant students are often older, nontraditional students juggling jobs and family responsibilities. The report proposes a "framework" of "11 key factors" predictive of success in this area. These include: executive-level commitment, proactive outreach, community-wide needs analysis, ESL program redesign, comprehensive assessment, holistic support services, more sophisticated data collection efforts, faculty professional development,  student leadership development, multi-sector partnerships, and peer-learning efforts. The report describes "promising practices" in each of these areas. The report concludes with a series of recommendations for action and investment by federal, state, and private funders.


Supporting Skilled Immigrants: A Toolkit for ESL Practitioners,
Global Talent Bridge, World Education Services, 2011, 83 pp.
This publication discusses the dilemma of the 2.7 million foreign-trained professionals in the U.S., who are unemployed or under-employed, and who are not well served by most adult education and workforce systems. Through the use of a series of "critical incidents," drawn from real-life stories of such immigrants, the Toolkit attempts to develop a list of "do's and don'ts" when working with this population.  The report emphasizes the importance of developing effective intake tools and using contextualized instruction in the classroom. The Toolkit concludes with a chapter profiling four model programs targeting this population:  the English Health Train initiative of the California Welcome Back Center, the Washington State I-BEST Program; the Massachusetts Integrated Career Awareness Curriculum; and the English for International Professionals program of the Spring Institute for Intercultural Learning of Colorado. 
 

Talent is Ready:  Promising Practices for Helping Immigrant Professionals Establish Their American Careers,
IMPRINT, 2011, 30 pp.
Drawing on the collective experience of the five nonprofit organizations (active in 11 states) that make up the IMPRINT coalition, this report addresses the challenge of serving the 2.7 million college-educated immigrants in the U.S. who are unemployed or under-employed. Describing the impact of this underutilization of talent as "staggering - lost wages, lost productivity, and a squandering of human capital," the authors sketch the outlines of a comprehensive approach to meeting the needs of this population.  The first section provides guidance on the initial assessment of an immigrant professional, including the credential evaluation process and the usefulness of an empowerment model in relating to program participants. The second section discusses three skill-building processes that are vital to career re-integration: learning English, acquiring technical skills, and refining professional job search skills. The final section discusses opportunities for organizational capacity-building, including integrating volunteers and engaging employers. As the challenge of serving immigrant professionals is an emerging one, the five IMPRINT organizations seek to scale up "the patchwork of innovative programs and ideas" that exist now.  They emphasize the importance of data-driven advocacy and envision a role for policy-makers and philanthropy in the program development process.


Improving Immigrants' Employment Prospects through Work-Focused Language Instruction,
Migration Policy Institute & European University Institute, June, 2011, 11 pp.
Noting the failure of "umbrella language courses" to give immigrants "a tangible boost in the labor market," this policy brief outlines a series of  promising approaches from both the American and European contexts to link language instruction with occupational training and to address the pressures and  challenging life circumstances facing immigrants.  Among these approaches are:  contextualizing language training for workplace use; combining language and skills training based on the model pioneered by Washington State's I-BEST program; developing formal partnerships between employers and training providers, including worksite instruction models; and accommodating the needs of non-traditional students by offering evening and weekend classes, self-study options through greater use of technology, and child care assistance.

Breaking the Language Barrier: A Report on English Language Services in Greater Boston,
Commonwealth Corporation, March, 2011, 92 pp
Commissioned by The Boston Foundation, this report utilizes provider surveys, key informant interviews, site visits to model programs, and a focus group with immigrant adult learners, to produce a detailed portrait of the adult English language service system in the Boston area.  The researchers also analyzed demographic data and program performance reports to identify capacity issues and service gaps.  A number of maps pinpoint the location of specialized services, such as intensive or weekend classes. The report summarizes areas of system strength and weakness and concludes with a series of recommendations, including  efforts to coordinate services to eliminate duplication and provide greater differentiation of instruction for students with different learning goals, increased weekend and summer classes, more intensive learning options (20 hours per week or greater), more classes at advanced SPL levels to permit students to transition to post-secondary education, and greater use of technology and distance learning particularly for the 45,000 LEP immigrants in the Greater Boston area with at least a bachelor's degree from their home countries.


Certifying Adult Education Staff and Faculty,
Council for the Advancement of Adult Literacy (CAAL), January 3, 2011, 88 pp
Commissioned by CAAL for a Roundtable held in June 2010, this paper reviews the range of certification practices and issues in the adult education field, of which ESL education for adult immigrants is a part. The paper discusses the reasons why certification is an issue, including the "long-standing, but poorly documented, sense among various interest groups that adult education teachers are not as qualified as teachers in other parts of the educational system..."  The authors describe adult education teacher certification as "piecemeal, extremely varied from state to state, and generally voluntary rather than required." At present, no state has any kind of pre-service requirement of course work in adult education, although about two-thirds of the states require a bachelor's degree and/or K-12 teaching credential before beginning to teach adults.  Fifteen states encourage or require teachers to obtain certification in teaching adults after they begin working.

Sound Investments: Building Immigrants' Skills to Fuel Economic Growth,
Economic Mobility Corporation, December, 2010,
94 pp.
This report is based on the proposition that immigrant skill development is crucial to American economic development and prosperity. Funded by the Charles Stewart Mott Foundation, the report examines three major approaches to immigrant skill development:  returning to school, workplace education, and self-employment.  Within separate chapters devoted to each of these approaches, the author outlines key strategies that appear to be associated with successful outcomes.  Although noting the paucity of immigrant-focused programs offering pathways to family-sustaining employment, the author profiles a number of programs around the country that appear to be achieving positive results. In doing this research, the author conducted over 100 interviews, made eight site visits, and did a literature review.

National Action Plan to Improve Health Literacy,
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), 2010, 73 pp.
The Action Plan contains seven goals, each with recommended strategies, to address the growing challenges most Americans face in understanding health information. Because the challenges are especially severe among minorities, immigrants, and people from lower socioeconomic groups, Goal 4 urges stakeholders from diverse fields to "support and expand local efforts to provide adult education, English language instruction, and culturally and linguistically appropriate health information services in the community." The plan grew out of the 2006 Surgeon General's Workshop on Improving Health Literacy, a series of town hall meetings in 2007 and 2008, and feedback from stakeholder organizations in 2009.


Meeting the Need? English Language Learners and Immigrant Adult Learners in the Illinois Adult Education System,
Rob Paral & Associations for the Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights, 2010, 37 pp.
Funded by the Joyce Foundation and the Illinois Dept. of Human Services, the report seeks to understand the special educational needs of adult English language learners (ELLs) in the State of Illinois. More than half of adult ELLs and other immigrant adult learners live in the Chicago suburbs, compared to only 28% of native-born adult learners. About a third of adult immigrant learners have six or fewer years of formal education, compared to 10% of the native-born population. The report also notes that English language ability seems to be correlated with higher household income levels and lower poverty levels.  The report urges greater state investment in immigrant adult education in order to increase workforce productivity and competitiveness. Other recommendations include:  more attention to the educational needs of lower-level immigrant learners, adjustments in funding streams to reflect the growing concentration of immigrants in the Chicago suburbs, greater integration of the workforce training and adult education systems, and greater utilization of community-based organizations as educational providers because of their "cultural competency," physical presence in immigrant communities, and  ability to provide supportive services for learners, such as child care.

Using Oral Language Skills to Build on the Emerging Literacy of Adult English Learners,
Center for Adult English Acquisition (CAELA), Center for Applied Linguistics, August, 2010, 8 pp.
Using an estimate of 750,000 adult immigrants in the U.S. who are not literate in any language, but who may possess oral English proficiency, the authors of this research brief suggest that instructional techniques should be adapted to capitalize on the oral skills of these students. One such approach is producing and analyzing learner-generated texts, which "connects instruction to learners' lives."  Another is to "balance meaning-focused and form-focused instruction."

DREAM vs. Reality: An Analysis of Potential DREAM Act Beneficiaries,
Migration Policy Institute, July, 2010, 23 pp.
This report analyzes the barriers that would stand in the way of undocumented youth legalizing under the terms of the Development, Relief, and Education for Alien Minors (DREAM) Act.  If passed by Congress, the law would theoretically benefit as many as 2.1 million people between the ages of 16 and 34. However, significant numbers would be unable to meet the educational and/or military service requirements during the 6-year period of conditional residence. If they fail to meet those requirements, their status would revert to undocumented at the end of the six-year period. The biggest challenge would be faced by an estimated 490,000 out-of-school youth lacking a high school diploma or GED. Not only would they have to finish high school or obtain a GED, but they would also have to successfully complete two years of post-secondary education or military service -- all during the 6-year period. Many people in this situation are poor, lack proficiency in English, are working or have child care responsibilities. Moreover, under the most recent version of the DREAM Act, conditional residents would be ineligible for Pell grants to cover the cost of college tuition. However, adult education programs and community colleges around the country, and particularly in states like New Jersey with large numbers of undocumented youth, would likely face a surge in demand for instructional services. MPI estimates that New Jersey has 90,000 potential Dream Act beneficiaries.

Professional Development for Experienced Teachers Working with Adult English Language Learners,
Center for Adult English Language Acquisition (CAELA), Center for Applied Linguistics, May, 2010, 10 pp.
This research brief attempts to identify the characteristics of the experienced adult English language teacher, as opposed to the novice teacher or the "experienced non-expert," and notes that professional development for such teachers has generally been neglected. Reviewing the limited amount of research data on this subject, mostly drawn from K-12 studies, the authors identify and explain three broad strategies that have proven effective in teacher development:  classroom-based action research; mentoring, coaching, and peer observation; and opportunities for reflection, including study circles.  These strategies may be initiated by practitioners themselves or by a program, district, region or state.

 

Evidence-Based, Student-Centered Instructional Practices,
Center for Adult English Acquisition (CAELA), Center for Applied Linguistics, April, 2010, 8 pp.
In this brief, CAELA reviews studies testing the efficacy of student-centered instructional approaches and reports that four specific practices are supported by the research:  promoting interaction among learners in small groups and pairs; using native language in the classroom when practical and appropriate; connecting instruction with learners' lives; and teaching learning strategies explicitly.

Local Perspectives on WIA Reauthorization,
Policy Brief, Council for the Advancement of Adult Literacy, March 26, 2010, 21 pp.
On February 18, 2010, CAAL convened an all-day, roundtable meeting of 19 local adult education providers operating model "adult education for work" programs. The purpose of the convening was to recommend changes to the Workforce Investment Act (WIA) to facilitate transitions to work and post-secondary education. Addressing the perception of adult education "as a failed system with limited learning gains and low persistence," the participants urged "substantial, systematic, and categorical support" for adult education for work, revised accountability measures based on "momentum points" in students' lives, greater flexibility in program design to meet local need, articulation agreements between colleges and local education programs, and recognition that people with low basic skills are a major portion of the population to be served. This report provides a detailed summary of the conversation and recommendations.


Adult Student Waiting List Survey, 2009-2010,
National Council of State Directors of Adult Education, March 24, 2010, 7 pp.
Sent to over 4,000 programs providing adult education services in the United States, this survey found that some 160,000 potential learns (6,680 in New Jersey) were unable to access services during the year, doubling from the 80,000 reported in the 2008 survey.  The 2009 numbers are compiled only from the 1,368 programs that returned the survey.

Promoting Learner Transitions to Postsecondary Education and Work:  Developing Academic Readiness Skills from the Beginning,
Policy Brief, Center for Adult English Language Acquisition (CAELA), Center for Applied Linguistics, March, 2010, 13 pp
Designed primarily for ESL teachers, this brief makes the case for the early introduction of "academic readiness skills" into the adult ESL curriculum in order to facilitate transitions to postsecondary education or vocational training. Although acknowledging that certain "higher order skills" can't be taught until students reach advanced ESL levels, the authors give examples of certain skills, such as reading for specific information and organizing information graphically, that can be taught to beginning English language learners.

The Power of Technology to Transform Adult Learning,
Council for Advancement of Adult Literacy, October 21, 2009, 65 pp.
This report calls for "wholesale change" in the nation's adult education and workforce skills training effort "by deploying technology on an unprecedented scale." Such change will open up doors of opportunity for millions of adults, including English language learners, un-served by the existing system. The author, Mary L. McCain, an Affiliate Fellow at the Center for Women and Work at Rutgers University, provides a summary of existing research on the uses and impact of technology in adult education. She asserts that "many assumptions about the reluctance of adults to use technology in independent learning are misinformed."  She also questions an approach that simply "attaches" technology to the existing delivery system. A major recommendation is the development of a National Web Portal, available to both learners and professional educators.

Literacy Matters:  Helping Newcomers Unlock Their Potential,
TD Bank Financial Group, 2009, 16 pp.
This Canadian report cites evidence that poor language and literacy skills not only account for some of the labor market challenges facing recent immigrants but also negatively impact Canada’s economy and society. The report discusses the "puzzle" of rising education levels among immigrants (over half of immigrants to Canada between 2001 and 2006 had a university degree) and high levels of unemployment and underemployment, particularly since 1996.  The authors conclude that weak communication skills in Canada's two official languages probably "contribute between one-third to two-thirds of earnings gap" between immigrants and native-born Canadians. The report also contains an analysis of publicly-funded, language training programs in Canada.