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On October 8th, Governor Warner announced two new initiatives for adult education in the state. These two initiatives, to double the number of GED certificates and to create a Career Readiness Certificate, should interest Literacy Volunteers tutors and supporters. According to the 2000 census, twenty-four percent of Roanoke City adults over the age of twenty-five lack a high school diploma or an equivalent like the GED certificate. Many of these adults come to Literacy Volunteers for help. Without a high school diploma, people find themselves stuck in dead-end jobs or denied access to educational opportunities for self-improvement or enhanced employability. Improving literacy skills is an essential part of preparing for the GED Tests, and since the new Career Readiness Certificate would focus on mid-level proficiency in reading, writing, locating information, and math, improving literacy skills will also enable adult learners to obtain this “portable credential.”
In strengthening existing programs and developing new projects to meet the needs of adult learners, Literacy Volunteers of Roanoke Valley stands ready to assist the state in these two initiatives. With continued community support, both human and financial resources, we can help people improve their lives as well as improve the Roanoke area. According to the Governor’s Web site, Virginia workers with GED certificates or high school diplomas have double the incomes of those without these credentials -- $22,000 per year as opposed to $10,000. This statistic makes the impact on an individual who earns a GED obvious. It also makes the impact on the Roanoke area as a whole apparent as well. Having a population with higher earning potential would create a stronger local tax base. A better educated population would not only provide a more capable workforce for existing businesses, but also attract new businesses.
Being the only not-for-profit, community-based literacy organization in this area, we hold a unique position that will allow us to assist in the governor’s new initiative. On his Web site, Mr. Warner says: “The current system of 22 programs in 10 agencies spread across three secretariats is an unworkable model for the future. Among those 22 programs, there are overlaps in service and some of the 22 programs are not performing as well as they could.” Literacy Volunteers has no such bureaucracy. Although some of our funding comes from government grants, we depend mostly on community involvement. The bulk of our funding comes from individuals and businesses right here in the Roanoke Valley. However, our most valuable resource is the people who donate their time and effort to work with adult learners to advance literacy skills. Through their willingness to get involved and their commitment to success of others in the community, Literacy Volunteers has an existing streamlined force, which provides services that can help make the governor’s initiatives a reality.
Last year, Literacy Volunteers of Roanoke Valley developed a new advanced training workshop for tutors who either work with or wanted to work with learners who plan to take the General Educational Development (GED) Tests. In the past, Literacy Volunteers targeted learners from emergent readers to fifth-grade level; however, a recent trend has brought more advanced learners into the program, and many of these learners want to prepare for the GED. Although our basic literacy training serves our tutors well for teaching reading and writing skills to adults at a variety of levels, we decided that a workshop that focused on applying these basic techniques to GED preparation would be very useful to our tutors and their learners. Coming back for nine more hours of tutor training on top of the eighteen-hour initial training, ten tutors participated in this workshop, one of whom has already shepherded her learner successfully through tests. We will conduct another advanced literacy training in November to further strengthen our tutor base, allowing us to provide cost effective services to the very people that the governor is trying to reach with his initiatives.
Many folks in the general public have only limited knowledge about the GED Tests. The American Council on Education develops and administers the GED Tests through its arm, the General Educational Development Testing Service. Roanoke City Public Schools Adult Basic Education gives the GED Tests locally. Five tests make up the GED: Language Arts - Reading, Language Arts - Writing, Social Studies, Science, and Mathematics. Employers and educational institutions widely accept the GED as equivalent to a high school diploma. Thus, passing the tests can open the doors of opportunity that might otherwise be closed. It means a great deal to these learners. However, passing the tests is no cake walk. The new 2002 GED Tests were norm tested with graduating high school seniors in the spring 2001. Their guidance counselors assured the testing service that these students would receive high school diplomas. 30% of these students could not pass the GED tests.
Passing these test requires strong reading and writing skills, which Literacy Volunteers specializes in, so training tutors to apply their training to help adult learners develop the skills to pass the tests seemed like a natural development for our Basic Literacy program. If the state of Virginia wants to double its GED graduates, it will need all the help it can get. We are fortunate that in the Roanoke Valley a small group of committed volunteers is willing to lend a hand, and our organization as a whole is also committed to increasing their numbers. With or without streamlined state agencies, people in the Roanoke Valley are pitching in to help as many people as possible be as successful as they can be. These volunteers, and those who will join us, will help to make this part of the state of Virginia stronger.
The governor’s second initiative, the Career Readiness Certificate, will create a new possibility for Literacy Volunteers of Roanoke Valley to use its forces to improve individual lives as well as the Roanoke area. This “portable credential” will also give adult learners in our programs an opportunity to develop skills and then prove those skills to current or potential employers. Many of our adult Basic Literacy learners will have to struggle a long time, often years, to obtain the GED credential, and most of our English-for-Speakers-of-Foreign-Language learners have educational credentials from their native countries but need to show English proficiency. Both of these groups could benefit from a credential that allows them to demonstrate mid-level skills in reading for information, applied math, writing, and locating information to potential employers.
Although the state hasn’t worked out the specifics of the Career Readiness Certificate, the Governor will look to other states like Michigan, Kentucky, and Louisiana to help in the development of this credential. In fact, this past June, Governor Warner appointed Dr. Barbara Bolin as the first Workforce Development Coordinator in Virginia. Dr. Bolin comes to Virginia from Michigan where she worked as the Director of the Department of Career Development. In this role, she helped to develop Michigan’s Career Readiness Certificate. According to Michigan’s Web site, to obtain the certificate there, learners have to demonstrate certain mid-level proficiencies, e.g., to recognize the application of technical terms, apply instructions to new situations, summarize and compare information in charts and graphs, write clear messages, which may include minor errors that don’t compromise the message, etc. We already train our volunteer tutors to tackle these kinds of immediate literacy skills, so however the certificate shakes out in Virginia, again Literacy Volunteers of Roanoke Valley stands ready to help.
Literacy Volunteers of Roanoke Valley’s mission is to teach reading, writing, and English language skills, free of charge, to adults through volunteer efforts. We strive to be lean and efficient in our work to carry out this mission and depend greatly on human and financial resources from individuals and businesses in our service area -- Roanoke City, Roanoke County, Salem, Botetourt, and Craig. We believe strongly in the potential of the adults who come to us for help. Our tutors work diligently to help learners maximize this potential. In doing this, tutors improve people’s lives one person at a time. However, collectively these volunteers battle the problem of illiteracy in this area. Their efforts reverberate through the community, creating not only stronger economic potential but also stronger individual potential to fulfill the American dream. In this regard, we will assist the governor in these new educational initiatives. We are excited about the prospects that they represent for the Roanoke Valley.
If you’d like to join us, either as a volunteer or financial supporter, please call 265-9339.
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