No Adult Left Behind

No Child Left Behind:

The External Diploma Program by MARTI GIESE

Preface: The No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 was effected to close the achievement gap with accountability, flexibility, and choice, so that no child is left behind. Before No Child, the In- dividual with Disabilities Education Act mandated testing and services for all chil- dren qualifying as learning disabled. To date there has been no federally mandat- ed requirement to test the adult popula- tion. Is it likely that testing requirements will be imposed or funding to serve them will be made available? No, but we have a solution already in place for learning disabled adults, one which provides a much needed alternative to GED testing and traditional classroom learning: The External Diploma Program.

Setting the Stage

In the fall 2003 issue of Progress Don Finn’s article on universal design (UD) stated that three to ten percent of our adult learners are learning disabled. Fur- ther, 1999 data from the National Cen- ter for Educational Statistics reveals that 45.7 percent of adult students self-report a learning disability. This comes as no surprise to hundreds of adult educators across the Commonwealth who routine- ly encounter adults with wide disparities between TABE reading and math scores. In our classrooms, we teach many adult learners multi-step math processes only to share their disappointment the next week, because they’ve forgotten them again. These are the students who reverse numbers and letters, misplace decimal points, leave words out of sentences, and can’t remember, despite diligent prac- tice, how to spell commonly used words. Is it any wonder that so many of these students lose confidence in their goal of completing high school?

Adults may not know that they have a learning disability, but they arepainfully aware of years of unsuccessful paper-pencil testing that has left them embarrassed and doubting themselves. The legacy of such a history is a series of aborted attempts to attain a secondary credential. The 2001 Task Force on Adult Education and Lit- eracy report revealed 700,000 adults in Virginia without a secondary credential. How many of these adults will not come forward because the only alternative they know involves eight hours of GED test- ing or a classroom setting that they cannot manage with current life circumstances?

Twin Beacons: The Ford Foundation Project and the UD Movement

In 1972 the Ford Foundationfunded

ploma. Facilitating career growth and change was a goal of this service. The Regional Learning Service (RLS) saw its first clients in January of 1974. It was the SRC staff at RLS that developed the External Diploma Program (EDP). In 1981, Delegate Ken Plum, then Director of Adult and Community Education for Fairfax County, learned about this inno- vative adult high school completion pro- gram and brought the External Diploma Program to Virginia. A few years later educators began to recognize the need for universal design (UD) in instruction. UD identifies and provides appropriate accommodations for individuals with hidden disabilities, specifically learning disabilities. UD Syracuse Research Corporation (SRC)to seeks to remove barriers to access. It pro- research why New Yorkers 25 and older motes designing for divergent needs, in- who had not graduated from high school creasing usability for everyone, including were not participating in the existingop- the learning disabled, by tions to obtain a secondary credential. • Providing multiple, flexible methods Among other findings, the research re- of presentation, vealed the following about these adults. • Providing multiple, flexible methods • They felt competent in the life skills of assessment, and they had acquired at work and • Providing multiple, flexible options through community participation, for engagement to support affective but the content of the secondary learning. completion options available to them did not relate enough to these Woven into EDP tapestry: important life experiences. Educational and Career • They were busy with jobs andhome Objectives and UD Principles life and felt the need for more flex- Like the warp and woof of a fine ible scheduling than the existing tapestry, the External Diploma Program options offered. weaves together assessment of students’ • They were test anxious, and themul- basic academic and occupational skills tiple choice and paper-pencil tests with the principals of universal design. they would have to perform were No one becomes an actual candidate for too limiting for them to show what thehigh school completionportionof the they knew. program until he has demonstrated mas-

SRC’s Policy Institute then devel- tery of basic academic skills. Mastery of oped the idea of a brokering service that high school level skills is measured by in- would provide career and educational tegrating and applying content appropri- counseling to adults targeting, among ate for adults. By the time he leaves the others, adults without a high school di- program, the participant knows the kind