CALIFORNIA ADULT LITERACY
PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT PROJECT

Goal

The Adult Education Leadership Institute is a two-year leadership development program offered to California’s new (three years or fewer) adult education administrators.

The goal of the Leadership Institute is to enable adult education administrators to gain effective management and quality leadership skills that will enhance their capacity to operate an adult education program. Ultimately, the Leadership Institute helps to ensure that California has strong adult education leadership for the future.

Content

The program focuses on developing participants’ skills along two primary dimensions: Effective Management and Quality Leadership. The first year of the Institute covers topics and skills that new adult education administrators need to perform their jobs effectively. For example, Year One topics under Effective Management include Budgeting and Fiscal Management, Accountability, Increasing Benchmarks, Identifying Funding Sources, Marketing and Public Relations, Personnel Management, and Grant Writing, while topics under Quality Leadership include Creating a Shared Vision, Team Building, Community Asset Mapping, Building Community Support, Planning for Your Staff’s Professional Growth, Effective Decision-Making, and the Leader’s Role in the Change Process. Year Two of the Institute structures each day’s program to reflect one of the components of the Adult Education Programs of Excellence application process: Curriculum and Instruction, Learner Outcomes, Leadership and Planning, Learner Support Services, and Community Involvement and Collaboration.

Expectations of Participants

Attend all sessions, five days a year for each of two years. There is a two-day session in February and a three-day session in July. Complete all assignments. Those who successfully complete all requirements of the Leadership Institute receive certificates of completion and are recognized at the annual ACSA Adult Education Conference in September. 

Timeline for 2009-2010 Leadership Institute

Click on the links below to download the documents related to the 2009-2010 Leadership Institute.

Leadership Institute Invitation to Apply [PDF]

2009-2010 Leadership Institute Application [PDF]

Each year the California Department of Education identifies and recognizes exemplary adult education programs through its Programs of Excellence Awards.

Go to the Programs of Excellence Web page to learn more about using the Programs of Excellence quality indicators for continuous program improvement.

The California Department of Education and CALPRO encourage local adult education agencies to use these workshops for site-based professional development opportunities for their staff members.

Since 2001, CALPRO has trained California adult educators to deliver workshops on various topics. These facilitators are available to help ensure that an agency’s teaching staff continues to grow professionally.

Click on the link below to download the fact sheet. The fact sheet outlines the process for scheduling CALPRO workshops.

Download the Fact Sheet for Site Administrators: Process for Scheduling CALPRO Workshops [PDF]

CALPRO provides facilitated and self-directed online courses free of charge to administrators working in programs funded by the California Department of Education, Adult Education Office. Online course participants have the option to log in to an online course at any time to complete coursework.

Facilitated Courses

In facilitated courses, participants interact with a subject-area expert and a group of colleagues over a span of about four weeks, following a the course start date. Discussions occur asynchronously: within a given week, participants may log in at their convenience to read and post written comments on a shared discussion board and to complete course activities and assignments.

The objectives of online courses mirror those of the face-to-face workshops of the same name.

Facilitated Online Courses for Administrators

Administrators may enroll in any of the following facilitated online courses:

1. Designing Programs for Adults with Learning Disabilities, Session 1. Understanding Learning Disabilities: Awareness for Adult Educators
2. Enhancing Learner Persistence
3. Just-in-Time Leadership: Smart Fiscal Management for Adult School Administrators
4. Understanding the Adult Learner, Session 1: Adult Learning and Development

Administrators interested in supporting the professional growth of their staff may take advantage of one or more of the following:

Learning Communities for Site-Based Professional Development

CALPRO offers intensive, multi-session training for program administrators and professional development specialists/lead teachers to learn to establish professional learning communities among staff, assess staff professional development needs, and draft an agency professional development plan. CALPRO accepts up to 12 programs a year for this program.

During 2008-2009, CALPRO once again is offering a professional development initiative to support agencies in establishing site-based professional development (PD). Over the past three years, 19 agencies have participated in this initiative and successfully completed site-based PD plans. For 2008-2009, up to 12 agencies will be selected to participate. Each of the 12 agencies will be invited to send its agency director and one teacher or administrator, designated to serve as a professional development practitioner, to participate in the initiative. CALPRO will provide a stipend of $1,500 to each agency.

Download the Learning Communities Initiative Application [PDF] for Participation in CALPRO Learning Communities for Site-Based Professional Development. This document describes the initiative and the application process.

Study Circle Facilitator Training

Study circles provide practitioners the opportunity to meet on a regular basis to read research, reflect on new ideas, and consider how to apply what they have learned to their classroom practice.

CALPRO periodically invites practitioners to attend the full-day study circle facilitator trainings. Facilitators then return to their schools to conduct site-based study circles using guides created by the National Center for the Study of Adult learning and Literacy (NCSALL).

For more information about Study Circles training, go to the Study Circles Web page.

CALPRO has published various research digests, summaries, and annotated bibliographies.

Administrators can download these, print them, and distribute to staff, inviting them to read a specific research publication prior to a staff meeting.

At the staff meeting, the administrator can use the Guidelines for Facilitating Discussion Groups to conduct one-hour discussions among staff on the topic of the publication.

To view and download publications, go to the Publications Web page.

CALPRO offers the following online Resource Guides designed for administrators.

• Adult Education Administrator Guide
• Success for Small Adult Schools: A "How to" Guide for Administrators
• Shaking the Funding Tree: A Grant Writing Guide for Literacy Programs

To view and download these guides, please visit the Resource Guide Web page.

CALPRO often fields questions from adult educators about how to determine whether the content of a commercially available textbook is based on research. CALPRO asked members of its Research-to-Practice Task Force to help develop questions to guide teachers and administrators when reviewing and considering textbooks for adoption.

Click on the link below to download the questions for evaluating research basis of commercial text books.

Download the Questions for Evaluating Research Basis of Commercial Text Books [PDF]

The Catalog of CALPRO Professional Development Resources represents a comprehensive guide to CALPRO’s many professional development products and services for administrators and teachers in California.

The catalog provides information about workshops, online courses, and publications related to helping adult learners.

Administrators can use the catalog to find information on a number of resources, among them learning communities for site-based professional development, the Adult Education Leadership Institute, guidelines for facilitating discussion groups, workshops on fiscal management and personnel issues, online courses on learner persistence and designing programs for adults with disabilities, guides on successful small schools and applying for additional funding, and research summaries and fact sheets on various subjects.

Download the Catalog of CALPRO Professional Development Resources [PDF]