CALIFORNIA ADULT LITERACY PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT PROJECT
Providing Professional Learning to Improve Student Learning

Goal

The Adult Education Leadership Institute is a one-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 Institute covers topics and skills that new adult education administrators need to perform their jobs effectively. For example, topics include Budgeting and Fiscal Management, Accountability, 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.

Administrators will also find the Administrators Forum a valuable and efficient way to stay abreast of priority professional learning topics in a changing environment. In these one-hour Webinars, seasoned administrators and other subject experts deliver a wealth of information, and participants have an opportunity to ask the presenters questions and interact with other administers attending.

Two other series of interest to administrators are the Adult Education Research Webinar series and Instructors Forum, serving adult education teachers.

Examples of recent topics and additional information about each of these series appear on the Webinars page. Past Webinars, including sessions addressing WASC accreditation, are archived in CALPRO’s Video Library. To locate and register for upcoming Webinars, visit the CALPRO Event Calendar.

The California Department of Education and CALPRO encourage local adult education agencies to use the Community of Practice (CoP) model for regionally based professional learning opportunities that engages adult educators in interactive collective learning.

The CoP model helps to implement training in the classroom by providing an opportunity for participants to interact with other teachers or administrators and trainers online and in-person to share classroom experiences and problem solve. CALPRO now offers a growing number of priority topics that use the CoP model, including:

• Evidence–Based Reading Instruction (EBRI) Institute
• Integrated and Contextualized Workforce Skills in the ABE/ASE Classroom
• Integrated and Contextualized Workforce Skills in the ESL Classroom
• Integrated Education and Training
• Optimizing ESL Instructional Planning: Management, Monitoring, and Reflection
• Postsecondary Transitions

To learn more about CoPs, visit the Communities of Practice Web page.

CALPRO has updated two sets of nationally validated competencies to help you assess your skills and plan for your professional development. Two competency–based self–assessments, one for administrators and one for teachers, are available. You may complete these online, instantly view your results, together with recommended professional development resources for the top-ranking competencies; you may also print/save these recommendations as the basis for an annual, individual professional development plan.

To view and complete the competency checklists, go to the Self–Assessments Web page.

Go to the Self-Assessments and individual Professional Development Plans Web page.

Annually in the fall, CALPRO, in conjunction with the California Department of Education (CDE), Adult Education Office, conducts the New Adult Education Administrators Orientation. This Orientation is a two-day institute with a goal of providing recently appointed adult education administrators with an overview of:

1. CDE's goals and priorities for California Adult Education
2. Resources available through CDE and the California State Leadership Projects (CALPRO, CASAS and OTAN)
3. Requirements and guidance associated with state and federal funding

You can find the videos from the previous year’s New Administrators Orientation by clicking on the following link to the Video Library.

Download the 2012 Application for the New Administrators Orientation (PDF)
Application deadline: Tuesday, November 12, 2012.

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 these facilitated courses, participants interact with a subject-area expert and a group of colleagues typically over a span of about four weeks, following 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. Understanding the Adult Learner, Session 1: Adult Learning and Development
4. Integrated and Contextualized Workforce Skills in the ABE/ASE Classroom
5. Integrated and Contextualized Workforce Skills in the ESL Classroom
6. Postsecondary Transitions, Session 1
7. Postsecondary Transitions, Session 2
8. Integrated Education and Training

Administrators ready to commit to a powerful professional development system for their schools may apply for participation in CALPRO's Professional Learning Communities (PLC) Institute:

In 2012 – 13, CALPRO will once again offer an intensive, multi-session PLC Institute for teams of program administrators and professional development specialists/lead teachers to learn to improve student learning outcomes by establishing professional learning communities. CALPRO accepts up to 12 programs a year for this program. Each of the 12 selected agencies will 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 set of PLC resources, five days of training, and technical assistance to support implementation.

Visit the Professional Learning Community Initiative page for more information.

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 links below to download the fact sheets. The fact sheets outline the processes for scheduling CALPRO workshops.

Download the Fact Sheet for Site Administrators: Sponsor Professional Development for Your Staff [PDF]

Download the Fact Sheet for Site Administrators: Host CALPRO Workshops in Your Region [PDF]