CALIFORNIA ADULT LITERACY
PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT PROJECT

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.

Download the Application for the CALPRO Leadership Institute (due December 2, 2011) [PDF]

CALPRO has updated two sets of nationally validated competencies to help you assess your skills and plan for your professional development. Two competency 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.

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]

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. 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

Additional Online Options for Administrators

Administrators will also find the Administrators Forum and the Adult Education Research Webinar series relevant to their own professional development. For more information about these and other Webinars, visit the Webinars page. Past Webinars are archived in CALPRO’s Video Library.

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 2011 – 12, 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, four days of training, and technical assistance to support implementation.

Download the Application for the CALPRO Professional Learning Communities Institute (due December 2, 2011) [PDF].

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 Research–based Practices 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]