History of Adult Education: 1990-1999 (GODWIN MARCUS OKYERE)

 

GODWIN MARCUS OKYERE

 

BALL STATE UNIVERSITY

 

EDAC631-ADULT AND COMMUNITY EDUCATION

 

HISTORY OF ADULT EDUCATION: 1990-1999

 

SPRING 2021

 

GROUP 2 

 

 February 10, 2021

 

 

Name	Commented On
Godwin Marcus Okyere	Madeline Folz Jason Spencer

 

 

 

Abstract

This paper takes a reflective look at the status of the adult education program in the 90s. In examining the history, the report appreciated the numerous reforms and amendments to related acts that gave more authorization and funding to the adult education program.  This paper also examined the enrollment increase and its implication, and the acceptance rate for the program. This review further explores the new trend in the adult education program. Many Americans looked for courses that could prepare them to get employed with organizations and industries rather than pursuing vocational training. This piece appreciates the reforms that impacted the transformation story of the program.  This work presents the implications of enrollment increase, reforms, amendments, and new adult education trends in a nutshell.

 

 

Introduction

The adult education program in the United States saw a major revamp in the mid-90s through the "Republican Revolution," which sought to make states and decentralized (local) governments more approachable to meet the public's needs policy analysts thought could be more proactive than the federal government. The reform birthed the Workforce Investment Act (WIA) of 1998 (P.L. 105-220) under the Bill Clinton administration. WIA act called for investment into the workforce by establishing vocational rehabilitation programs for persons with mental and physical impairments. The initiative gave way for refunding and reassuring the adult/community educational program under the Adult Education and Family Literacy Act.

The concept of adult education has seen an enrollment increase in the 1990s, with total enrollment percentage increase for both part-time and full-time students at 46% between 1991-1999 (NCES,2002). There was an increase of 33% in 1991, 42% in 1995 and 46% in 1999.  Gender participation in adult education saw a boost for males and females, with females dominating the enrollment.

 Due to the advocacy for equality and the kick against racism, all races saw an increase in enrollment. In classifying the labor status, enrollees were made up of full-time workers and retirees. There was a balance between full-time, part-time workers and the unemployed. All educational ladder levels experienced an equal increase, but the number of adults with higher education levels exceeded the number of adults with lower education levels.  

 

Highlights

Within the decade of the 90s, the review of the adult education program showed a tremendous addition to the vocational training and job-related courses for participants who wished to enrich their knowledge gap and experience in their career. The paradigm classified two categories of participants: the middle-age involved in formal high education or vocational training, while the other participated in life- extended enrichment programs (Elman,1998).

Data from Educational statistics indicated an immense increase in middle-aged adult formal education enrollment in 30 years (NCES, 1992). This increment showed a growth of 235%, with adult students ranging in age of 40 years and older between 1970–1993-year review (IHEP, 1993). The consistent increase in enrollment has impacted educational institutions' establishment to serve people's growing educational needs. It is now clear that people and communities have appreciated Columbia University's president's wisdom after the Second World War. He called for proper utilization of Human Resources through the "The Conservation of Human Resources" project. The project sought to understudy the fundamental human resource and illustrate how it could be transformed into ideas to properly use the human resource. Columbia University president collaborated with allied partners and had funding from American Can, Columbia Broadcasting System, Consolidated Edison, DuPont, General Electric, General Foods, RCA, and Standard Oil. The Ford Foundation, the federal government, and trade unions also provided funding and sponsorship (Ginzberg and Bray 1953). The initiative's findings and recommendations hinted at the vitals of elementary education, which was in line with the adult education program. The discovery's foundation stated that the lack of education and illiteracy levels was the cause of the waste of human resource because the human resource was underutilized.

 

Influential Factors

From the 90s, adult education has also seen a transformation where adult education was not only pegged to the provision of vocational training. The decade considered most Americans not interested in vocational training but focused on those who sought job-related training aspects that would allow them to face the socioeconomic forces. The quest for people seeking job-related programs enabled them to avail themselves of new job opportunities and requirements to meet the demand of businesses and industries. Therefore, it is evident that many adult education centers' establishments resulted from companies and industries' requests for specific skillsets from employees.   The changing trend of adult education, which started around the 90s from vocational training to work-related courses that people sought to be able to meet the demand of the job markets, has translated to results of a lot of the working class engaging in adult learning to enable them to cope with the need trends of science and technology. 

Adult education had a foundation in the labor movements in 1920, which sought social actions and used the adult educational concept to develop workforce or human capacity building.

The National Coalition for Literacy (NLC), collaborating with the Business Council for Effective Literacy's work, which dated way back to the '80s, worked to streamline the federal government's role in literacy, which resulted in the National Literacy Act of 1990. It caused a triple rise in federal funding for adult education to $100 million in 1992. 

The role of adult education in fighting against racial injustice was one of the influential factors of widely accepting the program. It was a fact that adult education has helped combat racism while it also groomed scholars who were anti-racist campaigners (Colin, 1994). The successful enactment of the School-to-Work Opportunities Act (STWOA) of 1994 was one big push that the adult education program has seen through educating and training people for work (NCES,1995). The community education initiative by Frank Manley played a vital role in the 1990s. Doug Procunier, the former dean of Mott Community College and the former director of Training and Dissemination of the Mott Foundation, acknowledged how Manley's leadership influenced community colleges' success in serving the educational needs of people.  

The Congress Representative (D) Thomas Sawyer of the 14th congregational district sponsored the bill that reviewed the Adult Education Act of 1966 to approve the National Literacy Act (P.L 102-73). The bill increased the literacy programs' authorization, establishing the literacy program for imprisoned adults, and a National Institute for Literacy also influenced the adult education program (Eyre, 2013).  The amendment of the AED-1966, which boosted adult education funding from $30.6 million in 1966 to $ 238.8 million in 1991, affected the adult education program (Division of Adult Education and Literacy 1990).

  The bill's administrations' Workforce Investment Act (WIA) of 1998 played a role in public adult education in many states, which gave the program a new dimension structuring course to make students ready for the job market once they complete their education.

 

Implications

The adult education program saw many transformations in the 90s through enrollments, and fund enhancements—the increase of enrollment resulted from the kick against racism and the program's wide acceptance. In 1991, non-Hispanic-Blacks participation was at a lower rate than non-Hispanic Whites, but in 1999, all minority groups participated at the same rate as non-Hispanic Whites (NCES, 2002). It was real that racism factors and the discrimination against the female gender existed from the beginning of the program, but to the last days in the 1990s, credit should have been given to the adult educational educators and organizations that advocated for an all-inclusiveness environment. For this reason, the fight against racism and advocacy for affirmative action will always give specific credit to the adult education program for the role it played in communities in bridging the gap among humans for equality.

In 1991, there was no difference in gender participation rates. But in 1999, the female gender's participation got a higher rate than men's (NCES, 2002). Enrollment increment implies that it reduced disparities in participation, which existed in 1991.

The 90's adult education also fulfilled one of the program's desires, which was to bring education to everyone's doors. The acceptance rate of adult education programs by individuals also gave the program a new look, so organizations and industries relied on the initiative for specific skillsets for employees. This new development allowed the program to shift towards career programs to enhance people seeking new jobs.   The program accounted for the increased number of participants in the adult education program. 

 

Conclusion

The 90s saw transformations such as the 1991 National Literacy Act (NLA), which replaced AEA and established the National Institute for Literacy. In 1998, the NLA got replaced by Title I1 of the Workforce Investment Act. Adult education took another form between 1990-1999 because it promoted racial justice and promoted equality. The history of adult education also suffered gender bias. By the end of 1999, the program saw an increase in female enrollment, which was even more than the program's male participants.  Another transformation of the program was the course program, which was different from vocational training. 

 

Area	Summary
Social Background	Equality, Affirmative action, strengthening states, and local governments
Highlights	Effective use of Human Resources, Work-related courses
Influences	Adult education Funding, Formalization, and restructuring of the A.E
Implications	Racial justice, access to education, the high employment rate

 

 

References

H. R. n. N. L. A. o. (1991). H.R. 751 (102nd): National Literacy Act of 1991. Retrieved from https://www.govtrack.us/congress/bills/102/hr751

 

Education, U. S. D. o. (2013). Federal Adult Education https://lincs.ed.gov/publications

 

A Legislative History.

Elman, C. (1998). Guest editorial: adult education, bringing in a sociological perspective. In: Sage Publications Sage CA: Thousand Oaks, CA.

 

Hamil-Luker, J., & Uhlenberg, P. (2002). Later Life Education in the 1990s: Increasing Involvement and Continuing Disparity. The Journals of Gerontology: Series B, 57(6), S324-S331.

 

Literacy, N. C. (2021). HISTORY.

Retrieved from https://national-coalition-literacy.org/about/history/McBain, M. M. a. L. (2014). Adult education in the United States of America: A critical examination of national policy (1998- examination of national policy (1998-2014).

 

STATISTICS, N. C. F. E. (2002).

Participation Trends and Patterns in Adult Education: 1991 to 1999.

 

Watkins, K., & Marsick, V. (2014). Adult education & human resource development: Overlapping and disparate fields. New Horizons in Adult Education and Human Resource Development, 26.