On June 30, a pilot project instituted in ten locations nationwide, including Berkeley, and designed to assist states in instituting and developing policies to support college and career readiness for low-skilled adults and learners, came to an end.
The Policy to Performance initiative aims to assist states by advancing their efforts in building a strong foundation for growth and economic development through implementing assistance services targeted towards low-skilled adults transitioning into postsecondary education and employment.
The initiative, which stems from the U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Vocational and Adult Education, was designed in a manner that supports the goals of The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, which in turn relates to President Obama’s American Graduation Initiative to strengthen the nation’s community colleges.
California was among eight states, including Texas, Louisiana, Alabama, Virginia, Wisconsin, New York and Massachusetts, selected to participate in this initiative.
Mindi Yates, the initiative’s Education Program Consultant for California, said the project’s purpose is to serve as a model program for establishing state and nationwide educational policies regarding the provision of services for postsecondary education and transitions to such. Ten adult education agencies were selected to participate in the pilot project for the 2011-2012 school year following a competitive grant process and were granted $75,000 each, according to Yates.
Berkeley Adult School was selected as one of the aforementioned 10 agencies to participate in this project, according to Yates.
“Agencies were asked to enroll at least 25 students who were close to receiving their high school diploma and who were interested in enrolling into post-secondary education,” Yates said.
With this grant, agencies provided various services to students, including academic support via, for example, academic tutoring, and college, career, and financial counseling.
“We recently received a no cost extension to continue working with the Department of Education’s Office of Vocational and Adult Education to determine key findings and how they will be disseminated,” said Chrys Limardo, Project Director for the initiative, when asked of the project’s outcome.
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