Getting Involved with the VALUE Training

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Getting Involved with the VALUE Training

Subject: [NIFL-AALPD:2110] How do programs get involved?
From: jataylor@utk.edu

Hi All, Someone asked for clarification about the VALUE training and about how programs enroll, so I thought it might be helpful to recap what has been shared these last few days. So here's what I've learned thus far, followed by a couple of questions. I hope others will add on/and correct me if I have misunderstood anyone:

Will and Kenn have offered an explanation of how the VALUE training works (thanks!), and Will's message can be found below. I understand from his message that the VALUE training helps programs partner with adult learners and learner leaders to develop student leadership organizations that also compliment the goals of the program. Programs go thru the 2-day VALUE training, and can use any one of the 8 project templates to address an issue or concern of students and programs. Students develop leadership skills while at the same time helping the program to better achieve their goals or address program issues like retention.

Several examples followed from practitioners and learner leaders in Texas, Vermont, California, and Massachusetts. If I understand correctly, are the 8 VALUE project templates options for projects (can learners/practitioners select something for a project other than one of the 8 templates)?

State professional development systems can play an important role in supporting learner leadership by providing several support mechanisms for both learners and practitioners. Additionally, I understand that in Massachusetts, supporting students' voices in program decision making and operations aligns with the state DOE Indicators of Program Quality.

In Vermont, it also sounds like learner leadership is supported statewide, is this correct? Kenn, you said you were one of two practitioners from your region of the state that attended the VALUE training. Would someone from Vermont explain a bit more as to how the VALUE training was made available to programs?

So one big question that stands out to me is, how do programs get involved with the VALUE training? I've read that the VALUE training is offered to programs thru states, but I'm not sure what that means. Does that mean VALUE becomes a part of state professional development, or are there other ways programs can get involved? And IF the VALUE training must go thru states to programs, who are the key people that need to be involved? Who initiates the contact?

Thanks so much,
Jackie

Subject: [NIFL-AALPD:2114] Re: How do programs get involved?
From: tobrien_at_vtadultlearning.org

Hi,

I completed the VALUE training with Kenn here in Vermont and in DC and I agree with Kenn's statements about the merit of its worth. I am replying to Jackie's question about how the training was made available to students and instructors in VT.

In 2004, Vermont Adult Learning was awarded the Adult Education and Literacy State Grant contract to provide services state-wide. In compliance with this grant, VAL and three AEL organizations now operate under one system , know as Learning Works. VAL previously had a state-wide Student Advisory Council which had representatives from each of its then 6 centers. Currently, representatives from each of the 10 full-service centers of Vermont Works are invited to attend the bi-monthly meetings. A member of this board also serves on the VAL Board of Directors, so the participants are aware that they can influence decision-making in the system.

It was through Vermont Adult Learning and the immeasurable support of the Executive Director, Pixie Hankinson, who participated in the training that it was made available to representatives from each center. It is crucial to get directors to support such training and important for students to experience learning together with the administration as well as their teachers.


Tara

Tara O'Brien
ESOL Coordinator
Vermont Adult Learning
tobrien@vtadultlearning.org

Subject: [NIFL-AALPD:2116] Re: How do programs get involved?
From: "Pixie Hankinson" <mphankinson_at_vtadultlearning.org>

In Vermont the initial contact from VALUE was made to the State Director who in turn contacted the provider organiztions. I believe that was in 1996 when VALUE was just starting. Vermont Adult Learning, at that time one of four providers of adult education and literacy services in the state, was very interested and sent two adult learners to their first meeting in Texas. We had some financial assistance from the Department of education and fundraised the balance. Upon their return, those two students proved themselves to be exceptional student leaders by advocating in the legislature, initiating a very successful student support group, developing and imlementing effective fundraisers, and hosting statewide learner picnics, etc. Both developed student advisory boards in their respective regions, served on the statewide student advisory board, and served on the Board of Trustees of Vermont Adult Learning.

At that time, Vermont Adult Learning (VAL) became a member of VALUE and has sent adult learners to all of their national meetings and hosted a training in Vermont last Fall. Student and staff participation in VALUE trainings has been supported by professional development dollars for the last several years. Participation therefore requires a commitment of time and energy from students and staff following the training.

Pixie Hankinson
Executive Director
Vermont Adult Learning

Subject: [NIFL-AALPD:2118] Re: How do programs get involved?
From: Archie Willard

Pixie and Others

I agree Vermont has been a good supporter of adult learner development throughout the years. In 1999 I had the opportunity to speak at the Vermont adult learner state conference. At that conference I got to meet a lot of wonderful hard working people, but I want to keep the history of VALUE in prospective. The founding meeting of VALUE was the last week end of March of 1998 at the Highlander in Tennessee. At that meeting there were two adult learners from Vermont. I also want to say I think it's great that Emma, DAndrea, and some of the other adult learners have been speaking on this listserv about VALUE and some of the things that they have been doing.

Archie Willard
President Emeritus of VALUE

Subject: [NIFL-AALPD:2121] Re: How do programs get involved?
From: Pixie Hankinson

Thank you, Archie, for the correction on the location of the first VALUE learner conference. It was at a very historic location in Tennessee, and I was horrified to see that I had written Texas in my quick note to the listserve yesterday.

The Vermont attendees, Mike Amstein and Allan Laroche, were so impressed and inspired by Archie Willard and others at this small conference that they insisted we figure out a way to have Archie come to Vermont and speak to adult learners. As a result, we organized the Literacy Congress with Archie as the featured guest. This was the second or third Literacy Congress in Vermont, to which adult learners from all over the state were invited to attend a day of workshops, listen to speakers, and meet one another. The event was always held in the Vermont State House and was the inspiration of a teacher who had long understood, way before Equipped for the Future, that one of the primary purposes of adult education is to give students their Voice, as well as the confidence and knowledge to use it.

Archie Willard was an amazing example of an adult learner who had found his voice. As a result, he was an inspiration to the over one hundred people who had gathered to hear him. All other speakers and activities paled in comparison.

If Vermont's student advisory group decides that it is time for another Literacy Congress this fall, they will be organizing it using the tools that they have brought back from the VALUE training.

Pixie Hankinson
Vermont

Subject: [NIFL-AALPD:2119] Re: How do programs get involved?
From: <bryan_a_wilson_at_bellsouth.net>

Hello All,

I'm a High School Spaced teacher right now and will be earning my M. Ed. in Adult Education this August. I've been too busy to follow this thread, but I am really interested in learning more about VALUE training programs.

Is there a centralized location or web site that can give me information to review about it?

Bryan

Subject: [NIFL-AALPD:2126] Creating the big picture of student involvement
From: jataylor_at_utk.edu

Hi Bryan,
Your question seems simple enough. The short answer is that I do not think there is a website about the VALUE training, though I could be (and hope) that I am wrong. Will someone from VALUE tell us if there is?

However, part of the answer -- and part of the reason for this discussion -- is to capture the professional wisdom regarding what has been learned by learners and practitioners about the VALUE training and about student involvement. That knowledge is spread across several states and practiced within programs and known by some (like the Student Action Health Team in Massachusetts, MOMS in Texas, Vermont learners and practitioners, and many other programs and groups across the country), but not known by all.

So I've started a centralized location (under construction), using the posts from NIFL-AALPD to capture what we learn from this discussion. NIFL-AALPD subscribers & others will be able to find:

  • learners and practitioners' Q & A about learner leadership in PD and PI (professional development and program improvement)
  • bulleted lists of strategies shared in the discussion
  • learner leadership in states
  • description of the VALUE training & how states/programs can get involved
  • any research conducted or being conducted
  • the full discussion of learner leadership

For this to work, we need:

  • to continue discussing our rich experiences with learner leadership on the listserv
  • to give feedback about the wiki area, how to improve it, etc.

This is the puzzle board (under construction): http://wiki.literacytent.org/index.php/DiscussionOfLearnerLeadership

Here is where you can find the full discussion: http://wiki.literacytent.org/index.php/LearnerLeadershipFullDiscussion

Each of us holds pieces to this puzzle; and thru our discussion on NIFL-AALPD we are seeing the picture unfold of what learner leadership is -- and can be -- in professional development and in our field....Jackie

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