SCANS and IBEST

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Subject: [ProfessionalDevelopment 3085] Re: Transition team
From: Roberta K McKnight/FS/VCU rmcknight at vcu.edu
Date: Mon Feb 23 23:31:17 EST 2009

Lennox,

Thank you for this brief. Would a review of the Department of Labor Secretary's Commission on Achieving Necessary Skills (SCANS) reports have some utility in this process?

http://wdr.doleta.gov/opr/fulltext/document.cfm?docn=6140

http://www.ncrel.org/sdrs/areas/issues/methods/assment/as7scans.htm

Roberta McKnight, PhD, RN
Continuing Professional Development & Evaluation Studies (CPDE)
School of Medicine, Virginia Commonwealth University
Theater Row: 730 East Broad, Suite. 430
POB 980048, Richmond, VA 23298
Phone: +804.828.5413 Email: rmcknight at vcu.edu

"The highest result of education is tolerance." Helen Keller

Subject: [ProfessionalDevelopment 3086] Re: Transition team
From: Lennox McLendon lennox422 at gmail.com
Date: Tue Feb 24 08:46:29 EST 2009

Hi Roberta,

I am certainly not a curriculum guru but from the discussions I hear, the SCANS Competencies and the SCANS Foundation Skills are the foundation for integrated education and training programs. The interest in "using resources" and "using information" for example equals the interest in reading, math and writing. The practitioners on this discussion can be more specific probably but the discussions I hear value the 'soft skills' along with the education skills.

The other resource is O-NET (http://online.onetcenter.org/) -- the old paper version that I knew was the Dictionary of Occupational Titles. This electronic version provides information on I suppose every job title in the country including the skills and education needed for each.

So, once a local area identifies the high-demand jobs, O-NET can help identify the skills and education needed and SCANS can be a resource for the adult education and occupational training folks to build an integrated curriculum. I am sure there are many more practical resources that our colleagues who have built and/or are building integrated services can add.

Sometimes we forget about SCANS so it is good for you to remind us of its value.

Lennox

Subject: [ProfessionalDevelopment 3088] Re: Transition team
From: George Demetrion gdemetrion at msn.com
Date: Tue Feb 24 09:16:07 EST 2009

Hello Lennox and Roberta,

From what I understand SCANS has been embedded within CASAS and EFF both of which include a strong workforce focus, but extend as well to other critical content areas for adult literacy education, which in my view, and those of many others, should have equal billing with workforce education.

Perhaps it would be useful to look synergistically at these two national content-based frameworks, both of which include solid lewarning-to-learn applications to provide a sense of broader direction through which to structure policy proposals and directions.


The hard and comprehensive work that has gone into the development of both these frameworks merits our most serious attention.


Best,

George Demetrion

Subject: [ProfessionalDevelopment 3089] Re: Transition team
From: Israel Mendoza imendoza at sbctc.edu
Date: Tue Feb 24 11:12:55 EST 2009

Hello,
This is israel mendoza from Washington state and I believe the SCANS report is very relevant. Would you happen to have an electronic version of it? thanks idm

Subject: [ProfessionalDevelopment 3090] Re: Transition team
From: Federico Salas-Isnardi fs_dos at yahoo.com
Date: Tue Feb 24 11:20:29 EST 2009

Israel

The full report is available in the DOL website that Roberta shared earlier. It is over 500 pages long. In a few minutes I will attach a couple of other documents that I have used to develop curriculum that reflects the SCANS.

http://www.ncrel.org/sdrs/areas/issues/methods/assment/as7scans.htm


federico

Federico Salas-Isnardi
Chair Elect, Diversity Committee, TESOL
Past Chair, Adult Education Interest Section, TESOL
Secretary, Executive Board, AALPD

Subject: [ProfessionalDevelopment 3092] SCANS links
From: Brian, Dr Donna J G djgbrian at utk.edu
Date: Tue Feb 24 11:37:42 EST 2009

Try these links.

http://wdr.doleta.gov/SCANS/whatwork/whatwork.pdf

http://wdr.doleta.gov/opr/FULLTEXT/1999_35.pdf

Donna Brian
Moderator, LINCS Workplace Literacy Discussion List

Subject: [ProfessionalDevelopment 3094] Re: SCANS
From: Federico Salas-Isnardi fs_dos at yahoo.com
Date: Tue Feb 24 12:13:56 EST 2009

Dear colleagues

The discussion has been very good so far. I am glad the SCANS came up because I still think they are very relevant (agree with Roberta and Israel here) and we often forget the value of "old things." Yes, the SCANS report is nearly two decades old but the work-related competencies and foundation skills workers need remain the same whether we name them SCANS or anything else.

The O-NET resource is great to tailor curriculum to a specific ioccupation/title but the SCANS are very helpful in designing programs for the general employability skills of the workforce. Lennox, you used the word "integrated" (education and training) and that reminded me of a question that came up a lot during SCANS training (I did a lot of training on the SCANS in the 1990's and early 2000's) when people ask how to "integrate" the SCANS into the curriculum. I never saw the SCANS as something to be integrated "into" the curriculum but rather as a framework to see that there is a constant interaction of foundation skills and workforce competencies in the classroom and, consequently, in curriculum development.

I am sharing, for what it's worth, a matrix that makes this idea of the interaction between foundation skills and work related competencies. A couple of colleagues from Texas and I developed it in 1994 for an ESL curriculum we developed for hospital workers. The matrix helped us, as curriculum developers, look at the intersections of different foundational skills with each and every one of the work competencies.

You will notice that, for the purposes of the work in the hospitals we added a sixth competency: Safety. We thought that in addition to the five identified by the report, Safety was a critical competency for workers in the hospital environment. We articulated the safety competency as:

Understand Importance of Safety in the Workplace

  • Understands the concpets underlying unsafe acts and conditions and can correct or bring them to the attention of supervisors;
  • Practices preventive measures to reduce the risk of an accident;
  • Uses proper clothing and/or equipment;
  • Understands safety procedures in the event of a fire or emergency

federico
Federico Salas-Isnardi

Subject: [ProfessionalDevelopment 3096] Re: SCANS
From: Barbara Tondre btondre at earthlink.net
Date: Tue Feb 24 13:53:14 EST 2009

Dear Colleagues,

One of the finest examples of putting SCANS and EFF into practice includes what I've observed happening in Pennsylvania. From the adaptation of the EFF foundation skills wheel to work-related needs, to competencies, and a rubric with which to measure - plus a collection of Innovative Strategies: Ideas that Work. Is anyone from PA following this discussion? Actually, I'm from Texas but very impressed with their work!

Barbara Tondre

Subject: [ProfessionalDevelopment 3091] FW: Curriculum Models applicable to segments of the ABLE population
From: Richard Gacka at Stairwaysbh.org
Tue Feb 24 11:33:41 EST 2009

This comment is in response to a posting by Roberta McKnight and is also related to postings dealing with the I-Best curriculum sequence. The discussion has been quite interesting in terms of the role and evolution of adult education in economic recovery and workforce development. I am also a member of our regional Workforce Investment Board and live in an area that is in the process of developing a community college so the postings are quite informative.

A possible guide for the content of ABLE instruction at the formative levels might be found in the Brigance materials published by Curriculum Associates. While it is not a "curriculum" in the traditional sense, it is a criterion referenced assessment that does define important knowledge in a wide range of areas, and as such could be viewed as an outline of "what students should know." There are several forms of the Brigance Inventories, but two have relevance to basic ABLE programs, the Basic Skills Inventory (adult level) and Employability Skills Inventory. If either version were combined with a comprehensive inventory or checklist of "soft skills" the combination would provide many programs with a guide for instructional content. What I have always found useful is the fact that the student record books and checklists can easily facilitate objective skill monitoring, providing a grass roots type of "evidence based" approach to basic skills instruction. My experience has been that students who can demonstrate proficiency in the skills identified in the Brigance Inventory are generally ready to attempt instruction at an entry level of technical education. For programs at a "foundation building" level of ABE, these inventories may be worth some exploration. They are much more specific in terms of instructional content than the SCANS documents.

As a former director of Tech Prep and School to Work programs, I would recommend that Adult Education practitioners review the materials that have been developed through, or are used by, those programs. In fact, there is much that can be "borrowed from" the entry level technical education practitioners. The Applied Academics curriculums (math, communication, etc.), the CORD mathematics materials, and the High Schools that Work materials all are on the same wavelength as the current discussion of I-Best. There are a lot of good materials that have already been developed and as a field we can move ahead much more quickly by using what already exists.

As ABLE continues to move toward more rigorous vocationally focused instructional programs, I hope that they recognize that multiple models may be needed to accommodate the realities of the diverse environment of students and programs that is adult basic education.

Richard Gacka Ed.D.

Director: NW PA Professional Development Center and PA ABLE Learning Differences Projects
http://web.mac.com/nwpdc
http://web.mac.com/ldconsultants

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