Featured Resources

Description This brief highlights key findings from the first component of The Teaching Skills That Matter (TSTM)-SkillBlox Instructional Support Pilot—an implementation study of the TSTM framework. Findings from this study—including promising practices and lessons learned in supporting TSTM-aligned instruction—are intended to shape TSTM-SkillBlox development but may also inform efforts in the field to support TSTM implementation. 

Description The present report summarizes the research conducted through focus groups, literature reviews, and listening sessions to understand and document the specific assessment needs in adult education and workforce development. From: The Adult Skills Assessment Program (ASAP) Research Team

Description This rubric, developed by the CREATE Adult Skills Network team to review technical assistance resources for inclusion in the CREATE Edtech Technical Assistance Library, can help you determine the quality of guidance provided in a technical assistance resource. Use of the scoring is optional; do use it to reflect on the potential of the resource as you comment.  

Description This issue brief presents a profile of immigrant and U.S.-born adults, based on analysis of data from the U.S. Census Bureau’s American Community Survey. It looks at characteristics such as age, parental status, race and ethnicity, educational attainment, English proficiency, and employment and income. The analysis identifies disparities between immigrant and U.S.-born adults in income, levels of formal education and employment type. It also discusses the implications of key data trends for adult skills programs. From: The Migration Policy Institute

Description For the September EdTech Strategy Session, the EdTech Center @ World Education hosted LinkedIn's Senior Lead Manager of Economic Graph, Efrem Bycer. Efrem shared insights from the LinkedIn "Future of Work Report: AI at Work". With recent advancements in AI comes a shifting demand for certain technical and human skills, giving new areas to focus on as we aim to prepare adult learners for the future of work and technology. Watch the recording of Efrem's lightning talk here and register for the October EdTech Strategy Session here. 

Description Produced by the Equity in Adult Education Research workgroup of the Institute of Education Sciences-funded Collaborative Research for Educating Adults with Technology Enhancements (CREATE) Adult Skills Network, this brief intends to shed light on DEIA conditions, opportunities, and challenges as they manifest in AFE. As a network, we are particularly interested in the application of technology to promote foundational skill development and the implications of centering DEIA in this process. Having insight into the DEIA context of AFE is important for researchers as they approach their work, especially those who are relatively new to this area of education. As generators of new knowledge and as contributors to enhancing extant knowledge in AFE, researchers play an important role in capturing the AFE landscape to inform policy and practice. We encourage researchers to integrate a DEIA lens in their work, recognizing that such integration requires some background on DEIA issues in the particular context of AFE. We therefore offer this paper to researchers, as well as policymakers, practitioners, advocates, and others to increase understanding of DEIA in AFE. Subsequent CREATE publications will address a DEIA-focused approach to research in more depth.

Description The National Skills Coalition recently published recommendations and new ideas for improving the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA) in the report, Creating an Equitable, Resilient Workforce System. The report provides a series of recommended activities towards strengthening WIOA so that is adequately resourced to deliver high-quality skills training that supports the assets and aspirations of working people, helps small businesses who hire locally and invest in their workers, and advances racial equity and pathways to quality jobs. 

Description Today’s college students may have grown up around technology, but that doesn’t mean they have the skills to thrive at school or work. Knowledge gaps remain a major barrier to success, particularly affecting low-income students. How can higher education institutions more effectively teach, assess, and measure digital skills? The Chronicle surveyed more than 1,200 faculty, higher ed leaders, and students to find out. The study discovered that: 78% of students said colleges strongly contributed to their digital proficiency 36% of faculty and leaders think their college instructors are “somewhat unprepared” or “not at all prepared” to teach digital skills Only 15% of faculty and 16% of leaders think students are very well prepared to use digital tools in a work environment

Description The Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act of 2014 includes new requirements and incentives to strengthen the link between its Title II -- adult education -- and the overall workforce development system. This report from a national evaluation of Title II examines the extent to which local adult education providers’ instructional approaches and coordination with other agencies in 2018-19 reflected this link and highlights the challenges providers reported collecting related performance data. A compendium provides detailed tables supporting the policy report. For more information about this report, visit the IES site here. 

Description These aggregate frameworks provide a structure to support learning in five subjects relevant to adult learners: Civics Education, Digital Literacy, Financial Literacy, Health Literacy, and Workforce Preparation. They include domains, topics, and subtopics in each subject. The frameworks were developed by aggregating existing curricula, assessments, and frameworks used in adult education and compiling insights from organizations and individual instructors. Use them to support Teaching Skills That Matter-aligned instruction, to locate and use resources in SkillBlox, or as a checklist for planning instruction and assessment.