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Teaching Skills That Matter in Adult Education - Cohort 4 Call for Applications

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American Institutes for Research (AIR), under contract with The Office of Career Technical and Adult Education (OCTAE), are excited to announce the Teaching the Skills that Matter in Adult Education (TSTM) Cohort 4 call for applications! Cohort 4 is currently open for up to 10 states to participate in the virtual TSTM professional development training. Each State may nominate up to five participants from each State -four teachers and one State professional development leader. 

In its 4th year, the TSTM project has provided training to adult educators from 23 states and has hosted two virtual conferences with attendance of over 1,000 adult educators each year. TSTM trains adult education teachers how to integrate the nine skills that matter to adult students using three approaches that work across five critical topics.

States and programs will benefit from the project’s development of tools and the provision of related basic skills education teacher training to teach necessary transferable skills that are useful to students in these critical contexts and increase overall program effectiveness. Teachers will receive high-quality training and coaching over a period of 8 months learning and applying ready-to-use, practical teaching strategies to help their students gain critical skills that matter for their overall success.  Participants will:

  • develop capacity to improve student outcomes by gaining content knowledge and technical skills,
  • meet with educators and trained facilitators in other states to share practical experiences and solve problems,
  • get training and technical assistance tailored to their own professional development needs, and
  • be equipped to bring the resources and training back for state-wide implementation.

States should nominate four experienced teachers who meet the following criteria:

  • Currently teaching at least one ongoing class in an English as a second language (ESL), adult basic education (ABE), adult secondary education (ASE), high school equivalency (HSE), career technical education (CTE), or integrated English literacy and civics education (IELCE) adult education classroom.
  • Have a minimum 5 years teaching experience.
  • Have classes with a consistent, stable enrollment.
  • Are involved in programs from a variety of Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA) funded adult education providers (community colleges, community-based organizations, and school districts, as applicable).
  • Are effective instructors, presenters, peer leaders, trainers, or curriculum designers.
  • Can commit to the required training over the 8-month training period. See below for training activities and cohort dates below.

Cohort 4 Training Activities:

  • One-hour orientation webinar
    • October 7, 2021
  • Three-day training
    • October 15, 22 and 29, 2021
  • Three 1-hour webinars
    • November 17, 2021
    • February 9, 2022
    • March 23, 2022
  • Two virtual site visits
    • November 2021-April 2022
  • Ongoing coaching and participation in discussions through an online Community of Practice (CoP)
    • November 2021-April 2022
  • Two-day training
    • April 22 and 29, 2022

Applications must be filled out by the State adult education director (or appropriate designee). Applications are due on Monday, September 27, 2021, and States will be notified of their selection for TSTM Cohort 4 by October 1, 2021. To apply for Cohort 4, please click http://sgiz.mobi/s3/c8e4bee33177 .

To learn more about TSTM please visit: https://lincs.ed.gov/state-resources/federal-initiatives/teaching-skills-matter-adult-education Questions? Please contact the project at tstm@air.org.