6 The Preparation and Stability of the ABE Teaching Workforce: Current Conditions and Future Prospects

During an era of heightened accountability for education programs, teach-ers, and students, and with the connection between teacher preparation and student outcomes well established in K–12, the adult basic education (ABE) fi eld should be able to demonstrate that the ABE teacher workforce is qualifi ed, competent, and able to meet the learning needs of a diverse group of adult learners. The fi eld must achieve a consensus on strategies for creating such a workforce. We must also determine what factors will help keep ABE teachers working in the fi eld. First, however, leaders in adult basic education must defi ne an ideal teacher workforce. I address fi ve questions in this chapter: • What should the ABE teacher workforce look like? • What does the ABE teacher workforce look like now? 166 SMITH • What conditions contribute to the current makeup of the ABE teacher workforce? • What could help ABE move toward a qualifi ed teacher workforce? • What are the implications for research, policy, and practice that will address the issues regarding the ABE teacher workforce? In order to answer these questions, I examined the literature in K–12 teacher education, teacher certifi cation, and teacher quality. I also reviewed surveys of ABE teachers for their data on teacher characteristics. In addi-tion, to gather information on ABE teacher characteristics, I interviewed 10 program administrators responsible for hiring and supervising ABE teach-ers. The administrators were solicited via a request for assistance posted to the National Literacy Advocacy listserv. At the time of the interviews, in July 2001, the administrators I interviewed were the directors of: • a career center in northwestern Indiana. • a public school district’s ABE center in a university community in central Illinois. • an ABE program within a community college in the western Illinois Quad Cities area