Technical Assistance That Enables Adult Education Programs to Strengthen Outcomes

WestEd’s Center for Economic Mobility provides assistance to adult education programs and consortia to help them use data to make better decisions and improve student outcomes.

The Challenge

Adult education programs often struggle to work together across their local education and workforce training ecosystems, even though state and federal funding often require them to partner with other organizations in their region. While this makes sense in theory, the partnerships can be hard to create and sustain. Organizations sometimes see each other as competition for scarce funding and students, even though they share the same goals of helping learners succeed.

For example, adult education providers often struggle with the following:

  • Strategic Planning and Organizational Development: Leadership teams often need help creating long-term plans, reorganizing their operations, and managing growth and change.
  • Pathway Development: Programs struggle to create smooth pathways for learners moving between adult schools and their postsecondary partners.
  • Data Collection and Program Evaluation: Many providers lack good systems to track learner progress across the region and the ability to use that information to inform programs.

How We’re Taking Action

Helping institutions navigate these challenges requires more than technical expertise. It demands a genuine partnership rooted in a deep respect for the transformative mission of adult education. We understand that each client is unique and that the most sustainable solutions emerge from within organizations, not mandates from without. As thought partners, we facilitate discovery, equip our partners with the necessary tools and resources to transform data into actionable insights, and build capacity that endures long after our engagement ends.

  • Ventura County Adult Education Consortium Technical Assistance Project: We have served as the facilitation and research partner to the Ventura County Adult Education Consortium for the last 10 years in addition to conducting the original needs assessment that informed state funding allocations for the region. Through careful and empathic engagement, the Center helped to align the group around a coherent vision and establish policies and operational practices governing communication, transparency in funding and budgeting, and collaborative decision-making. The planning process cultivated trust among the partners and led to the establishment of three new adult schools and a model for governance and collaboration unique among consortiums. Since then, we have continued to provide strategic guidance, facilitation, and research support.
  • California Adult Education Program Technical Assistance Project: We have been a partner of the California Adult Education Program (CAEP) since its inception in 2015. In addition to providing support for the operational aspects of the CAEP program, we leverage tools developed in-house to help the field understand and use data to develop robust plans that meet the needs of the unique populations each region serves. Through in-person and online meetings, we provide hands-on training that equip administrators with resources and methods to identify gaps and opportunities for program development and improvement.
  • San Diego and Imperial Counties Course Alignment and Repository: In conjunction with the San Diego and Imperial Counties Strong Workforce Consortium, the Center facilitated virtual coding alignment sessions focused on career programs at adult schools and colleges, resulting in a regional data repository of noncredit career training programs. This repository—the first of its kind—has informed planning efforts within the region. For example, it enabled adult education programs to be included in a searchable database of local programs, which significantly expanded the visibility of adult education programs and services among prospective students and regional partners.
  • Palo Verde River Consortium Strategic Alignment Project: As a small, rural partnership, Palo Verde River Consortium struggled to marshal its limited resources to understand both student needs and workforce demands in its region. The Center designed a comprehensive research approach that included student surveys, employer interviews, and stakeholder analysis to not only identify skills gaps but also assess the consortium’s operational capacity to address them. This multilayered research strategy revealed a critical discovery: While workforce needs were clear, key stakeholders from college and school districts held vastly different—and sometimes conflicting—understandings of adult education’s role and its relationship to college pathways. The Center facilitated a strategic focus group to address these operational disconnects, helping consortium members develop a shared vision for adult education in their region. The findings from these activities served as a blueprint for restructuring the consortium, resulting in a more cohesive and effective approach to serving adult learners.
  • West End Corridor Consortium Strategic Planning and Data Support: The West End Corridor Consortium approached the Center for help conducting a comprehensive needs assessment and developing both 3-year and annual plans for the region. Recognizing that effective collaboration requires shared understanding of data and metrics, the Center also facilitated a data team community of practice that brought together staff responsible for data management across member agencies. This collaborative effort established common definitions and standardized reporting practices throughout the consortium while producing a data team handbook that helped ensure ongoing consistency in how agencies collect and report their outcomes.

Resources

The Center’s facilitation and data acumen have strengthened our operational and strategic capacity at the institutional, consortium, and county levels. This has allowed us to function more effectively, expand our reach, and identify community needs more precisely to deliver targeted programming where it matters most.

Mike Sanders Ventura County Adult Education Consortium Chairperson

What Makes Us Different

Data expertise – Our team helped to develop the California Adult Education Program Scorecard, which tracks adult education outcomes across institutions and regions.

Engaging information – We provide data to practitioners through interactive dashboards and supports that strengthen practitioners’ abilities to apply the information.

Facilitating collaboration – We excel at getting different groups to work together toward the same goals, even when historical tensions and competition for resources have made collaboration difficult.