How do the program experiences of participants in Georgia’s adult education system vary by learners’ attendance patterns and the classmates they encounter?
Operating under Title II of the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act, the Technical College System of Georgia (TCSG) oversees and distributes federal funding to adult education programs across the state. These programs offer two main types of classes: adult basic and adult secondary education (ABE/ASE) classes. These classes help adults without a high school degree improve their literacy, numeracy, and problem-solving skills. English as a Second Language (ESL) classes help non-English-speaking adults learn the language. Using administrative data from TCSG’s adult education programs, Thomas Kouwe describes the experiences of adult education learners in terms of their attendance patterns and the classmates they encounter, how these experiences relate to learners’ characteristics, and how they relate to each other.
He finds that multiple aspects of learners’ attendance patterns—in particular, total hours attended and percentage of class sessions attended—vary by race, age, and educational characteristics. In terms of the classmates they encounter, most learners have at least one classmates of the same race, one of the same sex, and one of a similar age. There is more variation in the educational similarity that learners have with their classmates, but most learners still have at least one classmate of the same educational functioning level (EFL).
Learners’ attendance is positively associated with the likelihood of them making an EFL gain, although there is little association with other program outcomes like earning a high-school-equivalency credential or attending a postsecondary institution. The total number of hours attended, the number of consecutive weeks attended, and the percentage of class sessions attended are positively associated with the percentage of educationally similar classmates but not with the percentage of demographically similar classmates. Classmate similarity has no notable relationship with program outcomes.
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