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V. Findings From Primary Data Sources
The findings for this portion of the needs
section of the assessment combines data from focus groups and key informant
interviews (within the four areas determined by our partnership) in
triangulation with data from interviews with our site directors, current
student surveys from the International Language Institute, the Center for New
Americans and The Literacy Project's 5 sites, and other sources within the
community. Our four areas of
exploration chosen by the partnership
are:
·
OUT-OF-SCHOOL
AND OTHER YOUTH-AT-RISK
·
TRANSITIONING
TO WORK OR COLLEGE
·
ESOL
POPULATIONS AND OTHERS UNDERSERVED BY ADULT EDUCATION
·
CORRECTIONS
REINTEGRATION
The DOE's suggested categories of need are
honored at the beginning of this section, whenever primary data was available
and if little or none was, the point was made from available secondary sources
(see Methodology).
The voices of
learners within our community, the voices of social service agency directors
from our partnership and our other primary sources such as the Changes Project
Report, the Brickhouse Report, and the HCAC, and FCAC Needs Assessment all
describe the community as an interdependent system. The adult learners speak
appreciatively of support from friends or family members; they also articulate
a desire to be independent, to go about the activities of daily life without
assistance. The most frequently named
needs were those which make daily existence hold together and allow families
and individuals to move ahead: jobs that pay a living wage; transportation
(especially for those who live in the rural parts of our region); safe and
affordable housing; health and dental care and insurance to cover costs; high
quality, affordable day care that is available during parents school and work
hours and adult education and vocational training.
In the FCAC survey
of adults in Franklin County, respondents described factors within the
community that can severely inhibit an individual or family's ability to move
ahead such as: family violence, violence among youth, teen pregnancy, drug and
alcohol abuse and lack of treatment options (particularly for youth), poor
parenting skills, lack of basic life skills and training, and lack of
appropriate activities and jobs for youth.
Along with these, a cluster of emotional and spiritual issues emerged:
hopelessness about the future, low self-esteem, social isolation, lack of
insight into one’s own problems, depression, and a reluctance to use services
perhaps due to a desire to appear self-sufficient and independent. Respondents
also mentioned the social mirror side of these phenomena: low public empathy,
the stigma attached to poverty, and the lack of voice people with limited
incomes and youth have in our community. A 53 year
old Greenfield resident stated:
I am really angry that the government
(federal and state) is cutting spending on human services….I feel as if
Medicare and MassHealth are saying that those of us on it are not contributing
members of society and, therefore, expendable.
Adult
learners from the Changes Project Report spoke of the ways in which being in an
adult classroom fostered their independence by giving them both practical
supports and inspiration. Underlying this, we see the way learners are both
interdependent and interconnected. An
adult in an adult basic education program had this to say about how skills
gained from school were helping him to feel less dependent…
It really has helped me to solve problems, you know, how to write
checks, how to do money orders, how to be on my own, not depending on other
people.
Below, a
woman who had to leave her adult literacy program (because of welfare reform's
two-year time limit) talks about her desire to come back to school. She clearly
articulates how the school offered her the ability to become independent, to
support herself. [1]
My dream is getting back to
the program. I would love coming back to the program, cause it helped me out so
much. It taught me how to depend on myself. They helped me out with that. You
know, don't be negative on yourself if you do not know how to read. Never say
you can't do what you know you could do. That's what they teach me here, how to
be on my own.
In both
the needs and assets section of our assessment we have modeled the Changes
Project Report in focusing our attention on the meaning of independence that so
many learners voice as a goal. It is support that helps individuals to move
toward their goal of independence. Yet, support itself takes form in
interconnected and interdependent ways within community. It is our community planning goal to realize
and put into action the interdependent nature of our service delivery.
The ability to speak English fluently is directly related to how much a
worker earns. A 1998 study commissioned
by MassInc found that, among men of comparable education and skills, those who
spoke fluent English earned 33% more than those who didn't speak English well.
For women, the gap was 24%.
"That's a huge incentive for immigrants to learn English" said
Andrew Sum, the author of the study and director of the Center for Labor Market
Studies at Northeastern University.
In the six towns in Franklin and Hampshire Counties where the main
populations of learners reside, a total of 4,023 individuals told the 2000
census takers that they speak English less than very well. The Center for New Americans (281) and the
International Language Institute (133) were able to serve only (414) students in FY2002.
The languages which are represented in the classrooms during 2002
include in order of prevalence Spanish, Chinese, Russian, Portuguese, Korean,
Japanese, Cambodian, Vietnamese, Tibetan, Moldavan, and French Creole, to name
a few.
In our focus group with members of the Moldavan
community in Greenfield, there was a unanimous and clear point made to the
facilitators…
All of us agree that our main problem is to learn English. Once we learn English than all of the other
big problems in our life will be solved.
If you know
language, then you can work.
The problem is language. Language first, then we can think about a
job. We need to keep our focus clear.
The Community Planning representatives from the Center
for New Americans (CNA) and the International Language Institute (ILI) shared
the following:
As an
ESOL instructor and coordinator for DOE funded programs at ILI, one of my
greatest concerns is that limited DOE program funding means that there are
endless waiting lists (the average is 2 months) for ESOL classes and there are
also not enough sections for varied levels/content. I'd like to see bilingual literacy, basic level ESOL and advanced
TOFEL/ESOL classes.
As
the Director of CNA I would like to raise the question, if there is so much
need, why isn't there more funding. The waiting lists are months now, rather
than weeks - averaging 40 days. Our
outreach and recruitment is affected by the waiting lists and by the assessment
which is more burdensome than before.
The same staff that is doing outreach is also doing assessment. It makes it less appealing to build a waiting
list because of how much assessment has to be done.
According to the CNA
director, the waiting lists work both positively and negatively from an
organizational standpoint.
We hate to see people waiting and know
we are losing a certain part of the population because they can't hang out on
the wait lists. However, the DOE expects roughly 80% attendance rates and
without a waiting list we wouldn't get that.
If you are not able to be here to participate, we have to offer this to
someone else. It does weed out who is
really serious about learning or who is really able to rise to the challenge
and who is not. Someone who is only
attending class 40-50% of the time-it doesn't make sense for them to be
there. DOE has been fixated on
attendance as a primary indicator of performance. The legislature sees degrees
of need based on a waiting list.
Advocacy is based on those numbers.
To not generate a waiting list means there is not a need in the
community. In a way, the process of
showing up for a placement test, doing an intake, waiting it out has a lot of
parallels with what people need to get a job.
Though it is a life skills process - it is one people do have to learn
how to deal with. Every group we work
with has a value they hold for family, for work and for education. When these
three things come into conflict with one another, the person must prioritize -
"I have to be with my family right now", or "in order to provide
for my family I have to leave right now". How does someone prioritize.
I wouldn't want to criticize or say there is one right way.
The DOE created the Curriculum Frameworks to articulate “the
knowledge and skills adult ESOL learners need in order to communicate
effectively and confidently in English so that they can meet their needs;
advocate for themselves, their families and their communities; and participate
more fully in US society.” (MASS/DOE, 1998). ESOL Program Coordinators and
Instructors are encouraged to develop curriculum materials and teaching
strategies that not only help students achieve proficiency in English, but also
increase their ability to navigate through systems that influence their lives.
Therefore, ESOL learners gain language
ability they learn more about accessing new services and supports in their
community. This enables them to meet their own need for independent action and
to provide greater support to family and community. Parents, for example, are
anxious to learn about the schools so they can speak with teachers and help
children with homework. Learners then have more ability to maneuver in the
community; they often need fewer or different kinds of support from when they
arrived. In a spring 1999 Changes Project survey of 47 CNA and ILI learners,
for example, 51% of respondents said they needed someone to translate for them
in their first six months in the U.S., but only 23% said they need someone to
translate for them now. Six percent of respondents said they needed money from
the U.S. government (welfare, food stamps) in their first six months, but none
said they need it at the time of the survey.
A 1999 research report released by the National Center for the
Study of Adult Learning and Literacy (NCSALL) evaluates the literacy and
employment skill levels of adults receiving welfare benefits. This report also
emphasizes the acute need of many current and former welfare recipients in the
United States for basic skills training and education if they are to find and
retain even the lowest skilled, lowest paying jobs. According to the NCSALL
report, 35% of welfare recipients are at Level 1 literacy, the lowest of five
categories of literacy levels, and 41 percent are at Level 2. At Level 1,
individuals can do simple tasks like sign their names or total a bank deposit.
People at Level 2 can use math and reading skills for common everyday tasks
like filling out forms, deciphering charts and graphs, and reading
comprehension. Adults at Levels 1 and 2 are not generally able to perform
higher order tasks or to meet the literacy demands of everyday life and are at
a severe disadvantage when it comes to getting and keeping jobs.
A report
by the Massachusetts Law Reform Institute in Boston underscores these findings.
They report that almost half of the welfare recipients in Massachusetts with
minor children lack a high school diploma or GED. (MLRI, 1999.) U.S. Census
figures from 1991 show that 24% of families in which the heads of household
have not earned a high school diploma or GED live in poverty compared to only
2% of families headed by adults with a BA. A National Institute for Literacy
report (NIL Policy Update 1999) states that nearly half of the adults in the
United States with the lowest literacy levels live in poverty, compared to 4-8
% of those with the two highest literacy levels. The report also states that
teen pregnancy rates are higher among individuals with lower literacy skills
and that three out of four food stamp recipients performed at the two lowest
literacy levels.
The 2000 Census told us that 2,914 families in our two counties
lived in poverty (6.5% of the Franklin County population and 5.1% of the Hampshire
County population) These numbers increase exponentially when there are single
mothers who are head of households (43.2%). In our two counties combined, 4598
adult individuals aged 25 or older have less than a 9th grade
education. Need
State figures.
The Director of Service Net's Outreach and Stabilizing
Program for the homeless in Franklin and Hampshire counties spoke of the need
for ABE programs to provide an atmosphere which supports people as they
stabilize - a basic life skills class where they feel safe and where their low
tolerance for frustration is recognized. Another director from the same program
in Hampshire County reinforced this by saying…
Its hard for
them navigate applications, they can't work with computers, mostly its about
gathering background information (lost id papers - they have to send away for
them), no transportation. We help to motivate them, taking a look at the
reasons for being unemployed and homeless - a lot of the time they can't read
and they are ashamed. They don't
understand what is being asked of them.
Its not that they are ingenuine, its just that ABE offers a certain
service that they can't work with and sometimes we just have to walk them
through this. These folks feel so
inadequate and it triggers anxiety. We
look at the reasons and the apprehensions - at the psychological problems. We
had a man who couldn't read or write and was having trouble hearing - at TLP
they had a person who got him a tutor and he was taken to a doctor to retrieve
his hearing and start at TLP and he got the special attention he needed
See
more about basic skills in Youth and Education to Work sections below.
In our survey of current learners we discovered that
both ILI and CNA students want to learn English in order to gain the
credentials to at least recapture some of the skills they carried with them to
this country. There were doctors,
accountants, secretaries, supervisors, managers, teachers all wanting to move
toward a better future. Many are not working now or if they are, it is at jobs
well below their potential because of the language barrier. One woman in our
focus group with members of the Puerto Rican community in Northampton told us that she had completed 4 years at the University of Puerto Rico in Education. She is currently on the ILI waiting list.
This person also said that she had been a manager of a J.C. Penney’s in Puerto
Rico but because of her low English was only a cashier at Stop and Shop.
Another woman has her Bachelor’s degree in nursing in Puerto Rico and
has not been able to be certified as a nurse because of her low English. She has been a home-health aide here.
Several of the participants worked as office assistants, clerks or sales
persons in retail and one man had been a leader in the Recreation Department in
Puerto Rico.
In the Cape Verdean focus group conducted in October,
2002 there were complaints
about having achieved a certain professional level in Cape Verde (one was a nurse, three were
bookkeepers, one a hairdresser, another a mechanic and one worked in a bank) but because of the language
barrier and the need to be licensed, they were being relegated to low-paying jobs
that don’t cover the cost of living.
The
sacrificing of previous credentials is usually a given when an individual
leaves their country of origin. The key here is whether or not there is a
sufficient safety net available in our region to hold these individuals as they
struggle to learn English. Are we able
to persuade the DTA to accept education as part of the work requirement, can we
provide affordable childcare, decent transportation and inexpensive housing,
health care insurance, and a work environment sensitive to the needs of this
population to better themselves?
New work skills (see Transitioning to Work or College below)
Parents of pre-school and school age children-intergenerational literacy
According to 2000
census data, 8.2% of families with children under the age of 5 were determined
to be below the federal poverty level in Northampton. For Franklin County the
figure is 13.2%. Eleven per- cent of
families in Greenfield, 10.7% in Orange and 10.4% in Athol are all living in
poverty, and each of these towns are now being served by Even Start programs. Two of these programs, one in Greenfield and
one in Northampton, are just starting up. The latter will be administrated by the Northampton Public Schools in
collaboration with the Center for New Americans, the International Language
Institute, and Casa Latina. This program will serve 20 families per year, providing
early childhood education while parents attend ESOL classes, parenting classes
and parent and child together activities (PACT). The participants will also
receive home visits by early childhood specialists.
Services for English
as a Second Language (ESL) and Transitional Bilingual Education (TBE) are
offered to 110 students at both elementary and secondary schools in
Northampton. Additionally, there are
many adult newcomers who lack strong literacy skills, even in their own native
languages. This is particularly the
case within Northampton’s Latino community.
In Orange/Athol
primary data collected from human service providers and the adult education
provider show that many current and past students have parents or other family
members who do not have a high school diploma.
Also young parents who contact the North Quabbin Even Start program may
not be able to help their children with homework and thus cannot support their
children in school. This may also put
the entire family at risk in terms of having limited earning ability in an
economy, which calls for people to have more technical skills.
The Amherst Even Start program closed this
year after five years because the collaborators were unable to meet the match
required by the state. Administrated by
the Amherst Public Schools, and in collaboration with the Center for New
Americans, this program served 20-25 families per year, providing early
childhood education while parents were in ABE or ESOL classes, parenting
classes and parent and child together activities (PACT). They also received
home visits by early childhood specialists. Amherst has the second highest number of children under
five living in poverty in the state, second only to Framingham. In addition,
drawing from the 2000 Census, Amherst has the fastest growing Asian population
in Western Massachusetts, represented by a 13% increase in families listing
their first language as Asian dialect. In the Amherst public schools, children
collectively speak thirty-one different languages and represent eighty-two
countries. Data collected over the course of the Even
Start program showed dramatic increases in the Amherst school system of
students whose parent/guardians had limited education, limited or no
involvement in the schools, and who became parents at a young age. [2]
Teen births in Hampshire County totaled 58 according to the 2000 Census and
6,844 Amherst residents told the 2000 Census takers that they speak and
language other than English and of those, 2,075 said they don't speak English
very well. Of the different ethnic groups who say they speak very little
English, over a 1000 of the 2,377 who speak Asian and Pacific Island languages
said they don't speak English very well.
With these figures relatively unchanged in 2003, a large gap in family
literacy services now exists in Amherst.
There are 90 early childhood intervention slots
(families), at least 1/2 of those meet some criteria for being "at
risk". Of those 90, perhaps 10-20
families have a parent without a diploma or GED (in itself, criteria for making
a family at-risk). There are about 90
families receiving ESOL services in the Greenfield schools. Of those, the largest group are the Russian
and Moldavian speakers ( about 40 families).
Spanish is the second largest language group, but more and more Spanish
speakers are bi-lingual and proficient in English. There are 4 Korean families and 1 Vietnamese. There is an urgent need for tutors who speak
Hindi and Urdu.
Need Greenfield Even Start data
At risk, special needs (see Underserved and Youth at Risk below)
Undocumented Immigrants
In our
focus group with one of the immigrant communities we discovered that a third of
the 23 participants were probably undocumented. They said they wanted to learn English in a school but were
afraid they would be asked for their documentation if they were to apply.
Undocumented
individuals face the risk of deportation and struggle with the fear and anxiety
associated with that risk. Due to their status they are subject to exploitation
by employers because they feel they have no recourse to complain about working
conditions or pay. (They may actually have resources that they are unaware of.)
Undocumented people must rely on personal supports as they are not eligible for
many institutional supports.
According
to the Changes Project undocumented people are scared. They are afraid to
access benefits and request fair treatment. Because they fear being caught and
sent home, undocumented people are afraid to ask for information about the
immigration process; how to use the health care system; how to determine if
they are eligible for benefits; and how to get equal treatment in the
workplace. It is not known how many of our learners are here without documents,
as this information is not systemically
reported to the sites. These learners--who are negatively referred to as
"illegal aliens"--are careful about when and to whom they talk about
their situation. An interviewee revealed he was undocumented only when the tape
recorder was turned off and the interview completed. Another learner, however,
was willing to write about his situation as part of a focus group. His story
follows, but with some particulars of his history edited out to protect him
from identification:
Many years ago I wanted to
come to USA. All my friends came to U.S. and their life changed for good. I
tried twice to get the visa but nothing happen. So I came illegally with people
who charge to bring immigrants illegally to U.S. After 13 days I got to [the
United States]. I tried to apply for a job, but because I didn't speak English
at that time I just worked as a dishwasher, but the life was too expensive and
the money wasn't enough. Then I started moving to different states. Because I
don't have social security neither a Green Card I have to work 12 to 13 hours a
day during six days a week to earn just $300. I worked one year only to pay my
illegal travel plus the interest. I finished to pay my debt, but I need to save
money to send it to my wife and son who are in [my home country]. I would like
to apply for the Green Card but I don't have any idea where I have to go for
help. I'm afraid to be deported. I need help.
Discrimination
The Brickhouse
Report reported that "racism is prevalent in every aspect of life in Montague
and has an effect on housing, schools and employment opportunities. Like
privilege, racism goes unexamined in Montague." Montague is not alone, The
Changes Project report revealed many incidences of adult learners from the
Center for New Americans and ILI receiving unequal treatment because of both
the color of their skin and their limited language ability. The FCAC's adult
constituent survey indicated that discrimination was alive and well in FCAC's
service area. .
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