WASHINGTON, DC – The Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee today advanced legislation authored by U.S. Senator Jack Reed (D-RI) aimed at more effectively helping workers improve their skills and access 21st-century job opportunities.  Reed’s Strengthening Research in Adult Education Act seeks to expand the research base to support the improvement of adult education across the country, consequently enhancing workforce development efforts and narrowing the skills gap.

HELP included key provisions of Reed’s legislation as part of the Strengthening Education Through Research Act (S. 227), which reauthorizes the Education Sciences Reform Act (ESRA), and was approved by the committee today.  Reed’s bill seeks to include adult education in the research priorities for the Institute for Education Sciences.  It also calls for research and data collection on the access to and opportunity for adult education, and ensures that adult educators will be consulted in setting national education research priorities.  Senator Tammy Baldwin (D-WI) has joined Reed in pushing for these provisions.

The ESRA is the main federal law governing and promoting high-quality education research.  The law, enacted in 2002, established the Institute of Education Sciences (IES), the research arm of the Department of Education, to conduct research on education spanning from early childhood through higher education.

“Adult education can help bridge the skills gap that can keep people seeking work from being offered good paying jobs.  It also ensures that hard working adults with low levels of education can develop the skills to fully participate in their communities and support their children’s education.  Investing in adult education helps American workers learn new skills and improve their lives.  It gives them a platform for upward mobility both professionally and personally.  It can help lift individuals, communities, and businesses together because the more skilled workers out there earning a paycheck, the more demand there is for the goods and services our businesses offer,” said Senator Reed.  “This commonsense modification to the Education Sciences Reform Act will go a long way in strengthening the research base that will support the improvement of adult education across the country.  I urge my colleagues to support passage of the Strengthening Education Through Research Act.”

“As the demand for a workforce with highly-technical skills continues to grow, the need for diverse, high-quality adult education opportunities grows along with it.  Through investments in commonsense programs that support worker retraining and adult education, we can focus on closing our nation’s skills gap and give middle class, hard-working Americans a shot at getting ahead,” said Senator Baldwin.  “I’m proud to join Senator Reed in advocating for these provisions to strengthen and improve research in adult education programs that work for educators, workers and businesses across the nation.”  

In 2012, data from the Program for the International Assessment of Adult Competencies show that an estimated 52 percent of adults ages 16-65 in the United States lack the literacy skills necessary to identify, interpret, or evaluate one or more pieces of information, essential skills for postsecondary education and the workplace.  In Rhode Island, it is estimated that nearly 130,000 adults have less than a high school education, and over 45,000 have limited English proficiency.

Reed’s Strengthening Research in Adult Education Act will support the key reforms to adult education in the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA) by ensuring that adult education is included in our national education research priorities.  Specifically, Reed’s bill will amend the ESRA to require the Institute for Education Sciences and the National Center for Education Statistics to collect data and carry out research on:  successful state and local adult education and literacy activities, the characteristics and academic achievement of adult learners, and access to and opportunity for adult education in communities across the country.  It will also ensure that the Institute of Education Sciences draws on the expertise of adult educators when developing policies and priorities.

The recently-enacted, bipartisan WIOA, which Reed helped to pass in June 2014, recognized that the adult education field has evolved from a literacy skills program to a more comprehensive college and career readiness initiative to ensure that adult learners have the foundational skills to fully participate in the community and compete for jobs that provide family-sustaining wages.  The Strengthening Research in Adult Education Act would help to ensure that there is a strong research base to support that vital transition.

-end-