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Running head: CRITICAL ANALYSIS

Critical Analysis of a Program Plan

Janelle Barton
Western Washington University

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CRITICAL ANALYSIS

For this critical analysis, I will be looking at the Washington State Adult Education 5 Year
Plan: Pathways to College and Careers for Washingtons Emerging Workforce by the
Washington State Board of Community & Technical Colleges (WSBCTC).
Mission Statement
The mission statement for this program is clearly stated as creating pathways to adult
education and subsequent degree completion or other forms of certification in order to give
individuals greater access to the competitive job market. This program seems to fit and comply
with the overall goals of the agency (Washington State Board of Community and Technical
Colleges) because its focus is on enriching community and technical college programs. The
mission statement implies that this program will work specifically with populations that are
experiencing barriers to obtaining an education and finding family-sustaining jobs. Therefore,
this program will work to provide access to education and career pathways for individuals in
need of guidance or assistance through the process. Ultimately, the problem this program is
attempting to address is the large amount of individuals without the level of education or training
they need to get decent jobs. Acquiring an education in this regard would give an individual
greater accessibility into the job market and a better chance of obtaining decent employment that
can support them and their families. As a result, the number of individuals working poorlypaying jobs, struggling to make ends meet for their family or who are in need of social services
will hopefully decrease. As far as data to support why the program is important goes, the
authors mention a couple statistics to demonstrate the need for this program in the introduction
of the plan, but overall the information was general and I did not see any references to actual

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studies. In the end, however, I was still left with an idea about why this program would be
important because, after all, as a student I can understand why access to education is so
important in getting a good job later on.
Planning Team
This program plan was developed through the Board of Community and Technical
Colleges (BTCT) through input gathered from community public forums. The public forums
targeted the following stakeholders: Adult education administrators, directors, staff and
volunteers, the Washington State Adult Education Advisory Council, adult education instructors
and tutors, adult learners, Association for Washington Business employers, Washington State
Labor Council, American Federation of Teachers, Washington Education Association, agency
leaders and partners, and the public. Other stakeholders who took part in the planning process
did so by completing online surveys which collected additional input. After stakeholder and
public input was gathered, the plan was written by the BCTC and submitted to the Washington
State Governor for approval. There arent individual planning members or roles mentioned in the
plan from what I can tell.
Program Objectives
The specific outcomes as stated by this program are to:

Implement and scale comprehensive, innovative college and career pathways to

accelerate student completion and foster economic growth,

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Guide and support transformational instructional practices that accelerate student

completion to certificates, the Tipping Point, and AA/BA degrees leading to

family sustaining employment,

Contextualize adult education courses to support transition to high school
completion & equivalency certification, postsecondary education, and

employment.
Strengthen and maintain a culture of rigorous instruction and evidence of

increased performance
Create and maintain strategic alliances to leverage local resources and increase

navigational support to students and to

Foster student self-efficacy. (p.4)
The outcomes of these objectives are to create the following pathways to careers: ESL (English
as a second language) education for non-English speaking adult students, programs to earn a
High school diploma or an equivalent degree, and other credential programs. To narrow down
theses outcomes into one key objective, it would be to provide access to degrees and training in
order to incorporate non-English speaking or under-educated adults into the skilled workforce. In
order to measure this outcome, individual activities implemented through this program have been
and will be tested for efficiency and effectiveness. This plan provides the example of the IBEST (Integrated Basis Education and Skills Training) activity which has been implemented
under this program and has been proven to increase education and skilled employment among
non-English speaking individuals. The assessment of similar activities in the future will be the
measure used to determine if this program is effective. I will touch upon the specific criteria used
to assess these activities in the evaluation section of this analysis. Finally, its worth
mentioning that because this program is so broad, it does not state the numbers of individuals
targeted or specific costs.

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Population
This program aims to enable a network of 34 community and technical colleges in
Washington State to gain access to accreditation and funding for activities that fit this programs
criteria. Because this program seeks to provide direct pathways from educational programs to
careers for all adults, there are multiple populations targeted by this plan. Specifically written
into the plan are the following populations: Educationally disadvantaged adults, individuals with
limited English proficiency, economic disadvantaged adults, criminal offenders in correctional
institutions, parents and family leaders. There are brief descriptions under each of these listed
populations that provide information about why these groups are important to reach through this
program. While many of these individual descriptions included facts and figures about the
respective population, no general numbers or demographics of the individuals targeted by the
program overall are expressly stated. The eligibility standards to become enrolled in the core
program are: be at least 16 years of age, currently not attending any form of secondary school, do
not have a High school diploma or equivalent and who do not speak English as their first
language. A question I have looking over this plan is whether an individual must meet all of these
criteria for enrollment. From the wording, I believe this is the case but Im wondering how this
program will be able to fully reach its target populations with such particular eligibility
standards.

Funding

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CRITICAL ANALYSIS
This program will be funded by the federal and state government through grants,
primarily obtained through the Workforce Investment Act of 1998 under the Adult Education and
Family Literacy provision found in title II of the law. The funding responsibility for all of
Washingtons Adult Basic Education programs was placed upon the purview of the SBCTC in
1991. This budget plan was developed by the process of this legislation under the Workforce
Investment Act being implement. I cannot find specific expenses and individual budgeting for
activities in this plan because I believe that individual activities apply for individual funding
through this program. The financial efficiency of the program will be assessed through
assessments of the individual activities success in meeting the objectives of education, job
training, and career acquisition.
Implementation Outline
This plan expressly states that the program will be implemented over the next 5 years,
between the years of 2014-2019. However, given the information in this plan about current
activities that would exist under this program, I would guess that this plan is to renew or
repackage programs or policies that already exist in a more compressive manner. The individuals
responsible for the specific tasks of implementing this program are primarily individual
educational institutions (i.e. the 34 community and technical colleges in Washington State
involved in this program). The responsibility to carry out these tasks within educational
institutions would fall upon the college leadership, advisors, teachers, volunteers, students, and
other stakeholders directly related to the school. There is also responsibility from other external
stakeholders (the formal boards and councils as well as other government agencies) to assess the
effectiveness of all the individual programs implemented under this plan (they would probably

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do this through research studies). The roles of these stakeholders is also to ensure that state and
federal funding for this program continues and that the funds are being used efficiently.
Evaluation
Evaluations of the efficacy, relevance and success of the programs implemented through
this plan are to take place annually according to National Reporting System performance
standards specified in the Adult Education and Family Literacy Act. These standards state that
individual programs must demonstrate improvements in adult education levels (this includes
anything from learning English to learning to read) and an increase in degrees/certificates or job
trainings completed. The evaluations will be made through desk monitoring, program
improvement processes and financial audits. Desk monitoring includes looking through
electronic records for enrollment and graduation data to ensure that performance standards are
being met. If performance standards are not being met, program improvement processes may
take place where providers can reassess and make changes to their current plans. Last, there are
financial audits of 1/3 of the individual programs implemented through this plan to ensure
funding criteria are being met and budgets are adhered to. In addition to these evaluation
techniques, performance measures are also set in place under the Washington Student
Achievement Initiative (WSAI). These performance measures will provide the basis for
determining if the individual programs are meeting the standards stated in the WSAI. All
evaluations will be carried out by staff or independent evaluators selected by the Washington
State Board of Community and Technical Colleges.

Source

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Washington State Board for Community & Technical Colleges. (2014). Washington state
education 5 year plan 2014-2019: Pathways to college and careers for Washingtons
emerging workforce. Retrieved from:
http://www.sbctc.ctc.edu/college/abe/FY15StatePlan-FinalDraft-2.5.14_000.pdf