March 10, 2009

Functional Context Education in the National Guard’s ChalleNGe Program For
“At Risk” Young Adults

Tom Sticht
International Consultant in Adult Education

The May 2008 issue of Educational Leadership has an article by Hugh Price,
former President and CEO of the National Urban League, about a program for
high school dropouts and “at risk” youth. The national program is operated
by the National Guard in several states and provides a quasi-military
training and education experience for young men and women in need of
special help in overcoming a number of life circumstances, especially
poverty.

As Price reports, “
in 1993 the National Guard launched the Youth ChalleNGe
Program (http://new.ngycp.org), which aims to get high school dropouts back
on track. This 22-week residential program for 16- to 18-year-olds typically
operates on underused military bases. It strives to help young people make
basic lifestyle changes. Participants (cadets) engage in a rigorous program
of physical development, education, and community service (see below). They
are matched with mentors who help them complete the program and continue to
provide support after cadets graduate from the residential phase.

Since its inception, ChalleNGe has served nearly 75,000 participants.
According to independent assessments conducted for the National Guard, the
outcomes are heartening. In just 22 weeks, the graduates gain an average of
1.5 grades in reading and 2.2 grades in math. Of the most recent 7,000
graduates, roughly 58 percent were employed, and 26 percent returned to
high school or enrolled in vocational school or college. Just over 12
percent joined the military (Brookings Institution, 2007).”

A recent evaluation of ChalleNGe was reported by MDRC in a randomized
assignment, program versus control group experimental design. The results
indicated that:

“• The program group was much more likely than the control group to have
obtained a high school diploma or a General Educational Development
certificate (GED). At the time of the survey, 46 percent of the program
group had a diploma or a GED, compared with about 10 percent of the control
group.

• The program group was more likely than the control group to be working and
attending college; members of the control group were more likely to have
returned to high school. For example, just over 30 percent of the program
group versus 21 percent of the control group reported that they were
working full time.

• The program group reported better health and higher levels of
self-efficacy and were less likely to have been arrested.”

In his Educational Leadership article, Price describes the ChalleNGe
approach to “accelerated learning” and states, “
the ChalleNGe program
serves dropouts, who in many instances are far behind academically. Since
traditional pedagogy has not worked for these young people, ChalleNGe is
free to use different instructional content and methods, notably an
approach called Functional Context Education.

Functional Context Education is designed to generate swift gains in reading
and math skills by teaching academics in the context of learning and
performing a given task. For instance, an electrician in training may learn
math concepts while she fixes a malfunctioning device. Or a maintenance
worker may improve his reading skills while learning to use job-specific
manuals, specifications, and forms. Military researchers have found that
compared with general literacy instruction, this kind of learning-to-do
instruction generates robust and rapid gains in job-related literacy that
endure over time (Sticht, 1997).

The Youth ChalleNGe program combines general and job-related literacy
instruction. For example, as part of their community-service commitment,
program participants may be  required to build a winding, quartermile path
for disabled children in a park. To do so, they must figure out how much
gravel they need, what additional supplies are required, how to structure
the flow of supplies and equipment to get the job done up to standard and
on time, and how to handle the assignment as a team.”

The ChalleNGe program does not require any military service commitments on
the part of the young adults who participate in the program. It is offering
opportunites in civilian life for many young adults whom society thinks
might as well be cast off as losers, and is turning them instead into
winners. Interestingly, the Functional Context Education principles for
education and training, which include the recommendation to integrate the
teaching of basic skills (reading, math, etc) with vocational or academic
content, was formulated on the basis of research within the military
services (Sticht, 1997). Now, the military’s National Guard is applying
these principles to the education and training of underprivileged young
adults to increase their chances for success in civilian life.  A good
return on our Nation’s investment in military training and education
research for our national security! And particularly welcome in these hard
economic times.

References

Hugh Price (May 2008). About Face! Quasi-military public high schools offer
a safe environment, academic excellence—and a surprising focus on the whole
child. Educational Leadership, Vol. 65, pp. 28-34. Available: (www.ascd.org)

Dan Bloom, Alissa Gardenhire-Crooks, Conrad Mandsager (February 2009). Early
Results of the National Guard Youth ChalleNGe Program Evaluation. Available:
 (www.mrdc.org)

Thomas Sticht  (1997). Functional Context Education: Making learning
relevant. El Cajon, CA: Applied Behavioral and Cognitive Sciences.
Available: (www.nald.ca/fulltext/context/context.pdf)

Thomas G. Sticht
tsticht at aznet.net