[Workplace 1772] Functional Context Education Meets the ChalleNGetsticht at znet.com tsticht at znet.comTue Mar 10 15:53:15 EDT 2009
March 10, 2009 Functional Context Education in the National Guards 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 militarys 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 Nations 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 excellenceand 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
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