Community Education program brochures Metro North ABE - Consortium newsletter, Mar. 2018 | Page 4

Beyond The Basics
ABE works with students’ personal and professional interests.
ABE is anything but basic.
When most people think about
Adult Basic Education (ABE) they
think of how the program helps
learners build their academic skills.
Yes, we are teaching math, reading,
writing, science and social studies
among other “basic” skills. How-
ever, there is so much more to ABE
than just teaching the basics.
ABE works as a guide for individu-
als who want to prepare for their
next steps in life, whether that be
entering post-secondary training,
gaining employment or better
employment, building new skills
like earning a driver’s license or
preparing for the US citizenship
test. Whatever our students’ goals,
we exist to support their work in
achieving them. That being said, the
goal of ABE is essentially to transi-
tion learners out of ABE.
Adult Basic Education (ABE) is a
state-wide system that works with
adults who want to earn a high
school credential, learn English,
improve basic skills such as literacy
and math, and/or prepare for
post-secondary education or
employment. The mission of ABE
in Minnesota is to provide adults
with educational opportunities to
acquire and improve their literacy
skills necessary to become self-suf-
ficient and to participate effectively
as productive workers, family mem-
bers, and citizens (Minnesota De-
partment of Education). The
mission of Metro North ABE is to
inspire and challenge all learners to
reach their full potential. What that
means for each student is as unique
as they are.
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Metro North ABE  Consortium
Recognizing the wide range of
opportunities that ABE was already
providing, in 2015, Minnesota ABE
adopted three sets of standards to
better define the content taught in
ABE.
College and Career Readiness
Standards (CCRS)
After the development of the
Common Core Standards for the
K-12 system, ABE overall felt the
need to provide structure and
standardization to ABE programs.
Using these guiding questions, an
essential list of standards for adults
was created
•
•
•
What content in the area of
English language arts and
literacy (ELA/literacy) is most
relevant to preparing adult
students for success in higher
education and training
programs?
What content in the area of
mathematics is most relevant
to preparing adult students for
success in higher education
and training programs?
Which standards in each
content area are most
important for adult students?
In 2013, the College and Career
Readiness Standards for Adult Edu-
cation was released. The standards
included are what educators and
employers identified as essential
knowledge and skills to enabling
adult learners to meet the real-world
demands of postsecondary training
and employment (Pimentel, 2013).
The College and Career Readiness
Standards (CCRS) for Adult
Education is the guiding document
for basic academic skills. This guide
includes English Language Arts
(ELA) and Math. Both of these con-
tent areas are presented to students
in any class level. Most students do
not have the same competency level
in moth their ELA and math skills.
The diversity of ABE adult learners
is not limited to the demographics
they represent, but also the educa-
tion experience they bring to the
program when they first start. ABE
is more than the basics, because our
students are
anything, but.
MN ABE has set
a goal that all
ABE programs
across the state
of Minnesota
will fully imple-
ment standards
instruction by
2022. Since the
introduction of
these standards,
Metro North
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