Iowa's Annual Narrative Report for Program Year 2002
(July 1, 2001-June 30, 2002)

• Describe successful activities, programs, and projects supported with State Leadership funds and describe the extent to which these activities, programs, and projects were successful in implementing the goals of the State Plan.

  Iowa funded two major projects with the 12.5% State Leadership funds: (1) the Iowa Literacy Resource Center and (2) the state staff development leadership project. The Iowa Literacy Resource Centers serves as a repository for current literacy publications, etc. It also houses the server for Iowa's NRS electronic reporting system and supports the Iowa literacy website where all reports and various types of literacy information is housed. Refer to the attachment for a complete description of the Iowa Literacy Resource Center activities. The state staff development leadership project is designed to fund and coordinate state level staff development activities in the following areas: (1) NRS reporting, (2) program improvement, (3) GED 2002 preparation activities, (4) CASAS statewide staff development activities. Refer to the attached report for a complete description of Program Year 2002 staff development activities.

• Describe any significant findings from the Eligible Agency’s evaluation of the effectiveness of the adult education and literacy activities based on the core indicators of performance.
  The following observations were made relative to an analysis of Iowa's benchmark performance goals for Program Year 2002: (1) there was a significant increase in the number and percent of enrollees who were pre-post assessed over Program Year 2001 (50% reported for Program Year 2001 and 68% reported for Program Year 2002), (2) the overall benchmark attainment increased from 68% in Program Year 2001 to 81% in Program Year 2002, (3) the major area for program improvement is in the English Literacy instructional program. The anticipation is that Iowa will show significant improvement in this area due to the English Literacy pilot project. (See the attached report for the ESL assessment project and the attached benchmark report for Program Year 2002).
• Describe how the Eligible Agency has supported the integration of activities sponsored under Title II with other adult education, career development, and employment and training activities. Include a description of how the eligible agency is being represented on the Local Workforce Investment Boards, adult education’s involvement on the State Workforce Investment Board, the provision of core and other services through the One-Stop system and an estimate of the Title II funds being used to support activities and services through the One-Stop delivery system.
  The Iowa community college consortium based adult literacy delivery system has successfully integrated the activities sponsored until Title II with other relevant adult education, career development and employment and training activities. The integration has been achieved through the cooperation, collaboration and coordination efforts achieved through the Iowa Department of Education, Iowa Workforce Development and Iowa Department of Human Services and Iowa Department of Corrections working collaboratively to achieve common goals and objectives. The Title II component has been identified as the basic literacy skills component of the overall WIA state level collaborative efforts. The local ABE Coordinator services as the adult education representative on the Local Workforce Investment Board. The state director provides input into the State workforce Investment Board. The provision of core and other services is delineated in the state level MOU (attached). A rough estimate would indicate that approximately 2-5% of Title II funds are used to support activities through the One-Stop delivery system.
• Describe successful activities and services supported with EL Civics funds, including the number of programs receiving EL Civics grants and an estimate of the number of adult learners served.
  The EL Civics grants are used to support the EL population that are enrolled in civics and citizenship classes. The EL Civics classes are held in all community college consortium sites throughout the state. The addition of the EL Civics funds has enable the local programs to increase the number of classes to meet the educational needs of the immigrant population. As a result, the EL enrollment constitutes approximately 25% of Iowa's total adult literacy enrollment. There are approximately 3,500-4,000 enrollees in the EL Civics program.

October 28, 2002