Students & Families Adult Education Adult & Community Learning Services
Adult and Community Learning Services

ACLS Mailing with Summaries

The monthly mailing for February is now posted. Please review the information and share with your staff.

Update from Monthly Mailing Survey: Back in December, we sent a survey to Program Directors, Coordinators, SABES, WIA Administrators and LWIB Directors asking for their input for our monthly mailings. The results were very positive and we received a number of ideas to add or change. The most noted responses were as follows:

• Add highlights of recent research
• Add Note From the Field - highlighting something new, exciting, or fun happening at a program
• Highlight ACLS Deadlines
• Sent out in a more timely manner

We thank you for your input and truly appreciate the time you took out of your busy schedule to respond to the survey. We will work to add some of the items mentioned and strive to make it a more useful and informational tool for you.

Reminder: Please note our address change: Department of Elementary and Secondary Education, 75 Pleasant Street - 3rd floor / ACLS, Malden, MA 02148

SMARTT Updates:

• Waitlist Verifications - as of 2/10/09
• Outstanding Partial Intakes - 21 outstanding
• ABE Program Design Regional Refresher Training Schedule
• SMARTT Enhancements
• SMARTT Manual Updated
• SMARTT Training Schedule

Assessment Update:

• BEST Plus Assessment Policy Manual Now Posted
• New! Training and Recertification Requirements for Required Abe Assessments
• BEST Plus Administrator Annual Recertification Due March 31st
• REEP Writing Assessment Administrators Annual Recertification Due April 17th
• Test Administrators, Please use the SMARTT Project Roles Screen
• What do you use for placement?

Curriculum Update:

• Useful Resources
• Update on Revisions to the Reading Strand in the Massachusetts ABE English Language Arts Curriculum Framework

Workforce Development Updates:   

• Hot News - ACLS to join with other State Agencies to address Policy Barriers to College Transition for Abe Students
• Unemployment - Teleclaim and Telecert Filing
• Next Steps Strategies - Consider CityLab Academy at BU
• Massachusetts Workforce Investment Board Update
• Upcoming Events: Food Stamp Employment and Training Program (FSET) - Thursday, February 26th from 9:30 - 11:30
• Conferences:
  • Delivering Professional Workforce Services in Tough Times - March 27th Holy Cross
  • Sharing Skills - Building Connections - March 11 at DCU Center
  • National Career Development Association Global Conference - June 30th-July 3, 2009
• Research - Common Sense, Uncommon Commitment: A Progress Report of the Shared Youth Vision Partnership
• JFF Newswire
• Materials/Curriculum Tools
• SABES - Next Steps Workshops: Southeast SABES - 2-day Adult Ed Institute - March 7 & 21st

Financial Literacy Resources

• Taxes, Individual Asset Development Accounts, and Resources for the Recession