February 22, 2013

 What is your name?  Where do you work?  What is your experience with EL/Civics?  What questions do you have regarding EL/Civics?

The U.S. Department of Education supports projects that provide and increase access to English literacy programs in which civics education takes place. These civics programs emphasize contextualized instruction on the rights and responsibilities of citizenship, naturalization procedures, civic participation, and U.S. history and government to help students acquire the skills and knowledge they will need to become active and informed parents, workers, and community members. English literacy and civics education classes introduce students to civics- related content and provide them with opportunities to apply that knowledge in their daily lives while building their English language and literacy skills.

This program provides grants to states to fund local programs of adult education and literacy services, including workplace literacy services; family literacy services; English literacy programs and integrated English literacy-civics education programs. Participation in these programs is limited to adults and out-of-school youths age 16 and older who are not enrolled or required to be enrolled in secondary school under state law.

Minnesota emphasizes integration of English, work and civics  Federal Grant by U.S. Department of Education.  Grant given to state ABE offices to define and distribute to programs in state.  Started in  Focus on integrating English language learning with civics education.  In 2009, Minnesota included work focus.

English Language CivicsWork

The Four Pillars of Civics Naturalization and Citizenship Civic Participation U.S. HistoryGovernment

Employment The World of Work Occupations Employability Skills Work Areas

 Eliminate limits on applications per consortium  Set maximum award per application  Revise grant review process  Raise limits of applications per organization & site  Added transitions content focus  Revise grant gatherings  Move from one- to two-year grants

 Purpose: What is the purpose of EL/Civics?  Need: Why are EL/Civics grants useful? What can we do with EL/Civics grants that we could not do without?  Strengths: What are the strengths of EL/Civics? How can we continue to build on these strengths?  Recommendations: How could we improve EL/Civics in Minnesota? (i.e. application, program focus, review and selection criteria, grant support, allocations, etc.)

 Thank You!  Next Steps  Questions Brad Hasskamp (651)