The Secretary shall establish and carry out a program of national leadership activities to enhance the quality of adult education and literacy programs nationwide. Such activities may include the following:
(1) Technical assistance, including—
(A) assistance provided to eligible providers in developing and using performance measures for the improvement of adult education and literacy activities, including family literacy services;
(B) assistance related to professional development activities, and assistance for the purposes of developing, improving, identifying, and disseminating the most successful methods and techniques for providing adult education and literacy activities, including family literacy services, based on scientific evidence where available; and
(C) assistance in distance learning and promoting and improving the use of technology in the classroom.
(2) Funding national leadership activities that are not described in paragraph (1), either directly or through grants, contracts, or cooperative agreements awarded on a competitive basis to or with postsecondary educational institutions, public or private organizations or agencies, or consortia of such institutions, organizations, or agencies, such as—
(A) developing, improving, and identifying the most successful methods and techniques for addressing the education needs of adults, including instructional practices using phonemic awareness, systematic phonics, fluency, and reading comprehension, based on the work of the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development;
(B) increasing the effectiveness of, and improving the quality of, adult education and literacy activities, including family literacy services;
(C) carrying out research, such as estimating the number of adults functioning at the lowest levels of literacy proficiency;
(D)(i) carrying out demonstration programs;
(ii) developing and replicating model and innovative programs, such as the development of models for basic skill certificates, identification of effective strategies for working with adults with learning disabilities and with individuals with limited English proficiency who are adults, and workplace literacy programs; and
(iii) disseminating best practices information, including information regarding promising practices resulting from federally funded demonstration programs;
(E) providing for the conduct of an independent evaluation and assessment of adult education and literacy activities through studies and analyses conducted independently through grants and contracts awarded on a competitive basis, which evaluation and assessment shall include descriptions of—
(i) the effect of performance measures and other measures of accountability on the delivery of adult education and literacy activities, including family literacy services;
(ii) the extent to which the adult education and literacy activities, including family literacy services, increase the literacy skills of adults (and of children, in the case of family literacy services), lead the participants in such activities to involvement in further education and training, enhance the employment and earnings of such participants, and, if applicable, lead to other positive outcomes, such as reductions in recidivism in the case of prison-based adult education and literacy activities;
(iii) the extent to which the provision of support services to adults enrolled in adult education and family literacy programs increase the rate of enrollment in, and successful completion of, such programs; and
(iv) the extent to which eligible agencies have distributed funds under section 9241 of this title to meet the needs of adults through community-based organizations;
(F) supporting efforts aimed at capacity building at the State and local levels, such as technical assistance in program planning, assessment, evaluation, and monitoring of activities carried out under this part;
(G) collecting data, such as data regarding the improvement of both local and State data systems, through technical assistance and development of model performance data collection systems; and
(H) other activities designed to enhance the quality of adult education and literacy activities nationwide.
(Pub. L. 105–220, title II, §243, Aug. 7, 1998, 112 Stat. 1078; Pub. L. 105–277, div. A, §101(f) [title VIII, §404(e)], Oct. 21, 1998, 112 Stat. 2681–337, 2681–417; Pub. L. 110–154, §1(c)(2), Dec. 21, 2007, 121 Stat. 1827.)
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