California. Dept. of Education. Adult Education Unit

Administrative History

In the early 1990s, the California Department of Education (CDE), Adult Education Unit, in response to the recommendations in Adult Education for the 21st Century: Strategic Plan to Meet California's Long-Term Adult Education Needs (Adult Education Advisory Committee, 1989) formed a field committee to develop model standards for adult English as a second language programs. Following the publication of that project, in January 1992, five additional task forces were created and charged with developing model standards for other core programs: adult basic education, adult secondary education, parent education, older adults, and adult with disabilities. The model program standards for adult basic education and adult secondary education were published by CDE in 1996. The standards for the other program areas, including older adults, went through several development cycles. The materials in this collection, donated by Susan Sundell, a CDE consultant with responsibilities for an older adults standards development effort in the 2000s, document two of the early development cycles for the older adult standards. The drafts produced in 1994 and 1997 are included, along with working committee data, resources, and correspondence. In the 2000s, an additional development cycle was undertaken to add performance measures to both the published and unpublished program standards. As of 2008, none of the revised model standards documents had been released.