Stein, Sondra Gayle

Sondra Stein received her BA (Honors) in 1968 from University of Michigan at Ann Arbor and her MA (1970) and PhD (1976), both in English, from Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri. She was an assistant professor at New Hampshire College's School of Human Services (1978-1980). In 1980 she founded the Women's Educational and Vocational Enrichment (WEAVE) program in Roxbury, Massachusetts, a model adult literacy and job readiness program for low-income minority women, and served as its director for four years.

Stein worked for six years for Massachusetts governor Michael Dukakis, first in the Office of Training and Employment (1985-1987), where she led the development of a statewide workplace education initiative, and then as Deputy Director and later Director of the governor's Commonwealth Literacy Campaign (1987-1991). As the governor's primary liaison on adult literacy and workforce development, she worked closely with the National Governors' Association (NGA) and with other states to establish literacy initiatives.

In 1991 Stein took a position with the NGA's State Literacy Exchange (SLE). As consultant to NGA's Director of Employment and Social Services, she assisted in development of overall strategy for the SLE, preparation of policy papers, planning and delivery of Regional Seminars, and provision of technical assistance to state leaders on key issues and on establishment of interagency work groups.

From 1993-2004, as Senior Research Associate at the National Institute for Literacy (NIFL), Stein was responsible for researching and defining key initiatives in support of federal adult education and training policy. Among other duties, she worked with the National Education Goals Panel to develop and implement an approach to defining and measuring progress in adult literacy and lifelong learning, both within states and across the nation, and with the NGA and eleven states to develop and pilot a new approach to accountability based on the attainment of real-world outcomes and continuous program improvement.

At the same time (1996-2004), Stein served as National Director of NIFL's Equipped for the Future (EFF) program, a standards-based collaborative adult literacy system reform initiative. During her tenure as Director, she participated in the development of EFF standards; orchestrated the establishment of a National Training Center and National Center for Field Research at the University of Tennessee-Knoxville (both focused on EFF training and implementation), and wrote or managed the writing of all major EFF publications.

In 2004 Stein became Director of the National Work Readiness Credential Project, a public-private partnership to develop a National Work Readiness assessment and credentials for entry-level workers, based on the EFF standards.

Stein has also undertaken a number of smaller projects, including directing and managing a national project for the Association for Commuunity Based Education (1992), acting as Senior Consultant for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Secretary's Literacy Initiative (1991), and developing the Massachusett's Department of Labor's Industrial Services Program for displaced worker retraining (1985). For thirteen years she was a trainer for Building Multicultural Organizations, a team that trains public and private sector staff on combating individual and institutional racism.

Stein is the author of numerous papers, articles and other publications, both in her own right and as director of the EFF program. Among the recognitions she has received, Literacy Volunteers of America awarded her its National Literacy Leadership Award (1997), and she was a finalist in the Ford Foundation's Innovations in American Goverment Program (1999).

From the guide to the Sondra Stein Papers, 1986-2005, (Special Collections Research Center, Syracuse University Libraries)