ABE-to-College Transition

Working with Young Adults in College Transition Programs

RESEARCH TO PRACTICE BRIEF
Issue 9 – December 2008
By Lauren Capotosto

Download version formatted for print

With adult basic education (ABE) programs experiencing increases in youth enrollment over the past decade (Hayes, 1999; Rachal & Bingham, 2004) and colleges and universities witnessing a surge in the overall enrollment of non-traditional adult students (Darkenwalk & Novak, 1997), college transition programs must increasingly decide how best to serve older and younger students alike. This task is not without its challenges. Compared to their peers with more life experience, students ages 16-24 in adult education classes may be less mature, motivated, and responsible (Flugman, Perin, & Spiegel, 2003). Educators often struggle to meet simultaneously the needs of older adults, who have more concrete goals and purposes for enrolling in courses, as well as younger students whose career and educational plans may be less defined.

The purpose of this brief is to identify the challenges of working with older and younger students in college transition classes, as well as to present strategies that four successful programs use in their work with younger students, specifically those aged 16-24. To address these questions, we consulted literature related to working with younger students in ABE classes and postsecondary institutions. To obtain advice on promising practices for this population, we also interviewed administrators of four programs of the New England ABE-to-College Transition project that have completion rates of 65% or higher. Thus, this study synthesizes both extant literature and qualitative interviews to provide strategies related to recruitment, behavioral management, curriculum and instruction, counseling, and staffing.

Featured Transition Programs
GAP Program at New Haven Adult and Continuing Education Center (New Haven, CT): Approximately 38% of students enrolled in transition classes per semester are ages 17-24. While GAP is a dual enrollment program in which students studying for their GED or high school diploma take classes for college credit, it, too, welcomes graduates and students who did not complete or pass developmental courses at the local community college. Each course (math, reading, writing, study skills, computers, and introduction to the health professions) meets for 3 hours per week for 15 weeks. According to a 2006 evaluation, 86% of students who enrolled in at least one course successfully completed the class. Of those students, 59% enrolled in community college.

The Success Program at Cape Cod Community College (Hyannis, MA): Approximately one-third of the students in this one-semester program are younger than 25. Students attend 9 hours of class per week and participate in College 101 (reading, writing, study skills, and career exploration), math, and computer courses. This program has an 87% completion rate, with 85% of completers later enrolling in college classes.

The Tutorial Center (Bennington, VT): Nearly 55% of the students served at The Tutorial Center's Bridge-to-College Program are 24 years or younger. The Tutorial Center offers a two-semester college transition program in which students attend two 4-hour class sessions per week. Classes include Academic Skills Development (reading, writing, math), Introduction to College Studies, Effective Leadership, and Career and Life Planning. Sixty-five percent of students complete this transition program and enroll in college classes. Of the students who go on to college, 75% test out of developmental education courses.

Vernon Regional Adult Basic Education (Vernon, CT): The College Transition Program has historically served only adults over the age of 24. Evening students meet for 6 hours per week, while weekend students attend 4 hours of class each Saturday. VRABE also provides a transitions class for young adults enrolled in its state-funded high school credit diploma program. Throughout this brief, distinctions are made between the adult-comprised transition program and the youth-based transition class. The College Transition Program has a 65% retention rate, with 75% of completers going on to college. No postsecondary statistics are available for the youth-based class.

Which characteristics distinguish younger students from older adults?
While developmental psychologists identify numerous distinctions between younger and older adults, four key differences emerged from both the literature and interviews: behavior, identity, confidence, and stability. Although interviewees also noted positive characteristics of young students compared with older adults, such as their greater familiarity with technology and higher self-efficacy, it is these four key differences that seem to influence their practice.

In case studies of ABE programs, researchers found that teachers describe younger students as more disruptive, more likely to exhibit attentional challenges, and more likely to be involved in risky activities, such as gang involvement and substance abuse, than their older counterparts (Flugman et al., 2003; Hayes, 1999; Perin et al., 2006). Interviewees also acknowledged similar behavioral challenges. Jack Glade, executive director of The Tutorial Center's Bridge-to-College program in Vermont, noted that young males, for example, are more likely to exhibit aggressive behavior than older students. "The research tells us that younger males have a higher level of physical activity need. They may lash out, challenge, and try physical intimidation with staff and students, not necessarily in a violent way, but in a very active way. They are more likely to be belligerent. It is part of how they are wired at their age," said Glade. While emphasizing that many young males do not exhibit such behaviors, Glade explained that such aggression is rarely demonstrated by older male or female students.

A second noteworthy distinction between younger and older adults relates to identity formation. Developmentally, these younger transition students are at a critical period of "emerging adulthood" during which identity formation is even more pronounced and rapid than in adolescence (Arnett, 2000). Subsequently, while older adults tend to enroll in transition programs with specific goals, younger students have less certain future plans, according to all four interview participants. "The young student enters because it is another step in an educational path. They are young and have recently been in public school within a couple of years, and they are thinking about educational steps. For older adults, it is more tied to life experiences, not just another education step for them. The older student understands the value of what they are getting more than younger students because they have life experience to draw on," said Glade.

Perhaps because of a deeper understanding of the importance of college, older students are often more anxious about their studies than younger students, according to several interviewees. "Adults are scared to death about coming into the program. They don't think they have what it takes to make it through college, and they are extremely math-phobic," said Christine Howard, program coordinator of Vernon Regional Adult Basic Education (VRABE) in Connecticut. In contrast, younger students are more likely to enroll with greater confidence, often without full understanding of the academic challenges ahead, according to Joseph Magyar, program administrator of Gateway-Advanced Adult Education program (GAP) in New Haven, Connecticut.

Finally, interviewees identified stability as a key differentiator between youth and adults in transition classes. While younger students often have the same life challenges as older adults, including homelessness, unemployment or underemployment, childcare issues, transportation issues, and fragmented home lives, they may have greater difficulty managing the obstacles in their lives. "If there is any difference, the older person can probably handle the issues with a bit more maturity and probably not give up or want to give up as the younger person often would. Younger people are much more willing to throw in the towel when the going gets rough, which is a sign of their youth," said Magyar of GAP.

Given these key differences, interviewees identified strategies they use to deal with the differences in behavior, identity, confidence, and stability. While interviewees did not share identical philosophies or strategies for working with youth, they did concur that being thoughtful about the decisions they make when working with younger students aids their success.

How do some successful programs recruit younger students?
Given the different reasons that younger and older students may enroll in college transition programs, it is important to consider successful recruitment methods across the ages.

While adults at GAP enroll in the program primarily as a result of word-of-mouth, younger students need a bit more persuasion, explained program coordinator Katrina Jones. She delivers workshops in the program's high school credit completion courses. "The young people do not feel right away that they are in college. You have to let them know that if you're enrolled in this program, you're a college student. You'll have a college ID and be able to access the services of the college, meet pre-college academic requirements, if necessary, and earn college credit." As a further incentive, she reminds these younger students that they have the opportunity to apply credit from the college transition program toward their high school diploma.

The Tutorial Center in Vermont taps into its community resources and uses visual images to recruit young students. With strong connections to local high schools and a relationship with a youth employment specialist, the Center is able to first recruit young high school dropouts into adult education classes and then into its college transition program. Additionally, The Tutorial Center features 20-something students in their public service advertisements about the transition program and older adults in their workplace literacy ads.

Although the recruitment strategies differ, programs leverage the resources available to them. Whether younger students are responding to the incentive of college and high school credit, or the draw of direct marketing is a question worthy of future research.

What are effective strategies for managing the behavior of younger students?
While some studies indicate that enforcing established rules are a component of successful ABE programs (Flugman et al., 2003; Hayes, 1999; Imel, 2003; Perin et al., 2006), many practitioners encourage educators to engage students in creating their own classroom guidelines (i.e. Mongeau, 2002). Interviewees in this current study described vastly different management strategies, with some strictly enforcing rules and others adopting lenient policies to work with younger disruptive students.

At Cape Cod Community College's Success Program, educators have adopted a "less discipline, more acceptance" philosophy, said Joan Keiran, program coordinator, teacher, and counselor. During orientation, teachers ask students to identify what they need from their classmates and instructors as a learner in order to feel comfortable as part of the group. This list is used to create classroom guidelines, which typically include expectations such as "Be respectful" and "Be kind." When students do not meet class expectations, staff members do not impose punishments. Their lenient policy reflects the program's commitment to treating all students as adults and allowing them to learn from missteps on their own, said Keiran. Similarly, at GAP, teachers flexibly deal with infractions. Instructors and counselors often find that the disruptive behaviors of younger students stem from challenges outside the classroom. As the first step in an intervention, they try talking with the student in order to identify the source of the problem and then refer students to the program's social worker for further support.

In contrast, some of the instructors at VRABE take a "tough love" approach to working with youth. "I think there can sometimes be too much nurturing, which doesn’t work with a lot of kids. Sometimes they need to be held to higher standards," said Howard. Holding students accountable for their actions, VRABE staff members carefully review their policies with younger students participating in transition classes as part of a high school credit completion program, while teachers of their adult transition program dedicate much less time to discussing these issues. Younger students know the consequences for inappropriate actions, with suspension and loss of credit as two potential repercussions for poor behavior.

With such varied approaches to classroom management and all programs achieving high retention and graduation rates, one might infer that there is no single right way to manage behaviors in college transition classrooms. Each of the interviewees acknowledged that managing classroom behaviors can be difficult and learning what works best for their respective students has required a great deal of work and reflection.

How can educators engage younger and older students alike through the curriculum?
In interviews with 23 ABE practitioners in 20 states, Hayes (1999) found that educators rarely mentioned curriculum modifications to engage increasing numbers of youth in their programs. Perin and colleagues (2006) also found that ABE programs tended to assign older and younger students the same assignments. Keiran, of the Success Program, understands this perspective. She, too, has found that the same instruction, focused heavily on academic skill-building, that works effectively with older students is also successful with younger learners.

However, some program coordinators in this current study proposed that educators should consider the interests of young students when making curriculum decisions. In the youth-based transitions class at VRABE, a typical class might involve guest speakers, portfolio development, and detailed discussions about long-range planning, in addition to academic skill building. Such activities are less important for adults in the adult transition program, said Howard, because older students in her program want to focus exclusively on academics. "Whatever interferes with class time, they are unhappy with. They want math, they want English, and they want to do well on the Accuplacer," she said.

At GAP, educators have also incorporated goal-setting into their curriculum, but unlike at VRABE, these instructors have found that adults are more receptive to career planning discussions than younger students. "The young people need goal-setting activities more, but they are a much harder sell because in their minds, this isn't an academic skill. They don't necessarily have the maturity to see what we are trying to accomplish, where the older person does see it and has a better informed goal pattern," said Magyar. GAP instructors incorporate goal-setting activities into the content subjects of reading, writing, and math.

At The Tutorial Center, instructors appeal to the interests of younger students by tapping into their authentic experiences. Teachers incorporate activities tied to modern technology (such as cell phone billing exercises) and refer to social trends experienced by the younger generation. Similar strategies have been identified in the ABE literature. At the same time that staff at the Metropolitan Alliance for Adult Learning adopted the Youth Cultural Competence curriculum (which incorporates popular culture and interests of youth such as music and movies into learning activities), they experienced increases in retention from 39%-95% (Imel, 2003). While no experimental evidence proves that curriculum changes caused the improvement, program educators credit their success to this youth-focused approach.

Although the programs in this current study employ different strategies to engage older and younger learners in the classroom, they each similarly respond to what their respective students seem to want and need.

What are the counseling needs of younger students?
In their qualitative interviews with staff and students at five urban adult education programs, Flugman and colleagues found that successful programs tended to have a strong counseling component, with at least one case manager to address problems of chronic absenteeism and to coordinate services. Interviewees in this current study agreed. While older and younger students tend to confront similar situational barriers (i.e. transportation, childcare, employment), adults are more likely to have a support system in place, whereas younger students may need additional help connecting with services, said Glade of The Tutorial Center. While each of the four programs in this study offer counseling services to all students, interviewees noted that counselors may need to spend more time helping younger students learn to manage the difficulties in their lives and referring them to appropriate support services.

How do some successful transition programs address attendance issues?
Each of the programs in this study has specific plans to address attendance issues (such as calling students after just one absence and monitoring attendance on a weekly basis), but two identified strategies developed with youth in mind. Learning that student phone numbers, particularly of younger students, change regularly, GAP staff members verify numbers on a weekly basis. At The Tutorial Center, educators have found that text-messaging is an effective way to reach out to younger students regarding absences.

What are the qualifications of effective teachers of older and younger transitions students?
There was little consensus among practitioners regarding which educators are best prepared to teach older and younger transition students. At The Success Program and The Tutorial Center, coordinators hire and recruit experienced educators with a firm understanding of both the content area subjects and the adult education population in general. "Working with youth is not essential for hiring. It is a plus," said Glade of The Tutorial Center. "I am more particularly looking for someone who has experience working with people who have lower skills and motivation and guiding them to success." He has found that the strategies that these educators use are equally effective with older and younger students.

For other programs, experience working with younger students is more important to the hiring decision. Nearly every teacher at GAP works both at the local high school and community college. At VRABE, Howard looks for differently skilled teachers to work with her adult transition students and youth-based high school credit completion class. While she seeks college faculty to work with adults, she needs a teacher who is "enterprising, creative, flexible, and not blown away by anything that happens in the classroom" for her youth-based class. She often looks for individuals who have worked in the private sector and have experience "thinking on their feet" or instructors who have worked in youth-service agencies.

Should educators apply adult learning theories to their work with younger students?
In a case study of four ABE programs, Perin and colleagues (2006) found that teachers tended to treat younger and older students differently. Such differentiation, according to these researchers, is problematic. Instead, ABE programs that successfully engage, retain, and educate younger students apply adult learning theory in their work with all students (Flugman et al., 2003).

Directors of the three mixed-age programs (The Success Program, GAP, and The Tutorial Center) agreed that application of adult learning theory was important to their success. "Teachers need to have a clear understanding of adult education theory since the traditional education practices tend not to work well with GED/ESOL transition students," said Keiran, who applies Malcolm Knowles' principles of andragogy (i.e. recognizing adults as self-directing, incorporating student experiences into teaching and learning; providing students with learner control). While interviewees acknowledged that younger students may have different life experiences and reasons for enrollment, they, too, noted the importance of treating all college transition students as adults.

Should transition programs mix or segregate students by age?
Researchers have repeatedly found that mixed-age classrooms offer benefits to older and younger students alike (Elder, 1967; Darkenwald & Novak, 1997). In his benchmark study of mixed-age continuing education classrooms, Elder (1967) found that adult students encouraged more appropriate behaviors in younger students, particularly when the following conditions were met: all students were engaged in the same educational activity; the proportion of adults and younger students were approximately equal; and students had similar cognitive abilities. More recently, in a study of 44 randomly selected community college classrooms, Darkenwald and Novak (1997) found that younger students enrolled in classes made up predominantly of adults earned higher grades than students in classes composed mostly of traditional-aged college students.

Interview participants in this current study identified benefits of mixed-age classrooms. First, older students tend to serve as positive mentors for younger learners. According to Keiran, when younger students struggle with attendance, older students in the cohort encourage them by having honest conversations about the hardships they have faced without college credentials. By sharing their life experiences and providing encouragement, adults seem to play a role in helping younger students persist with their studies and developing a deeper understanding of the importance of college.

Younger students are not the only beneficiaries of mixed-age classrooms, however; adults benefit not only from sharing their life experiences, but also from collaboration with tech-savvy youth. "In math class, the older students have a tremendous issue with the use of graphic calculators. The young people know how to use these calculators, so the younger students play a vital role in teaching themselves and others," said Jones of GAP.

According to Magyar, also of GAP, mixed-age classrooms are also beneficial because they prepare students for the real world. "By having this mixture, we are really showing students that this is the real world environment. Virtually every community college has these mixtures of age in their classrooms, so it is something that reflects real life." Heterogeneous classrooms also reflect the modern workplace, where promotions are increasingly based more heavily on performance than seniority and employees of all ages collaborate in teams (Dirkx, 1997).

To capitalize on the strengths of mixed-age classrooms, some programs purposefully pair older and younger students during cooperative activities. At both The Success Program and The Tutorial Center, age is one of the variables educators use in pairing students. "It is a conscious decision to try to have there be an adult role model in the group available for the younger students," said Glade.

However, not all have experienced mixed-age cohorts so positively. Advocates of segregated ABE classes, for example, argue that the presence of younger students, particularly if disruptive, can lead to adults withdrawing from programs (Dirkx, 2003; Hayes, 1999). This is precisely the challenge that VRABE faced when they decided to host the youth-based college transition class together with the adult-comprised group. VRABE had anticipated that the two groups would benefit from each other. However, younger students failed to take the program seriously and some older students had no tolerance for their disruptive behavior. Despite having counselors to support both age groups, many older students withdrew from this historically successful program.

One important difference between VRABE's mixed-age experience and those of the three other programs is that Vernon's younger students were enrolled in a high school credit completion course and were required to take the transition class as one of their graduation requirements. In contrast, students in the other programs had specifically enrolled in a college transition or diploma plus program. Thus, this population of students may have been different from younger students who enroll in transitions programs with immediate college aspirations. Nonetheless, VRABE's experience is reflective of the challenges that can occur in mixed-age classrooms.

Conclusion
While all four programs have been successful in graduating transition students and preparing them for postsecondary opportunities, they each approach their work with youth and adults somewhat differently. It is not clear whether stricter rules or more lenient policies better serve young transition students, or if a more traditional academic curriculum better engages youth than one supplemented by guest speakers and popular culture. Additional research is needed to determine the influence of each of the strategies used by transition programs to engage and educate younger and older students alike. Interviewees did agree that effectively working with students of all ages requires thoughtful reflection and responsiveness to the specific needs of younger and older students in their respective classrooms.

Practitioner Recommendations
Jack Glade, executive director of The Tutorial Center, recommends the following websites to his staff working with young adults.

Successful Young Adult Development
This report, submitted to the Bill and Linda Gates Foundation in 2004, identifies numerous indicators of young adult success. http://www.search-institute.org/content/
gates-foundation-successful-young-adult-development

MIT's Young Adult Development Project
Rae Simpson, Program Director for Parenting Education and Research at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, has distilled and summarized research on the changes and brain development of adolescents and young adults. http://hrweb.mit.edu/worklife/youngadult/

References
Arnett, J.J. (2000). Emerging adulthood: A theory of development from the late teens through the twenties. American Psychologist, 55(5), 469-480.

Darkenwald, G.G., & Novak, N.J. (1997). Classroom age composition and academic achievement in college. Adult Education Quarterly, 47(2), 108-116.

Dirkx, J. (2003). Generational Difference and the Problem of Identity in Adult Education and the Community College Classroom. Paper presented at the Twenty-first Annual Midwest Research-to-Practice Conference in Adult and Continuing Education. DeKalb, Illinois.

Elder, G.H. (1967). Age integration and socialization in an educational setting. Harvard Educational Review, 37, 594-619.

Hayes, E. (1999). Youth in adult literacy education programs. National Center for the Study of Adult Learning and Literacy. Retrieved July 20, 2008, from http://www.ncsall.net/?id=771&pid=524

Flugman, B., Perin, D., & Spiegel, S. (2003). An exploratory case study of 16-20 year old students in adult education programs. Retrieved July 10, 2008, from http://web.gc.cuny.edu/dept/case/adult_ed/

Imel, S. (2003). Youth in adult basic and literacy education programs. Columbus, OH: ERIC Clearinghouse on Adult Career and Vocational Education. (ERIC Document Reproduction Service No. ED478949)

Mongeau, W. (2002). Help! Managing behavior in the ABE classroom. Field Notes, 11(4), 10.

Perin, D., Flugman, B., & Spiegel, S. (2006). Last chance gulch: Youth participation in urban adult basic education programs. Adult Basic Education, 16(3), 171-188.

Rachal, J.R., & Bingham, M.J. (2004). The adolescentizing of the GED. Adult Basic Education, 14(1), 32-44.

About the Author
Lauren Capotosto, EdM, is a doctoral student at Harvard Graduate School of Education. She has taught reading at community-based adult education programs and a community college in the Boston area. You can reach her at lac922@mail.harvard.edu

Top