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Kansas reports rising adult-education enrollment; pilot program aims to streamline GED/placement
Summary
Associate Director Susanna Lee told the TEA Kansas adult education served 6,869 participants in FY2023–24, enrollment is up 20.5% year-over-year as of Nov. 15, and staff are piloting an 'alternative placement' policy to speed entry for students with other measurable outcomes.
Associate Director Susanna Lee presented an adult-education update at the Nov. 21 TEA meeting, highlighting enrollment growth, state outcomes and a pilot to simplify placement for some students.
Lee said Kansas Adult Education served 6,869 participants in program year 2023–24 (an 11.4% increase from the prior year) and that, as of Nov. 15, current-year enrollment was 20.5% higher than the same date last year. She said Kansas has returned to pre-pandemic enrollment levels and continues to grow.
Lee described student needs and outcomes: adult education serves learners with more than 70 native languages represented; roughly 14% of participants entered with less than an eighth-grade education; and 9% hold postsecondary degrees from outside the United States. She referenced PIAC results and reported that CTE concentrators scored about three percentage points higher than the state average on recent ELA and math assessments.
The presentation introduced a pilot called 'alternative placement,' allowed by the Office of Career, Technical, and Adult Education (OCTAE). Lee said the pilot removes the federal requirement to administer Kansas’ TABE pretest/posttest for students whose goals can be measured by other outcomes — for example, a fast-track GED pathway for students who have passed some GED subject tests or workplace-literacy classes tied to employer-defined skills.
Member McColke asked why Kansas’ post-exit employment rates appeared higher than national averages; Lee said Kansas uses two methods to collect employment outcomes — data matches with the Department of Labor and social-security-based matches, and manual follow-up surveys — which likely increases Kansas’ reported employment outcomes relative to states that use only one method.
Lee said Kansas is developing methods to help internationally trained professionals reenter the workforce and that integrated education and training (IET) expansion continues to be a focus. She offered to provide staff contact and slides and stood for questions following the update.
