ATLANTA — The Southern Regional Education Board and the Louisiana Board of Regents announced a joint adult learning initiative this week that could become a model for other states seeking a better-educated adult work force to fuel economic growth.
The Continuum for All Louisiana Learners, or CALL, will make it easier for Louisiana adults without a college degree to enroll at a Louisiana public college or university and earn a degree or other college credential. It is supported by grants from the two sponsoring organizations.
Through an advertising campaign, scholarships, a Web site and other elements, CALL will target adults in Louisiana who are among some 21 million adults ages 25 to 44 in SREB states who have no college credential. “CALL’s strategies potentially could be used by other states to increase degree completion, especially among adults in that age group,” said Bruce Chaloux, director of SREB’s Electronic Campus and the primary SREB liaison for the initiative.
Degree attainment in SREB’s 16 member states lags behind national averages, and “in the 25-to-44 age group — who are the backbone of the work force — it is at alarmingly low levels,” Chaloux said.
About 70 percent of those adults in SREB states have no college credential, although nearly one in four have some college credit but stopped short of earning a degree or certificate. Typical barriers are lack of financial aid, programs that are inaccessible or inconvenient to workers, credit transfer problems, and family and work demands.
SREB is targeting adult learners through its Adult Learning Campaign, supported by a grant from Lumina Foundation for Education, and the Go Alliance, a consortium of all 16 SREB member states to share media campaigns that motivate students to complete school at high levels of achievement. The Go Alliance is supported by the member states and is sponsored by the College Board and ACT Inc. Every SREB state also provides some type of degree completion program, online degree program, adult learning campaign, or work force improvement grant.
SREB’s Challenge to Lead Goals for Education call for adults who are not high school graduates to participate in literacy and job-skills training and further education and for the percentage of adults in SREB states who earn postsecondary degrees or technical certificates to exceed national averages.
For more information about your state’s participation in the Go Alliance and SREB’s Adult Learning Campaign, contact SREB Communications or see www.sreb.org. For more information about CALL, the sponsoring organizations and the collaborating institutions, visit the Louisiana Board of Regents Web site at www.regents.state.la.us.
SREB, a nonprofit and nonpartisan organization based in Atlanta, Georgia, advises state education leaders on ways to improve education. SREB was created in 1948 by Southern governors and legislatures to help leaders in education and government work cooperatively to advance education and improve the social and economic life of the region. SREB has 16 member states: Alabama, Arkansas, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Mississippi, North Carolina, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia and West Virginia. Each is represented by its governor and four gubernatorial appointees.
