PUBLIC POLICY FORMATION: A HISTORICAL REVIEW OF THE CBAE MOVEMENT (ADULT PERFORMANCE LEVEL, ABE - TEACHING METHODS).

Abstract

Sorry, the full text of this article is not available in Huskie Commons. Please click on the alternative location to access it.

228 p.

Public policies are written to address problems and can be analyzed for scientific, professional, and political purposes. Scientifically, policies are analyzed to know more about society. Professionally, policy analysis helps to apply knowledge to solve practical problems. Politically, policy analysis helps to make sure that policies are written to accomplish goals. Regardless of the purpose, an analysis of policy formation and implementation can provide suggestions useful for future policy formation.This study analyzes a public policy written for adult basic education in 1975. The policy, a regulation stated in the Federal Register (1975) USC 1205, Appendix B, was called Priorities for Programs of National Significance: APL Implementation. The Adult Performance Level (APL) project, commonly referred to as Competency Based Adult Education (CBAE) was an attempt by the Division of Adult Education, U.S. Office of Education to provide a curriculum and methodology for teaching ABE.Three sets of questions are considered in this study. The first set of questions examines the history of this policy, references made to competency-based education (CBE), reasons for formulating CBAE, and ABE policies in effect prior to the CBAE policy.The second set of questions analyzes the actual process of writing and securing the passage of the policy through interviews with the CBAE policy leaders and their staffs, an analysis of policy arguments, and an analysis of the reasons and motivations for writing the CBAE policy.The final part of this study includes an analysis of the CBAE policy using four models for public policy formulation to determine if the CBAE policy was well written, explicit and capable of providing suggestions for implementation in ABE programs.The conclusions include suggestions and ideas for formulating public policies and a checklist to be used when formulating a public policy.