Book Description

This document reports how the Council of State Policy and Planning Agencies (CSPA) Academy process helped nine states develop workplace literacy initiatives involving their governors' offices, the Job Training Partnership Act system, and the educational system. The states were Florida, Idaho, Massachusetts, Michigan, North Carolina, Tennessee, Utah, Virginia, and Missouri. An executive summary provides an economic rationale for the initiatives and describes project participants; the notion of workplace literacy; the CSPA Academy process; the accomplishments (four states designed comprehensive, integrated approaches to the problem; three states created special interagency projects or programs; and two states strengthened their interagency understanding of the problem and laid the groundwork for change); and the lessons learned from the project. Chapter 1 introduces the project. Chapter 2 frames the issues and presents the working partnerships needed to resolve them. Chapter 3 discusses the major steps in the policy development cycle and illustrates with specific examples how the states constructed their literacy policies and action plans. Chapter 4 presents an overall assessment of the results. Chapter 5 presents in detail each state's experience, process, and products as it moved through the academy. Six references appear. The appendix contains the names and addresses of state team members. (CML)