Collection inventory

Overview of the Collection
Creator:	Stein, Sondra Gayle
Title:	Sondra Stein Papers
Inclusive Dates:	1986-2005
Quantity:	33 linear ft.
Abstract:	Papers of the American professor and adult literacy specialist. Drafts, correspondence, published material, most related to the National Institute for Literacy (NIFL). More than half concerns NIFL's "Equipped for the Future" program.
Language:	English
Repository:	Special Collections Research Center, Syracuse University Libraries 222 Waverly Avenue Syracuse, NY 13244-2010 https://library.syracuse.edu/special-collections-research-center

Biographical History

Sondra Stein received her BA (Honors) in 1968 from University of Michigan at Ann Arbor and her MA (1970) and PhD (1976), both in English, from Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri. She was an assistant professor at New Hampshire College's School of Human Services (1978-1980). In 1980 she founded the Women's Educational and Vocational Enrichment (WEAVE) program in Roxbury, Massachusetts, a model adult literacy and job readiness program for low-income minority women, and served as its director for four years.

Stein worked for six years for Massachusetts governor Michael Dukakis, first in the Office of Training and Employment (1985-1987), where she led the development of a statewide workplace education initiative, and then as Deputy Director and later Director of the governor's Commonwealth Literacy Campaign (1987-1991). As the governor's primary liaison on adult literacy and workforce development, she worked closely with the National Governors' Association (NGA) and with other states to establish literacy initiatives.

In 1991 Stein took a position with the NGA's State Literacy Exchange (SLE). As consultant to NGA's Director of Employment and Social Services, she assisted in development of overall strategy for the SLE, preparation of policy papers, planning and delivery of Regional Seminars, and provision of technical assistance to state leaders on key issues and on establishment of interagency work groups.

From 1993-2004, as Senior Research Associate at the National Institute for Literacy (NIFL), Stein was responsible for researching and defining key initiatives in support of federal adult education and training policy. Among other duties, she worked with the National Education Goals Panel to develop and implement an approach to defining and measuring progress in adult literacy and lifelong learning, both within states and across the nation, and with the NGA and eleven states to develop and pilot a new approach to accountability based on the attainment of real-world outcomes and continuous program improvement.

At the same time (1996-2004), Stein served as National Director of NIFL's Equipped for the Future (EFF) program, a standards-based collaborative adult literacy system reform initiative. During her tenure as Director, she participated in the development of EFF standards; orchestrated the establishment of a National Training Center and National Center for Field Research at the University of Tennessee-Knoxville (both focused on EFF training and implementation), and wrote or managed the writing of all major EFF publications.

In 2004 Stein became Director of the National Work Readiness Credential Project, a public-private partnership to develop a National Work Readiness assessment and credentials for entry-level workers, based on the EFF standards.

Stein has also undertaken a number of smaller projects, including directing and managing a national project for the Association for Commuunity Based Education (1992), acting as Senior Consultant for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Secretary's Literacy Initiative (1991), and developing the Massachusett's Department of Labor's Industrial Services Program for displaced worker retraining (1985). For thirteen years she was a trainer for Building Multicultural Organizations, a team that trains public and private sector staff on combating individual and institutional racism.

Stein is the author of numerous papers, articles and other publications, both in her own right and as director of the EFF program. Among the recognitions she has received, Literacy Volunteers of America awarded her its National Literacy Leadership Award (1997), and she was a finalist in the Ford Foundation's Innovations in American Goverment Program (1999).

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Scope and Contents of the Collection

The Sondra Stein Papers contains material on the following general topics, most relating to the National Institute for Literacy (NIFL) either directly or indirectly. The descriptions and topical divisions below are drawn largely from information provided by the donor.

The majority of the material in the collection relates to NIFL's Equipped for the Future (EFF) project, a national standards-based educational improvement initiative for adult basic education and English language learning. EFF was an outgrowth of NIFL's work with the National Education Goals Panel (see below). Several books have been written on EFF because of its significance to the field of adult education.The complete history of EFF's policy and program development is covered.

National Institute of Literacy (NIFL) includes documents and correspondence concerning the development of NIFL, first Board retreat, development of early initiatives, as well as later materials related to the actions of the Board during 2002-2004 in refocusing NIFL on reading. This series also contains material on NIFL's Initiative on Performance Measurement, Reporting and Improvement Systems. From 1993-1996 NIFL and NGA ran complementary interagency initiatives on building statewide accountability systems that integrated adult literacy. These materials address this early work on accountability.

Also included in this series is material relating to NIFL's work with the National Education Goals Panel (NEGP). The NEGP, established in 1990 by the President and Governors and codified into Law in 1994, assisted the states in defining and measuring national education goals; the NIFL Board worked closely with the NEGP to determine how best to fulfill their Congressional mandate to measure national progress on adult literacy. These materials address early technical work of the NEGP and joint work conducted by NIFL, NEGP and NGA during 1992 and 1993.

Adult education legislation and policy primarily concerns efforts related to securing passage of the National Literacy Act of 1991, including the Jumpstart materials; and to defining policy, regulations, and implementation strategies, including materials developed by the National Governors Association State Literacy Exchange and the Association of Community Based Education (ACBE).

Miscellaneous consists of one box which may be either EFF or adult education legislation and policy, and a box of oversize items from various boxes.

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Arrangement of the Collection

The materials have been moved from the original shipping containers into standard archival cartons, but the collection has not been processed and remains in the original order as received. The original boxes were considerably larger than the archival cartons; to enable researchers to locate the contents of an original box in its entirety, both original and new box numbers are given in the inventory and the beginning of each original box is flagged in the material itself. During reboxing, a few oversize items had to be relocated (see Box 33); where possible, their original location is flagged in the collection.

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Restrictions

Access Restrictions

The majority of our archival and manuscript collections are housed offsite and require advanced notice for retrieval. Researchers are encouraged to contact us in advance concerning the collection material they wish to access for their research.

Use Restrictions

Written permission must be obtained from SCRC and all relevant rights holders before publishing quotations, excerpts or images from any materials in this collection.

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Related Material

Special Collections Research Center has a number of collections related to adult education, both of individuals and organizations. Please refer to the SCRC Subject Index for a complete listing.

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Subject Headings

Persons

Corporate Bodies

Subjects

Genres and Forms

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Administrative Information

Preferred Citation

Preferred citation for this material is as follows:

Sondra Stein Papers,
Special Collections Research Center,
Syracuse University Libraries

Acquisition Information

Gift of Sondra Stein, 2007.

Finding Aid Information

Created by: MRC
Date: 30 Oct 2007
Revision history: 16 Nov 2007 - Correction to Scope-Content (MRC)

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Inventory

	Equipped for the Future (EFF)
Box 1, 2		EFF adult learner research [original box 1] 1993-1994
Box 2-4		EFF early development [original box 2] 1995-1997
Box 4, 5		EFF development [original box 3] 1996-1997
Box 5, 6		EFF standards development [original box 4] 1998
Box 7, 8		EFF standards development [original box 5] 1998-1999
Box 8-10		EFF development notebooks [original box 6]
Box 11		EFF development [original box 7] 1999-2000
Box 11, 12		EFF development [original box 8]
Box 13, 14		EFF development - NPG [National Policy Group] [original box 9]
Box 14, 15		EFF development [original box 10] 2000-2002
Box 15		EFF development [original box 11] 2002-2004
Box 16		DAEL review of EFF 2003 materials and backup expert review [back label] / EFF dev. 2003-2004 [front label] [original box 12] 2003-2004
Box 16, 17		EFF [original box 13] 2003-2004
Box 18		EFF early development, disks [original box 14] 2003-2004 - contains numerous 3-1/2" floppy discs and some three-ring binders
Box 20, 21		Reading research project [original box 17]

	National Institute for Literacy (NIFL)
Box 19		NIFL history [original box 15] 1991
Box 20		NIFL early development [original box 16]
Box 24, 25		NIFL [original box 20]
Box 28, 29		NALS Goals Panel [original box 23]

	Adult education legislation and policy
Box 23, 24		Adult education history and stats [original box 19]
Box 25-26		Workplace workforce [original box 21]
Box 27, 28		Assessment [original box 22]
Box 30		Adult education history [original box 24]
Box 30-32		Indicators of program quality / NRS II / WIA and ACBE [original box 25]

	Miscellaneous
Box 21-23		Program dev./staff dev. [original box 18]
Box 33		[Oversize items from original boxes 5, 8, 10 and 12]

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