History of Adult/Community Education in the 1980s Natalie Morris Ball State University Spring 2023 EDAC 631

History of Adult/Community Education in the 1980s

Natalie Morris

Ball State University

Spring 2023 EDAC 631

Professor Dr. Bo Chang

2/1/2023

Your name	Commented On
Natalie Morris	Abigail Larrison

History of Adult and Community Education

In the 1980s

Introduction

What do you think of when you think of the 1980s? Some of us may have been born at the tail end of this ever changing decade and some may have experienced every moment. There were many changes in the economic status for the United States of America. Everyone was struggling and we had just gotten over the Vietnam war and continued a Cold war with Russia. With the many changes how did it effect adult and community education? In this paper I will highlight the events of the 1980s and discuss adult and community education during this time. 

Highlights

One of the biggest things to know about the 1980s is that Ronald Reagan was president of the United States and he wanted to “wage a war” on drugs. Crack cocaine was becoming highly used and running wild in the United States. This had major influence on the lower social economic community. (Meich, 2005)  President Reagan was also looking to change the way the educational system operated and make sure that educators were held accountable. 

During the 1980s the United States was in the worse recession since the great depression. Poverty was a major issue for the majority of the population at the time in the United States. In the 1980s, adult education theory had multiple changes. There was developments in the philosophical foundation of adult education and a variety of perspectives on the purposes of adult education by John L. Elias and Sharan B. Merriam. BF Skinner was a major influence during this time on behaviorism. Behaviorism was becoming more known and researched for educational purposes. 

During this decade one major concern that the population had was quality. The quality of education was on many minds. The testing that was being completed at the time was showing that education was not working and  that the United States was failing miserably compared to other countries when it came to educating their population. () This was a major change from the previous decades when leaders were lowering their standards and putting little effort into the education system. This created adults that couldn’t write and were not able to complete mathematics. “Just five percent of 17-year-old high school students in 1988 could read well enough to understand and use information found in technical materials, literary essays, historical documents, and college-level texts” (Hood,1993)

Researchers during this time realized, after getting data, that their was importance in the social function of adult education and it was also important to develop multiple research methods and research purposes to get proper data. The 1980s was a major growing time for adult education because researchers were finally looking at the whole picture and not just small points. 

Adult Education during this time was not thought of as a necessity. Young adults were worrying about employment and joining the workforce as soon as they could. College was more for the higher class at this time. Another interesting trend that was noted is that by the 1980s more women were receiving Bachelor degrees than men at 53% (Snyder, 1993). This shows that more women were working toward degrees and focusing on education and careers for themselves. During 1985 to 1987 $421 million dollars was used for state grant funds. Also in 1985 to 1987 around 1.6 million adults were enrolled in Adult Basic Education programs (Department of Education, 2013). This was showing that all education was being prioritized to make sure that adults could complete jobs for employment and that children were also ready once they joined the workforce. 

Influential Factors

A major influential factor during the 80s was our leaders. Ronald Reagan became president and he had major ideas on educational systems and what the population should be prioritizing. President Reagan thought that we should get ride of our education department and focus more on religion. (Ravitch, 2021) Luckily, along with Reagan’s first educational secretary and a commission’s report stating that the United States was leading to mediocrity finally education on everyone radar. America was realizing they needed to put more effort and money into the educational system in order for America to grow and be great. Tests were no longer something that got filed away in a students record but data to see whether schools, administration and teachers were doing their jobs correctly and effectively. (Murphy, 1989)

During this time graduation requirements were brought up, teachers’ salaries were raised, career ladders were created , alternative certification for new teachers were offered. Since the talk of better eduction was finally spreading this meant more teachers were needed and what was required of teachers was more. This meant that education was more important that ever for adults wanting to become teachers. New curriculum was created and pushed into schools. 

Implications

During this time in the 1980s we have grown and learned various things regarding adult education and education in general. The United States finally focused on education and it definitely showed in the data. Even with Ronald Reagan wanting to put religion in the front, his career in office actually had the opposite effect and education was made a priority.  On a positive note literacy has improved 

With this change in thought to adult education a few things changed years later. The demand for education was higher so the price of college doubles in the next 30 years. This created college graduates that are in thousands of dollars in debt and have a degree that will not guarantee them employment that pays enough to erase their debt.  

You would think that because of the changes that we would have better teachers and more teachers but that simply is not the case. With the implementation of more testing and the results determining whether a teacher is doing her job seems to be too much pressure. Teachers are in high demand to the point we are again employing people that don’t have the education to teach because school districts are desperate. How will this effect the adult education in the future if they aren’t getting proper lessons and information?

Table 1. Summary of the History of Adult/Community Education

Areas :	Summary :
Social background	The cold war, Ronald Reagan, Recession, High unemployment, and more focus on education.
Highlights	Educational reform, Drug epidemic, quality of education, and data.
Influential factors	Ronald Reagan, requirements for education.
Implications	College graduation rate higher, Women more educated, higher debt.

Citation

Hood, J. (1993, February 1). The Failure of American Public Education. Foundation for Economic Education. https://fee.org/articles/the-failure-of-american-public-education/

Miech RA, Chilcoat H, Harder VS. The increase in the association of education and cocaine use over the 1980s and 1990s: evidence for a 'historical period' effect. Drug and alcohol dependence. 2005;79:311.

Murphy, J. (1989). Educational reform in the 1980s: Explaining some surprising success. Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis, 11(3), 209–221. https://doi.org/10.3102/01623737011003209 

Ravitch, D. (2021, February 23). Education in the 1980’s: A Concern for “Quality” (Opinion). Education Week. https://www.edweek.org/policy-politics/opinion-education-in-the-1980s-a-concern-for-quality/1990/01

Snyder. (1993). 120 years of American education : a statistical portrait. U.S. Dept. of Education, Office of Educational Research and Improvement, National Center for Education Statistics.