Audit Report on the Operating Practices of the City University of New York’s Adult Literacy/GED Program

AUDIT REPORT IN BRIEF

This audit determined the adequacy of the operating practices of the City University of New York’s (CUNY) Adult Literacy/General Educational Development (GED) Program.  The primary scope of the audit was Fiscal Year 2012.

CUNY provides higher education to more than 272,000 degree-seeking students and over 218,000 adult and continuing education students. CUNY consists of 24 institutions: 11 senior colleges, seven community colleges, the Macaulay Honors College at CUNY, and five graduate and professional schools. Courses are taught by approximately 7,000 full-time faculty and nearly 12,000 part-time faculty.

The CUNY Adult Literacy/GED Program, which is implemented by the Divisions of Adult and Continuing Education at 14 CUNY colleges, offers classes to help New York City adults learn to speak, read, and write English with greater facility and to prepare for high school credentialing through the GED exam.  The program, which provides instruction for over 7,000 students a year, is coordinated centrally by the Office of Academic Affairs. 

For Fiscal Year 2012, funds totaling $757 million were appropriated to be used by CUNY for operating expenses. The CUNY Adult Literacy/GED Program has been funded since 1984 through combined New York State Education Department (NYSED) and New York City resources.  For Fiscal Year 2012, the Adult Literacy/GED Program had expenditures of approximately $7 million.  These expenditures were supported by approximately $4.2 million (60 percent) in Workforce Investment Act (WIA) Title II (Adult Education and Literacy) funds received through NYSED and approximately $2.8 million (40 percent) in funds received from the New York City Mayor’s Office.

Audit Findings and Conclusion

The operating practices of CUNY’s Adult Literacy/GED Program were generally adequate.  However, the audit identified some weaknesses relating to the administration of the Adult Literacy/GED Program that should be addressed.  Specifically, CUNY: inadequately tracked and measured student outcomes; lacked evidence that its program instructors met the educational background and training requirements; and lacked a user’s manual for the Adult Student Information System & Technical Support (ASISTS) database.

Audit Recommendations

To address these issues, the audit recommends, among other things, that CUNY should:

• Systematically track and measure overall student performance on GED exams.
• Systematically track and measure students’ post-exit outcomes.
• Ensure that instructor files are maintained and that they contain evidence that the instructors are qualified to teach in the program and have received the required annual training.
• Ensure that a user’s manual is developed and distributed to all program staff who use the ASISTS database.

Agency Response

In their response, CUNY officials accepted all of the audit’s recommendations.  They stated that they were pleased with the audit’s overall conclusion that the program’s operating practices were generally adequate; however, they acknowledged that there were opportunities for improvement as described in the report.