Support Service Opportunities – Fall 2025

Support Staff Coffee Break (Virtual)

Friday, October 24, 10:00-11:00 am

Doing intake with Beginning Literacy ELL students presents a unique challenge. As ABE staff, we want to provide our learners with the best intake experience possible – one that will encourage them to return to study in our programs. ATLAS brought together a task force of experienced adult educators to focus on the question of best practices for completing intake for beginning literacy learners.

During this Coffee Break, Patsy Egan, ATLAS Director, and Rebecca Jarvis of Metro South are going to share the concerns that were identified for these learners, along with the recommendations the group made surrounding intake, placement, and testing practices for beginning literacy learners. The specific focus of the task force was students who do not read or write in their first language and are new to alphabetic print literacy.

Come to this session with your questions and your experiences to share including the successful practices that have worked in your programs.

• REGISTER NOW >>

2025 ABE Support Services Conference (Virtual)

Thursday, November 13 – Friday, November 14, 2025
Registration Deadline: MON. 11/10/25

Don’t miss the exciting lineup of sessions that will be presented during the 2025 ABE Support Services Conference! Register to join us virtually as we learn from our friends and colleagues. We’ll reflect on what this past year has taught us and use those lessons to focus on building a stronger future for Adult Basic Education.

This conference is planned and facilitated by The Support Professionals Advisory & Resource Committee (SPARC). A Support Services Assessment and Support Staff Training grant administered by Southwest ABE supports the work of SPARC, and the Minnesota Adult Basic Education State Staff are also actively involved in supporting the work of SPARC. This annual event will be held virtually and is free of charge to all who register.

This conference is designed especially for support services staff that work in areas such as student registration and intake, student testing, data entry and management, and any other accountability role. This could also include teachers or managers with multiple roles who also serve as a program’s support staff.

Get general information about the conference, including the schedule along with session descriptions >>

The Pre-Conference – Thursday, 11/13/2025

Implementation Trainings in both CASAS and TABE will be offered for all staff involved in assessment. Participants will need to register separately for each Implementation training that they would like to attend (registration links below). A separate registration is also required for the Friday full-day conference.

9:00-12:00 – CASAS Implementation Training for New Staff (Marty Olsen)

• • • REGISTER for CASAS Training >>

1:00-4:00 – TABE Implementation Training for New Staff (Linda Keller and Dave Haugen)

• • • REGISTER for TABE Training >>

Conference – Friday, 11/14/2025

9:00-9:45 – Opening Session featuring MN State ABE Staff

10:00-2:45 – Concurrent sessions (with lunch break at noon)

• • • REGISTER for Main Conference >>

Registered participants will receive a complete agenda with session descriptions and Join Links the week of the conference, at the email address they use for registration. Please address any event or registration questions to Rachel Stiglitz, Chair of SPARC, at [email protected].

NOTE:  Registrations must be received by Monday, November 11. After registering, participants will receive a link to the Opening Session to be held on Friday, November 14, 9:00 am. Links to all other sessions will be shared during the Opening Session. If you have connection issues on the day of the conference, contact Rachel Stiglitz ([email protected]) or Marty Olsen ([email protected]).

We look forward to seeing you!