The State Council for Adult Literacy Education Services (SCALES) is a bipartisan body created within the State Employment and Training Commission by Public Law 1999, c. 107. Developed to facilitate statewide and local policy development, planning and oversight in consultation with the stakeholders in the area of adult literacy education, the Council is charged with addressing the following goals:

1. Develop a broad-based Statewide Master Plan, which integrates and coordinates all adult literacy programs. At a minimum, the Plan shall address service delivery, consolidation and coordination, funding and accountability, staff development and training, technology and advocacy. The Plan shall include a proposal to consolidate the State supported literacy programs.
   
2. Facilitate State planning and local planning through Workforce Investment Boards and among service providers to assure concurrence with the Statewide Master Plan for adult literacy education.
   
3. Review Federal and State legislation, develop and modify literacy plans accordingly.
   
4. Develop appropriate performance standards and impact measures and statewide benchmarks to measure the entire system and programs of adult literacy services.
   
5. Develop a statewide strategy to facilitate and improve professional development and information sharing for practitioners and policy makers and promote the availability of services to learners, employers, and service providers.
   
6. Improve communication among federal, state, and local literacy initiatives.
   
7. Recommend strategies to broaden adult literacy efforts so that literacy levels of the entire family are improved.
   
8. Work with public and private sector organizations to develop strategies to publicize the problem of low-literate populations as well as the services available to address this problem.
   

In addition, the Council is required to report annually to the Governor and the Legislature. The annual report shall include, but not be limited to, the accomplishments and initiatives during the reporting period. The first annual report shall also include the Statewide Master Plan as called for in the legislation and outlined in goal # 1.

Members of the Council are appointed variously by the Governor and State Senate and Assembly as outlined in the law. The Council consists of 21 members with 6 vacancies.

The Council has adopted its definition of literacy from the Adult Education and Family Literacy Act, Title II, of the Workforce Investment Act of 1998:

Literacy is an individual’s ability to read, write, and speak in English, compute and solve problems, at levels of proficiency necessary to function on the job, in the family and in society.

This definition is consistent with the one contained in the National Literacy Act of 1991 and adopted by the Task Force on Adult Literacy and presented in their report, The Literacy Connection. Furthermore, the Council asserts that all learners must develop skills necessary to function in the workplace and to continue learning in the classroom, at the job, and in the many other environments that provide growth opportunities. Adults must be equipped to adapt to change and develop higher order thinking, decision-making, and problem solving skills as well as the ability to utilize communication and information technology. Adults must achieve competency in the expanding array of basic skills. Adults must also learn the art of integrating different skills to solve problems and meet the demands of modern technology.

The Council unanimously voted to adopt Equipped for the Future (EFF) Content Standards as the framework for adult literacy services in New Jersey and to utilize EFF as the framework for the statewide master plan. EFF will provide a common set of standards for all workforce investment programs that provide adult literacy education or related services.

Based on a careful and extensive mapping of what adults actually do, the 16 EFF standards, identified by the National Institute for Literacy (NIFL), define the core knowledge and skills adults need to effectively carry out their roles as parents, citizens, and workers.