Marilyn said the Barrie Literacy Council staff, have also experienced stress associated with insufficient space and the waiting list for students (because there are not enough volunteers).

Best Practices and resources

Marilyn reported that the Barrie Literacy Council had developed a resource entitled, Goal Directed Assessment: Demonstrations and Samples.

The resource is designed to be a tool for initial, ongoing and exit assessments. It focuses primarily on Reading and Writing, Levels 1 to 3, and there are plans to further develop the resource to cover numeracy as well.

Marilyn reported that the resource provides more direction for the tutor and assessor and reduces their workload because there is a pool of exercises and samples to choose from.

Marilyn ranked the success of the resource as a 5 (excellent).

Literature review

Introduction

The first level of research into literacy-related resources and studies did not yield complementary resources or examples of best practices, nor did we find research studies examining the link between program reforms in literacy and the effects of these changes on practitioners and/or administrators. Perhaps the most relevant resource was Jane Barber's Assessing Up, Designing Down, completed for the Ontario Literacy Coalition. Included in this resource is a section entitled "Managing Change in LBS Program Planning and Delivery."

Two other documents that we examined were Community Literacy of Ontario's Skills for the Future (2000) and The Economic Value of Volunteers in Community Literacy Agencies in Ontario (1998). Both resources give insight into some of the impacts of provincial changes at the program level.

Additionally, Wanda Arneson's study, Working Lives of Adult Literacy Practitioners (1999) examines some of the sources of stress for managers, coordinators and instructors in literacy programs in British Columbia. One of Arneson's key findings is that both executive directors, tutor coordinators and instructors in the province reported work overload to be a significant issue. Arneson argues that the work overload for executive directors could be traced back to ambiguous job descriptions and role boundaries. Similarly, lack of clearly defined roles resulted in instructors "assuming too many roles which were inherently incompatible."

Our second level of research revealed a larger body of studies and resources. However, most of these presented methods for managing change and stress from a manager's perspective. Similarly, many of the resources investigated change from a growth or evolutionary perspective but did not examine the impact of external change pressures on the organization and staff.