Integrated Basic Education and Skills Training (I-BEST) is a strategy developed by the Washington State Board for Community and Technical Colleges, in conjunction with the state’s community and technical colleges, in which basic skills instructors and technical faculty jointly design and teach college-level occupational classes that admit basic skills-level students.
By integrating basic skills and professional-technical skill instruction, I-BEST seeks to increase the rate at which adult basic education and English-as-a-second-language students advance to college-level programs and complete postsecondary credentials.
Quantitative analyses of the I-BEST model indicate that the program is effective in improving educational outcomes. This report is geared toward college administrators and higher education officials interested in implementing similar programs. It describes how colleges in Washington State are implementing I-BEST, and how I-BEST programs operate.
This report is a companion study to Washington State’s Integrated Basic Skills and Training Program: New Evidence of Effectiveness.
A version of this paper was published as an article, “Integrating Basic Skills and Career Technical Instruction: Findings from a Field Study of Washington State’s I-BEST Model,” in Community College Review, vol. 39.
