Adult Ed. Prog. Standards: The Mayor’s Commission on Literacy works with adult literacy providers, who offer ESL, GED, and ABE classes to adult learners, to improve services by meeting set program standards.  MCOL uses adult literacy standards from the Pennsylvania Department of Education and from other funders for special projects such as the United Way Adult Literacy Standards Project.  Initially, MCOL assists agencies in assessing their current status of compliance to set program standards around areas of program documentation and descriptions of policies, staff training needs, volunteer needs, evaluation tools, et cetera.  This initial assessment is accomplished through surveys, questionnaires, and site visits.  MCOL staff work with agency staff to draft a compliance plan of action to meet set standards, develop and offer trainings as needed through the Philadelphia Professional Development Center to meet staff and volunteer training needs, and monitor compliance to the program standards.