The director of adult education for the state Department of Education said that changes in the state’s adult education policies made since 2006 are beginning to show positive results on standardized test scores.

“I was expecting a positive outcome, but I was pleasantly surprised at the level of improvement,” said Johan Uvin, director of the Office of Adult and Career and Technical Education at the state’s Department of Education. “But we still have a long way to go.”

Uvin said that before 2006, Rhode Island ranked in the bottom 25 percent of all states on many of the tests that measure whether adult students are meeting educational goals. Uvin said test results as of August showed considerable improvement, with results in some areas indicating Rhode Island is performing better than half or even three-quarters of the country.

Uvin said 6,504 people took at least 12 hours of adult instruction from July last year through this past June. The state spends about $10 million on adult education, which is provided by approximately 40 agencies.

Among the changes since 2006 have been increased investments in adult education, by $1 million for 2006 and $2.1 million for last year. A key change, Uvin said, was a switch to “outcome-based funding” meaning financing is tied to educational results.

In the past, Uvin said, adult education financing was mostly based on enrollment, with the more people served the better. Now the state also negotiates results when it awards money for adult education programs.

Results are determined by standardized tests, which are administered to students at the beginning and end of their programs to measure improvement. As of the current fiscal year, the state requires a minimum of 70 percent of participants in adult education programs to be tested.

The state uses two different tests, one for adult basic and secondary education, the other for English as a Second Language programs.

The test scores allow the state to measure student “completion rates” for six different educational levels. Each level roughly corresponds to two grade levels of public schooling. From 2006 to this year, some key completion rates went from percentages in the teens to percentages in the 20s and 30s. Other completion rates that had been in the 30s rose to the 40s and 50s.

There are, however, still some problem areas. Although adult education participants who obtained their GED, or high school diploma, increased from 32 percent in 2006 to 46 percent this year, the percentage who went on to postsecondary education dropped during that period, from 16 percent to 11 percent.

Uvin said he hopes that programs implemented this year designed to help people make the transition to college, will help turn that around in the near future.

Another troubling area is the number of adult education participants who have entered the work force, or were able to retain the jobs they had.

Both those figures are down from 93 percent to 74 percent in the case of people finding new jobs and from 93 percent to 82 percent in the case of people retaining jobs.

Uvin said part of the reason is Rhode Island’s unemployment rate, now the highest in the country.

Another factor, he said, has been difficulty in obtaining accurate data about employment through follow-up telephone surveys. Uvin said the Department of Education will be working with the state Department of Labor & Training to get a better handle on how adult education participants are faring in the workplace.