Overview of the Stoughton ABE Program
We
are a small program, offering ESOL evening classes, on Tuesdays and
Thursdays from 6-9 p.m. for 34 weeks of classes from September to June. Because
we are all part-time staff, there is a lot of sharing of responsibilities
and overlapping of duties. We follow a highly flexible, "everybody
does a little bit of everything" model, vs. a larger program, which
might have more strictly defined job descriptions. In addition, we have
a real "family", close-knit feel to our program. To be honest,
everyone pretty much pitches in and does whatever is needed. But please
keep in mind, the process we're describing ahead is very much a work
in progress!
Who
administers the tests?
Tests
are given by the Director, the on-site Program Coordinator, the Office
Assistant/Counselor, and the Teacher's Aide/Paraprofessional. We have
elected not to have instructors do the assessments because we feel that
would be too intrusive to instructional time. Also, most of our instructors
have full-time day positions, which would make it more difficult for
them to keep current with the required training. Finally, because we
have a mere six hours per week of instructional time, we try not to
interfere with the time unless absolutely necessary.
Who
does the data entry and reporting?
We
have an office assistant, whose responsibilities are split across SMARTT
data entry, counseling, and helping with intake/registration/assessment
of students.
How
much time is spent on these various tasks?
With
four support staff administering assessments for 50 students, we calculate
that total time for giving the REEP/BEST will take approximately 2 weeks,
3 times a year.
More
specifically, our office assistant is scheduled to work 10.5 hours per
week. Approximately seven of these hours are on-site hours, which are
mostly devoted to intake, registration, assessment, and student counseling.
She also maintains the waiting list, and contacts students to enroll
them from the waiting list. The remaining 3.5 hours are devoted to SMARTT
data entry and record keeping.
How
is placement handled and integrated with testing gains?
We
feel that this is the most challenging issue facing programs in light
of the new assessment policies. (We are very interested in learning
how other programs are handling this problem!) Our program uses the
Expressways placement test to determine the initial class placement
for the student. This includes an oral and reading comprehension written
component.
What
are some of the other challenges you're dealing with?
While
we understand and respect the need for standardized assessments for
reporting purposes, it is obvious that REEP and BEST have some gaps
that would make it inappropriate to use them as our sole indicators
of student performance. Our
concern lies with those students whose goals do not match the assessment;
i.e. students with SPLs of 6 or 7 whose primary goal is to communicate
more effectively in English. In addition, it does not make sense to
assess progress in only one area (Speaking/ Listening for beginner levels,
and Writing for advanced levels), when, in fact, it is our charge to
teach all of these areas. We also note that there is currently no reading
comprehension assessment, since the REEP measures writing ability only.
For many of our working students and parents, the ability to comprehend
written material is vital.
As
a result of these concerns, we are looking at the benchmarks/competencies
for each of the levels we offer. We are hoping to develop a performance-based
rubric or checklist that instructors can complete two times per year,
based on portfolio work that the students already do with each thematic
unit. Again, by using a checklist based on work that students already
do, it would cause virtually no disruption to instructional time. As
an added plus, since the REEP/BEST will be used to report educational
gains, it saves us the additional work of having to try to create a
"crosswalk" that converts mastery of competencies to SPL levels.
In
addition to giving us a more thorough understanding of student progress,
this process would give us more detailed information about student strengths
and weaknesses that would be helpful to both the instructor and the
student. Our curriculum thematic units were developed in response to
student input and needs, in conjunction with the state frameworks. While
the BEST and REEP have some alignment with the state frameworks, we
believe that our curriculum is more closely aligned with the frameworks,
and more importantly, our students' needs. Consequently, we feel the
need to gather information about student gain relative to our curriculum,
which cannot be done solely based on the BEST/REEP. |
