Where’s the EGAP These Days?

Martha Jean
Community Action Inc.
Haverhill, MA

Maybe you remember when Martha Germanowski designed something called an Educational Goals Assessment Packet for learners in adult education classes for the homeless. The EGAP was designed to get a big picture of students’ interests, to help learners focus on their goals, and to show their progress. It had an extensive checklist of reading, math and life skills, a goals page, a monthly review page, and a daily log.

This “big picture” benefited the teacher in her planning for a multi-level class. It benefited learners who could choose their goals, see progress on those specific goals, and then get positive feedback on their daily work. Like all teacher tools, parts of it wore out, parts didn’t work well, and other parts proved to be “keepers”.

A few years after its appearance, the EGAP, like Martha G., is in transition. Now, as Martha Jean, I am considering more EGAP modifications.

What has happened over those five years?
I started using the EGAP in my Pre-GED and GED classes because it gave those learners a sense of their own accomplishments, possible goals, and the same positive feedback. I added and then removed a Reading Interest Checklist that didn’t tell me more than an existing intake question about how well a student reads. I kept and modified the Daily Log, Monthly Goals
Review, and the Educational Goals Plan pages.

Because of my continual urge to make the EGAP more visually pleasing, over the years I’ve made some simple changes on all the pages, aided by computers. The lines have been removed and a clearer
font used. Bold and italicized headers have been added. Because the options of “I know/do this,” “I would like to know more now/later,” “I understand this and I am ready for the next steps,” added to student confusion, the latest model reads simply: I KNOW THIS__ and I WANT TO KNOW MORE ABOUT THIS__. Students are told to check only what is important to them. Progress is reported in the Daily Log.

This reads as if I am using the EGAP. I am pleased to say that many teachers have used it or modified it for different classroom use over the years. But, I didn’t use it at all this past year.

Why not?
This year our students had extensive intakes and testing for the DOE SMARTT System. It seemed excessive to burden them with so much paperwork before they even got to be involved in learning. So, I set the EGAP aside to think about how to make it most useful in my GED and multi-level homeless education classes.

I also became part of a teacher research group about multiple intelligence. That added a whole new perspective about how I might want to help students know themselves, their strengths, and what they already know. I had a lot to consider for my next EGAP remake.

What is my thinking about the “FUTURE EGAP”?
I don’t want to overwhelm new class members, so I am going to break the EGAP into smaller parts to be completed by students over some weeks. I don’t plan on removing anything; students and I like what it includes. But, to the checklist I will add skills related to music, movement, nature, spatial understanding, interpersonal and intrapersonal ability. My multiple intelligences research has shown me that these are equally valuable areas of knowledge. My research experience has also reminded me how learners benefit from time to talk about, share, and consider their options. The EGAP can be more than a checklist if time is given to explore the choices learners make. This will support learners’ work to reach their goals.

The EGAP was designed as and at its core has remained, a tool for teachers and learners to identify what learners know and what they dream of knowing. There is a do-able goals plan and a daily chance to communicate successes, failures, hopes, and fears. There is a place for goals review and revision. Those have remained the same.

Changes happen whenever I or another teacher asks, “How is this working for the learners?” “Is this leading to some positive learning or is this more burdensome paperwork?” or “How can I make this work better?” Those questions continue to make the EGAP what it is and what it can become.

Educational Goals Plan

Monthly Goals Review

Educational Goals Assessment Packet

Originally published in Adventures in Assessment, Volume 10 (December 1997),
SABES/World Education, Boston, MA, Copyright 1997.

Funding support for the publication of this document on the Web provided in part by the Ohio State Literacy Resource Center as part of the LINCS Assessment Special Collection.