Introduction: Assessment in Motion

Marie Cora
Editor
SABES Central Resource Center / World Education

The articles in Volume 15 are a reflection of the past year's continued work on building an accountability system for the state. Some writers contribute their experience learning to use newly mandated assessments, others write about their efforts to make the new assessment requirements fit their programs. There are also articles describing current assessment resources, and ones discussing the importance of the goal-setting process for the Massachusetts system. I think it's fair to say that all these are examples of "assessment in motion" -- reflections of literacy workers who are in the midst of change in the world of assessment.

Roger Hooper writes about how the Massachusetts Distance Learning Projects are managing the new state assessment requirements. His article finishes with some reflective questions including whether these programs should develop an assessment suited to the uniqueness of the Distance Learning experience.

Dianna Baycich and Tim Ponder write about the National Institute for Literacy's Special Collection for Assessment. This website is an invaluable resource for practitioners looking for information and resources on issues in ABE assessment. There are an additional 10 topic areas covered in the Special Collections, all well worth the trip.

Two short pieces appear in this volume: one that advertises SABES' newest on-line resource, the Assessment Support Website launched in October of 2002. The other short article informs us about the Goal Setting Work Group convened by ACLS this spring, whose mission is to improve processes and tools for setting goals with students.

Last year, Massachusetts adopted the REEP Writing Assessment as one of the state's required tests. Folks from the Arlington, VA program who developed the REEP assessment contributed an article about the test and its scoring rubric in Volume 14 of Adventures in Assessment. In this volume, Luanne Teller writes about her program's experience learning to use this test; she also outlines for us what they find particularly useful about REEP, and some challenges with the assessment that they feel could be improved upon.

The BEST Test was also adopted as a state required assessment last year. Also at that time, field testing for the new computerized version of the test (called BEST Plus) was beginning. Massachusetts practitioners were involved with this field test. We first hear from Carol Van Duzer, who describes the new BEST Plus for the reader; and then from Susan Arida, and Alexandra Sulikowski, who were participants in the field test here in Massachusetts.

Finally, an annotated bibliography of Adventures in Assessment articles
that focus on placement and goal-setting is included. This resource was developed last fall to help practitioners find materials they could use for placing students into classes and for setting goals with them.

Last spring, Massachusetts was at the beginning of a phase of change
in our assessment landscape. Since the fall, practitioners and programs have been in the midst of learning and doing. What we are experiencing now is hands-on and sometimes trial by fire: we are in motion.

Your thoughts and ideas are welcomed and encouraged. If you would like
to submit an article or have comments, please feel free to contact me at mcora@worlded.org .

Originally published in Adventures in Assessment, Volume 15 (Spring 2003),
SABES/World Education, Boston, MA, Copyright 2003.

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.