Voices from the Field

Through the Eyes of an ABE Interviewer

Nancy Jane Venator
VISTA Volunteer
MA Dept. of Education, Bureau of Adult Education

T he GOALS Project is a field test of 10 varied components designed to lead to the development of an accountability system for adult basic education programs in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. The project was initiated by the Bureau of Adult Education of the state’s Department of Education, and has stated its purpose is to “define a set of indicators of program quality which are educationally sound, useful to students, teachers and funders, and not excessively time-consuming.”

Volume 3 of Adventures in Assessment included a dialogue between Editor Loren McGrail and Lindy Whiton, who coordinated that part of the project which focused on alternative assessment. This section offers more insight into the GOALS effort.

Component Seven of the GOALS project seeks “to determine what factors adult learners themselves identify in evaluating their goal attainment.” My objective, as a Bureau of Adult Education-trained ABE interviewer, was to find this information by asking five questions to students across the state: What brought you here that makes you stay? what would make you leave? if you were in charge of the money, where would you spend more?, and what are your next steps?

With these questions in hand and my note-taking skills primed, my first set of interviews took place in early November, 1992 in Dorchester and my last in early January in Pittsfield. [Editor’s note: The project interviewed 125 ABE and 125 ESL students overall statewide.]

I completed more than twenty interviews with students from Dorchester, Ware, Orange, Springfield, Pittsfield and Amesbury. Some interviewees were nervous because they did not know what to expect but as word got out, more students wanted to be included. It was true for me, too; the more interviews I conducted, the more at ease with the process I became.

Before each interview I used the first few minutes to establish a comfortable level. I would ask about children and note how I had never visited their program or area of the state before. I would then read all five questions and ask where they would like to begin. Most often, we would start with the first question and proceed in order. Some interviews lasted sixty minutes while others were less than twenty.

My first interviews began in a homeless shelter for women and their children. I interviewed nine women over a three-day period. When the first student came in, I introduced myself, told her that the Department of Education was using these interviews for a report to the federal government. I told her that, since we consider students to be the experts, she was making history. I reassured her that the interview was fully confidential. I told her I would be asking five questions and that there were no right or wrong answers. This became my way of welcoming interviewees.

I tried to prevent my note-taking from being distracting by explaining it and then moving on with the questions.

The first interview went well and took the full sixty minutes. I gathered three pages of notes and lots of inspiration. Her responses were nearly typical of future interviews with mothers but what made her interview so special was how she expressed herself. She told me how having her child say to her in the morning, “We gotta go to school, get up!” on mornings she didn’t want to go, encouraged her to earn her GED. Having a strong follow-up program kept her involved and updated about educational opportunities. Being able to see her child at lunch made taking classes more convenient and stress-free. She liked to learn and wanted to be “somebody.” She set attainable goals: to attend college and become a nurse because she liked to help people.

My most memorable interview was with a student whose writing had been selected for the “Writing On the Walls” project that I coordinate. (“WOW” is a framed collection of learner-generated writings from ABE and ESL classes from across the state. The collection is displayed along the walls leading into the Bureau of Adult Education.) I was going to wait until the end of the interview to tell him I knew of his writings but in the middle of my introduction about him making history, he enthusiastically interjected,” I already did. My writing was selected for Writing On the Walls!” I was so moved and surprised that I revealed my involvement with WOW. We talked a bit about his writing and then moved onto the questions.

Making that personal connection made a difference since it established a comfortable conversation level. He then eloquently and dramatically described how he felt when he could not read, “When I could not read and went into stores there was an animal inside of me [he touched his stomach]. As I learned more and more the animal slowly went away [he moved his hand slowly up his chest] and now it is gone forever [he moved his hand upward and out with a flourish].” I will never forget the image. When the interview finished he proudly read to me and showed me around his learning center.

The interview with a “WOW” author confirmed my assumptions about how to boost students’ self-confidence, yet, I had had no idea how much having one’s writing selected and displayed could increase one’s self-confidence.

Some Consistent Answers
There were some common answers to the five questions. For the question, “What brought you here?” many cited having children as motivating them to return to school so they could provide better for their families. The answer to, “What makes you stay?” is childcare. At centers with on-site childcare, parents talked of how the child could play with educational games and make friends while they studied. Students also spoke of the caring and supportive environment provided by the teachers. While childcare was especially helpful, it was clear that it was the teachers who kept the students coming everyday.

When asked, “What would make you leave?” the students would immediately respond, “Nothing,” and then wonder if the school was going to be closed. I needed to assure them that I was not here to close the school. After they accepted my answer, they would most often respond that a job or getting their GED would make them leave.

The most challenging and difficult question was, “If you were in charge of the money, where would you spend more?” They either responded “I don’t know,” and then started talking about books, computers, better/larger facilities and childcare, or they would approach the question from a larger perspective and talk about increasing funding nationwide in the areas of education, childcare and homelessness. Few students answered the question from both points of view.

The students were fairly quick to answer “What are your next steps?” as if they had been seriously thinking about it before I asked. Most of the students planned to continue their education by going beyond their GEDs, usually at a community college. The students would often speak of their future careers and how these fit in with their education plans.

I re-read the Component Seven objective, “to determine what factors adult learners themselves identify in evaluating their goal attainment,” after all my interviews were completed and it was time to write this article. I realized that the answers to “what makes you stay?” and “what are your next steps?” were most revealing because they reveal not only personal motivations but also that the student is conscious of her/his best learning environment. As one student said, “I want to learn. I like the teachers and students. I want to go as far as I can go… friends notice the difference.” Learning centers that combined a strong commitment to the individual student’s learning, a pressure-free environment, and challenging material kept students returning daily to classes.

Asking about next steps allowed the students to discuss their ambitions and goals. A person’s realistic individual goals directly reflects the extent to which the student has been encouraged by her learning environment to recognize her/his own achievable potential. One student said it best, “I’m facing forward and taking the biggest step I can.”

Originally published in Adventures in Assessment, Volume 4 (April 1993),
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.