Assessment in California Implementing Alternative Assessment Tools

Byron Barahona
Alameda County Library Adult Literacy Program
Fremont, California

I would like to start by expressing my appreciation for all the work
and ideas of those involved in the creation of this journal, especially to teachers who contributed articles and alternative assessment tools. I would like to offer my response to the tools presented in previous journals and particularly how they have been adapted to address the needs of the learning environment where I teach. Moreover, I will attempt to conceptualize the extent to which the journals have affected and influenced my vision of assessment.

It is important to mention, however, that all the different ideas shown in the journals made me evaluate my notion of assessment and functioned to create and implement mechanisms that may enable me to evaluate learners’ progress more efficiently and accurately. The range of issues oscillates from diagnosing problems and needs to measuring the process of learning. Some tools were not particularly applicable, yet they acted as elicitors to analyzing and measuring the effectiveness of the different assessment tools presented.

The California Program
The adult literacy program I work in is located in Alameda County, northern California. This program operates with volunteers who commit to tutor ABE or ESL students for two to four hours a week for a minimum of six months. These tutors are first trained by our staff for 18 hours. Students or adult learners who come to this program are expected to be able to focus more on reading and writing. Likewise, ESL students are expected to have a minimum level of conversational English and some basic knowledge of English structure.

As the number of students and tutors grows, there’s also an increasing need to find more adequate means to maintain records of students’ progress. This need has led to pursuing new and more diverse assessment tools. In this search, Adventures in Assessment journals have been timely for pedagogical concern and key to the success of reaching this goal, for both articles and assessment tools found in the journals pose important questions.

First and foremost, they make us — practitioners — think and rethink the need and the process involved in evaluating progress. Second, they make us look back to analyze more critically what has been done.

Third, they help us to reflect upon what can be changed, adapted or implemented. Finally, while there is a large degree of accountability in the process, there is also an attempt to withdraw from the notion that only standardized tests can accurately provide the information needed. This balance is essential since both students and tutors or teachers want and need to know what progress has been made.

The following are some of the tools that have been incorporated into the tutor training. The selection was rather difficult to make because the options were many and of important value. However, due to the nature of our program we are unable to expect extensive and more comprehensive assessment from the tutors. Thus, while there was a clear attempt to limit the amount of assessment tools, much effort was put to incorporate the most appropriate tools. Now let’s look at some of the alternative tools chosen.

The progress profile, discussed in Lucille Fandel’s article “Getting in Touch: Participants Goals and Issues’(November 1991), is a good example of a tool that actively engages the learner. It has the power to pose questions only students may be able to answer. It calls for reflection in a manner that goes beyond the general desire of simply wanting to improve writing and readings skills. In a Progress Profile the learner is invited to think about what she or he wants to learn, why, and its feasibility. Once these three steps are completed, there is the opportunity to stop and reflect on its effectiveness along the process and finally to evaluate how far the student has succeeded in achieving his/her goal. As a result learners should be able to recognize their responsibility in the learning process and to diagnose what the next step is. Also very important in this assessment tool is that there is a genuine attempt to involve both student and tutor in the decision making process.

At our program the Progress Profile has been well received by staff members who predict tutors may be eager to try it out because of its compact size yet fairly comprehensive format. In the past, learners made progress, but there was no systematic mechanism to measure that progress and the process involved.

The Read/Write/Now Adult Learning Center Assessment Adventures portfolio by Janet Kelly (November 1991 and May 1992, Adventures in Assessment) has also been well received at our program. It would be practically impossible to absorb all the different and valuable tools that this center has created. Therefore, a limited number of tools have been chosen to be used. Since we operate with volunteers who tutor no more than four hours per week, it is necessary to create an effective assess-ment system that does not require a tremendous amount of time to implement. Our volunteers work full time jobs for the most part so the program is very careful not to take too much time evaluating progress and to expect unrealistic goals. In addition, in the process of selecting tools modifications were made in order to adapt such tools to particular needs and aspects of the program. The following is a list of what was considered to be suitable for our program: Book List, Looking at Your Own Reading Behavior, Reading Conference Record, Teacher Log, Learner’s Log, Goals List, Reading Progress Checklist, and the Writing Progress Checklist.

We have adapted the above tools and presented them to tutors, to provide them with different options. In principle, tutors are expected to test them out and then decide what works for them given that each tutoring situation is different from one another.

Taking into account that there might be a tendency to not use the above assessment tools, we have tried to consolidate all the different options into our current monthly report that hopefully would allow us to perceive how learners are progressing.

Here is what our tool kit or portfolio looks like after adaptations and revisions.

Reading List. We changed Kelly’s Book List to Reading List because most of our students (both ABE and ESL) do not necessarily read complete books. Instead, they concentrate on shorter pieces of readings. The reasons are obvious. Reading a complete book in class or for class would require a long period of time. Nor are all our students able to read complete books. Even those who can may still need a lot of time to finish a book. Therefore this would limit other class activities that are also necessary to develop and enhance their reading and writing skills. Nevertheless, the rationale was very much appreciated among our staff. Students do need to gain a sense of accomplishment. This is therefore a good way to keep track of whatever reading occurs in and outside of class as well as registering achievements.

Reading Behavior Checklist. The idea to ask learners to think about how they read seemed appropriate to us. It encourages learners to think critically about how they confront a given text or reading. The questions posed are essential in order to elucidate important reading issues, for learners — ideally — will be stimulated to discover and reinvent their own reading strategies. Taking into consideration the level of difficulty that some of these questions may have for some learner whose reading and writing skills are not that developed, it was decided to simplify them and to incorporate most of the questions into the monthly report (see the attached monthly report; this report is still in process).

Reading Conference Record. Once again the basic principle behind this tool was well received. Keeping a record of questions, observations and reflections about sustained readings enables teachers to understand problems and successes learners may have in reading. A minor modification to this form had to be done where it says “BooK Read.” Instead we put “Reading” for the same reasons indicated in the Reading List.

Teacher’s Log. This is an essential assessment tool. It allows the teacher to maintain a conspicuous and adequate record of classroom issues. This way teachers do not have to look for notes scattered all around desks filled with papers, etc. The advantage is that teachers and tutors can immediately register difficulties, concerns, and new interests learners may have. Nothing has been changed in this tool and tutors are strongly encouraged to use it. Some of our staff members are currently using this tool as well. It can be noted that continual review and analysis of these notes can lead to properly addressing learners’ needs.

Learner’s Log. The Learner’s Log is another essential assessment tool. It helps the learner maintain a good record of what he or she views as improvement in their reading and writing skills. This is very important for teachers because it will help us see what students consider important indications or markers of progress and what part of instruction has had a significant impact. In the same way, the Learning Diary by Johan Uvin (November 1991) has been incorporated. Although it is similar to the previous one, it was included because it addresses issues that pertain to ESL students.

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Spelling Self Test. This is not necessarily a striking spelling device, but important to the extent that students can test their spelling on their own and concentrate on words whose spelling they need to review immediately.

Goals List. Asking learners to identify their goals for learning is unquestionably very important. Currently we use a tool that has been designed by the California Department of Education (Bureau of Adult Literacy) called CALPEP, California Adult Learner Progress Evaluation. Although most of the goals listed in the Read/Write Goals List are the same as CALPEP’s, there are items in the latter that could be incorporated to CALPEP, including Personal Goals: 1,2,5,8,16,17; Family: 1; Community: 2; Work: 2, 5, 8; and Educational Goals: all.

The last two assessment tools I found of tremendous value are the Reading Progress Checklist and the Writing Progress Checklist. These tools were not incorporated into the portfolio to be used by tutors. Some of the points raised in them, however, have been incorporated into the monthly report. In addition, I have decided to use them for the following reasons. First, both the reading and writing checklist allow me to register specific reading and writing issues, such as how well learners understand in-class readings, participation, ability to select topics to write about, etc. Second, I could look at this information periodically to gain an understanding of which areas learners are improving in and which ones continue to be problematic. Overall, what I find even more valuable is that all the different assessment tools tackle different problems in ways that might normally be overlooked. In this portfolio there is an opportunity to deal with every learning issue in its own sphere and consequently the level of learner’s success may increase more rapidly.

Finally, another tool that attracted our attention was the Listening Progress Tool described in Letter from Uruguay, Volume 4. This is an ingenious adaptation of some of the tools which appeared in previous issues of this journal. We found it to be quite relevant to the work we do with the ESL students. We thought this would be a very good way to measure how ESL students do in the outside world.

We consider that progress in reading and writing leads to progress in learners’ ability to communicate outside the classroom. The Listening Progress Tool addresses this issue quite well, so it was decided to incorporate it into the monthly report. As usual changes have been made, but the basic principle remains the same (see monthly report).

To conclude I want to add that looking back to evaluate assessment tools requires a great amount of effort, reading, understanding, adapting, changing and applying new ideas. Now, given that student populations change over time as do learners’ interests, it seems essential to evaluate ongoing assessment practices more often than is usually done. If not to change, at least to reaffirm that what is being done is still relevant and applicable. Yet, there is always room for improvement and change. How apprehensively and efficiently we do this will determine the success of our work. Students’ progress will to some extent reflect such effort. With this in mind, the Alameda County Library Adult Literacy Program gave me the task to investigate alternative assess-ment tools and look at the different options I found in Adventures in Assess-ment journals. In this article I wanted to share the result of this process and our appreciation for the valuable ideas that enriched our assessment practices.

For examples of Monthly Tutoring Report see the PDF version page 43.

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This article was published in Adventures in Assessment, Volume 6 (Spring 1994), SABES/World Education, Boston, MA, Copyright 1994.

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.